At the top of the game

David Murdoch's Team GB competed in the Swiss Chalet National in Guelph, Ontario, this weekend. They won three, lost two in their section and beat Kerry Burtnyk in a tiebreaker to qualify for the playoffs, then losing 5-3 to Kevin Koe in the quarterfinals. All the results are here.

In Berne, Eve Muirhead's Team GB reached the quarterfinals of the International Berne Ladies Championship and beat Cheryl Bernard's side, the Canadian Olympic reps, 8-3! Good work girls! That brought them up against the other Canadians, skipped by Jennifer Jones, and I see from the results here they lost 2-3. Jones went on to win the event, Team GB winning the 3rd-4th playoff against Austria's Jacqueline Greiner.

At the Ramada Perth Masters, Tom Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and David Edwards beat Niklas Edin's Swedes, the European Champions, 5-3, in the final. Find the results here. The event had its own blogger this year in Claire Carswell, a journalism student at Strathclyde, see here. The winners' pic is here.

And in the European Junior Challenge in Prague, the Finnish junior men won their place in the World Junior Championship. So too did the German junior women, although you have to have a thought for the Danish girls who were beaten in the final, at an extra end, having gone nine games without loss in the round robin! The results are here, and the site has lots of photos and videos.

David Murdoch's pic is a Capital One photo by Anil Mungal.

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