March 15, 2008

Saturday WSCC08 and wscc08: Semifinals day

Kirsty Letton, Judy Mackenzie, Pat Orr and Anne MacDougall are in the final of the World Senior Curling Championships here in Vierumaki, Finland. In the semi they were up against Helena Timonen's Finland, a team they had beaten 10-4 when they met in the round robin. This time around it was a closely fought match. Tied in the eighth the Scots had last stone. Finnish fourth Mimmi Koivula put her last in the four foot behind cover.

Kirsty had a difficult final stone. She played it perfectly, nudging off the Scottish second stone, on to the button for the win. It will be a Scotland-Canada final!

Canada beat Switzerland in the other semi, the Swiss having got past the USA in a tiebreaker for the fourth semifinal place.

This is Kirsty's last stone being looked after by Judy, Pat and Anne. It flopped off the Scottish stone in the four foot on to the tee.

On the men's side, Graeme Adam, Ken Horton, Stuart Naismith and Alan MacLennan faced the might of the Ryan team from Canada. Ryan with Marv Wirth, Ken McLean and Millard Evans had finished top of their section, undefeated.

The boys kept it close for a while, but in the fifth end, despite an amazing shot from Ken Horton which left the Scots lying two behind cover, Ryan had a hit to count a big five and the game was as good as over.

The USA team has two friends from my days at the Madison Curling Club, Dave Russell and Bill Rhyme, and they faced Per Lindeman's Swedish side. The US forced an extra end, but the Sedish skip drew for his place in the final. So Scotland will play USA for the bronze medals!

The event website is here, with all the links to results.

Pics by Bob.

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