Update from Bern

An update from Bern where two Scottish teams were competing in the Bernese Ladies' Cup this weekend. Hannah Fleming's team lost three straight and found themselves in the Consolation Cup where they won their first game, but lost their second. The Sarah Reid team won two and lost three in the main competition and also dropped to the consolation event.

There, Sarah and her team of Lorna Vevers, Rachael Sims and Barbara McPake won five games in a row, beating Chelsea Carey's Canadians in the final. A ten game weekend, how about that as practice for next week's Glynhill? A well done is in order!

The main competition was won by Michele Jaggi's local team who defeated Canada 1 (Jennifer Jones) 5-3. All the results are here.

The Curling Champions Tour website is here.

Scots in Bern

Bern, Switzerland, is the venue for the next women's event on the Curling Champions Tour. The Sarah Reid and Hannah Fleming teams are in the lineup for this thirty-two team triple knockout, the Bern Ladies' Cup. Sarah Reid, Rachael Simms, Lorna Vevers and Barbara McPake are first of the two Performance Squad teams on the ice, on Friday morning at 08.00. Hannah Fleming, Lauren Gray, Alice Spence and Abi Brown are on the other end of the draw, and have their first game at 10.30.

The event website is here, and the draw/results page is here.

This is the first of two big weekends for the women as the Tour rolls on to the Glynhill Ladies International at Braehead the following weekend, January 20-22.

Women's CCT Events

The first women's Curling Champions Tour event of 2011 begins tomorrow, Friday, in Switzerland. The Bernese Ladies Cup is a twenty-four team triple knockout. Gail Munro, Lyndsay Wilson, Kerry Adams-Taylor and Alison Mather are the lone Scottish team in the draw.

The competition website is here to find the draw and results.

Some of the participants in Berne will be going on to the Glynhill Invitation at Braehead the following weekend. That event has a new website, see here. And also new rules.

These read:

RULES OF PLAY 1. Four sections of five teams (maximum five players per team) will play a round robin format. 2. All round robin games will be a maximum of 8 ends with 3 points awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. In each section the team with the highest number of points will be ranked as section winner and the team with the second highest number of points will be ranked as the section runner-up and those two teams will qualify for the knock-out stage. 3. In the event of teams finishing with the same number of points the following criteria (in order) will be used to determine ranking for direct qualification to the knock-out stage. (a) The record of the game(s) between the tied teams. (b) The team with the lesser Draw Shot Challenge (DSC). (c) The team with the best non-equal Last Stone Draw (LSD). TIE-BREAKS WILL NOT BE PLAYED.

The full event rules are here.

For the first time (I think) that games in the sections of a CCT competition will see three points awarded for a win and one point for a draw - an experiment which Ian Addison, the event chairman, sees will do away with the Saturday evening tiebreakers, and perhaps even lead to more aggressive play. Ian admits that not everyone is in favour, but I applaud the willingness to try something new. Interesting it will be!

Ramada Perth Masters

Put aside thoughts of outside curling and the possibility of a Grand Match, top class curling is on the agenda this weekend. At the Dewar's Rinks in Perth, the Ramada Perth Masters, the second of the Curling Champions Tour events to be held in Scotland this season, goes ahead with the three medallists from the recent Le Gruyere European Curling Championships in Aberdeen in action, alongside the Danish, Japanese and Chinese Olympic squads. This is a thirty-two team triple knockout event, with eight teams qualifying for Sunday's quarterfinals.

Until recently, Niklas Edin (above) and his Swedish rink were just a young but talented combination from Karlstad. But now they are the European Champions! Edin's team are due to meet Graham Shaw's local side in the first round on Thursday at 16.45.

The Chinese Olympic squad is not well known. Bill Duncan notes, “They are going to base themselves in the Fair City for a few days before and after the Perth Masters, to complete their base training before travelling to Canada for their final preparations." Jamie Dick's team get the honour of welcoming Rui Liu and his team to Scottish ice on Thursday at 20.30.

Ramada Perth Masters results will be here, and some games will be webcast. I am unfortunately not able to be in Perth, so I'm looking forward to experiencing watching from a distance!

David Murdoch's GB Olympic team is not in the lineup at Perth. They are taking part in the National, in Guelph, Ontario. The Swiss Chalet National is one of the four men's majors in the World Curling Tour season. The draw is here. Team Murdoch's first game is tonight (Wednesday) against Kerry Burnyk.

Eve Muirhead's GB team though is in the draw for the Bernese Ladies Cup in Switzerland which begins on Friday. This Curling Champions Tour event is also a thirty-two team triple knockout. Three other Scottish teams are in the lineup, skipped by Gillian Howard, Anna Sloan and Sarah Reid. The results should be here.

Pic of Niklas is by Bob