World Men's: Game 4 v Germany

Tom Brewster, Greg Drummond, Scott Andrews and Michael Goodfellow beat John Jahr's German side, with Felix Schulze throwing last stones, in their fourth game at the World Men's Championship in Basel this morning.

I watched the game on the Eurosport Player, enjoying commentary from Logan Gray and David Murdoch. A well played takeout from Tom with last stone in the sixth gave the Scots three shots and a 6-2 lead. Up 7-3 in the ninth, they stole a single, and the Germans conceded.

Find all the scores, standings, and shotmaking percentages here. Mike Haggerty's reports are on the Royal Club website here.

Top: Screenshot from the Eurosport player webcast.

Tom Brewster delivers. Michael Goodfellow and Scott Andrews are the sweepers.

Tom in the head behind Felix Schulze. Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: The Final

Switzerland's Mirjam Ott (skip), Carmen Schaefer, Carmen Kung and Janine Greiner (L-R above) won the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, yesterday, defeating Sweden's Maria Prytz (fourth), Christina Bertrup, Maria Wennerstroem and Margaretha Sigfridsson (lead and skip) in the final.

Leslie Ingram-Brown reports that it was a super final, with Prytz playing a magnificent last stone hit through a long port for a pair and a 6-5 lead in the ninth, and Ott making a fantastic angled tap for two in the tenth for the win.

Canada won the bronze medal game against Korea.

The linescores are here. The game reports are here and here. And you can watch all the final here. Or just the highlights here.

Scotland's Eve Muirhead received the World Curling Federation Frances Brodie Award, voted by the players at the event to the curler 'who best exhibits sportsmanship and ability'.

Royal Club Ladies' Branch President Claire McLaren presents the Frances Brodie trophy to Eve.

Photos © Leslie Ingram-Bown.

World Women: The Semifinal

Switzerland beat Korea in the semifinal at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, and now will meet Sweden in the final.

Korea will face a rematch against Canada for the bronze medals.

The linescore is here. The game report is here. And you can watch it all here.

Top: Ji-Sun Kim directs her sweepers as Carmen Schaefer and Mirjam Ott watch behind. Photo © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: Page 3-4

Korea beat Canada in the Page 3-4 game at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, and now will meet Switzerland in the semifinal. One down with hammer in the tenth, Korean skip Ji-Sun Kim lay one with her last to play. She confidently promoted another of her own stones two feet to count two and win 4-3. Exciting to watch!

Canada will contest a bronze medal game with the losing semifinalist.

The linescore is here. And there's a full report here.

You can watch the TSN broadcast of the whole game here. Or just jump to the tenth end. The Korean coach, Min-Suk Choi, knows his stuff. Neither Bob Kelly on the Eurosport commentary, or Russ Howard, for TSN, had picked up on his suggested play for Korea's third Seul-Bee Lee, a stone which turned the end. Great stuff!

Top: Ji-Sun Kim follows her stone which is being swept by Seul-Bee Lee and Un-Chi Gim. Above: Ji-Sun Kim. Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: Page 1-2

Sweden is through to the final of the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, after defeating Switzerland in the Page 1-2 game, in an extra end.

The Swiss now wait to meet the winners of the Page 3-4 game between Korea and Canada, the latter having beaten the USA in a tiebreaker. The winners of that semifinal will face Sweden in Sunday's final.

All the results are here, and the WCF reports are here and here. Video highlights of the Page 1-2 are here.

You can watch the full USA-Can tiebreaker here, and the full Page 1-2 game here.

Photo © Leslie Ingram-Brown

World Women: Day 6 v Italy and Canada

Scotland defeated both Italy and Canada in yesterday's games at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton finished the round robin in sixth place in the rankings, on six wins and five losses, and not involved in the playoff stages.

The Page 1 v 2 game is Sweden v Switzerland. In the Page 3 v 4 game Korea will meet the winner of a tiebreaker between the USA and Canada.

All the results are here, and Mike Haggerty has his reports on the Scottish games, with quotes from the Scottish skip, on the Royal Club website here. The WCF Day Roundup is here.

Top: Canada's Heather Nedohin, with Anna and Eve behind. Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: Day 5 v China and Sweden

Scotland beat China at an extra end, but then lost to Sweden at the last stone, in yesterday's games at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton still have Italy and Canada to play, but with four wins and five losses have only the slimmest of chances of reaching a tiebreaker even if they were to win both of these games. Standings after 14 sessions: Canada, Korea, Sweden 7-2; Switzerland 6-3; Denmark, USA 5-4; Russia, Scotland 4-5; Germany 3-6; China, Czech Republic, Italy 2-7.

All the results are here, and Mike Haggerty has his reports on the Scottish games on the Royal Club website here. The WCF Day Roundup is here.

Photo of Anna Sloan © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: Day 4 v Switzerland and Czech Republic

Scotland lost to Switzerland then beat the Czech Republic in yesterday's games at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta.

Scotland now has a record of three wins and four losses, with four games still to play in the round robin, against China, Sweden, Italy and Canada.

All the results are here, and Mike Haggerty has his reports on the Scottish games on the Royal Club website here.

For the armchair fan, you can watch full games involving Canada on video-on-demand on TSN here.

The event daily newsletter, the Eyeopener, can be downloaded from this page.

Listen to an interview with Eve Muirhead on Dean Gemmell's The Curling Show here, taped before the Worlds got underway.

Top photo is of Eve Muirhead.

Claire Hamilton delivers with Anna Sloan and Vicki Adams ready to sweep.

Anna Sloan is in the head with Kamila Mosova and Linda Klimova behind, in the game against the Czech Republic.

Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: Day 2 v Germany and Denmark

Scotland lost to Germany and then beat Denmark at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge yesterday.

All the results are here, and Mike Haggerty has his reports on the Scottish games on the Royal Club website here. The WCF Day reviews are here and here. Check out Michael Burns' photographs here.

In the absence of Andrea Schoepp through injury, Germany is skipped by Melanie Robillard, and last stones are played by Imogen Lehmann (above). Photo © Leslie Ingram-Brown.

World Women: Day 1 v Russia

Scotland beat Russia in the opening round of the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge yesterday.

All the results are here, and Mike Haggerty has his report on the Scottish game on the Royal Club website here. The WCF Day 1 review is here. Check out Michael Burns' photographs here.

The CCA-supported event daily newspaper, the Eyeopener, can be downloaded here.

World Women: Scotland's Alternate

Kelly Wood (above) is Scotland's alternate at the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, which begins today. Kelly practised with Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton yesterday.

Kelly's been resident in Canada for eighteen months or so, and, let's face it, she was a controversial call as Scotland's fifth player. Whatever the rights and wrongs of it - and who knows what goes on in the collective minds of our sport's performance director and national coaches - I personally think it's great to see Kelly back wearing Scottish colours.

Kelly's job will be to support the team in every way possible. Her 'local knowledge' may well prove useful. In late night sessions at the Enmax arena she will be helping team coach Gordon Muirhead match stones. She will warm up with the team, and join them in pre-game practices. She's unlikely to be used as any sort of 'tactical substitute', as Eve's four are a well established team, with, of course, a European Championship title to their credit already this season. The test will come should illness or accident affect any of the four. Vicki has already been warned to take extra care around stairs! (She missed the final games at the World Juniors after a fall some four years back.) It can happen. Let's hope it doesn't.

First game is against Russia. Look for the results here. To see when Scotland features on Eurosport or the Eurosport Player go here.

Coach Gordon Muirhead with Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and Kelly Wood.

Photos © Leslie Ingram-Brown

World Women: Practice Day

Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and Kelly Wood, with coach Gordon Muirhead, will get their first experience of the ice at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, Alberta, today. Scotland's first round game in the 2012 Ford World Women's Curling Championship is against Russia, skipped by Anna Sidorova, tomorrow (Saturday).

The draw is here. The team list is here. And the link to results should be on the event website main page here.

In the meantime, have a read at this article by Allen Cameron in the Calgary Herald.

Off to Lethbridge

Eve Muirhead, Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Claire Hamilton are already in Canada, prior to the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Lethbridge, Alberta, which begins on Saturday. The team flew out yesterday, experiencing delayed flights, and are due to meet up with alternate Kelly Wood, who's currently resident in Canada, for a couple of days training in Calgary before moving on to Lethbridge.

The preview for the twelve-country competition can be read here. Germany's Andrea Schöpp will miss the championship having fractured her tibia recently. Andrea won gold two years ago in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, defeating Eve (with Kelly at third) in the final at an extra end. Melanie Robillard, who played third with the Schöpp team then, has been called up to the German squad for this year, but who will skip the team has still to be decided.

There's a six hour time difference (I think) between Scotland and Lethbridge. Night owls will be interested in the television and webcast schedule here.

The official website is here.

Photo of Eve from the Co-operative Funeralcare Scottish Championships 2012 is © Skip Cottage.