21 November 2023
Three teams qualify for the play-offs on Tuesday
Women’s competition
Switzerland followed up their 6-5 morning win over Estonia with a 5-2 defeat of Scotland to not only retain their unbeaten record on seven wins, but also become the first women’s team to qualify for the semi-finals.
After their win over Estonia, their skip Silvana Tirinzoni explained her team’s philosophy in how to handle the winning environment her team constantly faces.
She said, “We don’t think too much ahead. We think shot-by-shot really. The next step is the next shot and not the next game. We don’t think about the weekend at all. I think that’s the key. You cannot win the tournament in the first game, so you have to get there first and build up confidence. You can only do that going step-by-step.”
Italy beat Czechia by 10-3 in the morning, thanks largely to a score of five in the seventh end, when their skip Stefania Constantini played a hit for five and a 10-5 lead. Czechia immediately conceded defeat.
Italy then followed that up with a 7-6 win over Norway in the evening. This was their sixth win and was enough to qualify them for the semi-finals.
Sweden also had two wins on Tuesday. In the morning, they beat Norway by 7-4 and then followed that up with a 9-5 victory over Estonia.
In the eighth end of their morning game, the Swedes led by 5-3. In that end, Norway’s fourth player Kristin Skaslien caught a front stone with her final shot, giving Sweden a steal of two for a 7-3 lead. Sweden eventually won by 7-4.
Germany beat Denmark by 8-6 in the evening to bounce back from their earlier 3-5 loss to Scotland.
Reigning champions, Denmark had a last-stone 6-5 win over Türkiye in the morning.
Despite her team’s win, after that game Denmark skip Madeleine Dupont was deflated.
She said, “It’s been more difficult than any of us had hoped for. We’re just not playing like we can. We’ve had injuries in this past month. Denise has been in and out, she’s had surgery. We wish we were playing better but we just haven’t reached that high level. Obviously, it’s disappointing. Our number one goal now is world qualification. I’d be very happy if we came home with that, but I’d be thrilled if we came home with something better.”
Czechia had a disappointing day. After their 3-10 loss to Italy, they then went down by 5-6 to Türkiye, a result that puts them in bottom place on the table, with just one win.
Above them four teams—Denmark, Estonia, Germany and Türkiye—have just two wins so far, as they all battle to avoid the last two places on the table, which means relegation to next season’s B-Division.
Men’s competition
With a 7-6 win over defending champions Scotland, Italy became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2023.
In the third end of this game, with Italy leading by 2-0, Scottish skip Bruce Mouat played a nose-hit for three points and a 3-2 lead. By the time the game reached the tenth end, Scotland held a 6-5 lead, but Italy skip Joel Retornaz played a hit-and-stay to score two for a 7-6 win. This win maintained the Italians’ perfect record after six games.
Behind the Italians, three teams share second place — Scotland, Sweden and Switzerland.
The Swiss played Germany in this session. After three blank ends, Switzerland got on the board with two points in the fourth. In the fifth end, German skip Sixten Totzek brought his last stone through front guards to play a hit-and-stay for four points.
In the second half of the game, Switzerland were unstoppable, and after a score of two in the sixth, they went on to steal four more points in the following two ends. Eventually, Switzerland ran the Germans out of stones and won by 8-4.
Sweden were up against Netherlands. In the sixth end, Swedish skip Niklas Edin picked out a Dutch stone sitting in the house to score three and take a 7-3 lead.
In the tenth end, ahead by 8-7, Edin produced another take-out to score three again and win the game by 11-7.
Finland were still looking for their first win when they played Czechia.
In the fourth end, with Czechia leading by 2-1, Finnish skip Kalle Kiiskinen produced a perfect promotion take-out to score two and take a 3-2 lead.
Then, in the tenth, and now holding a 7-5 lead, Kiiskinen tapped up one of his own stones into scoring position to win the game by 8-5.
After this first win, Kiiskinen said, “Our target now is to stay in the A-Division, but it does not look easy. We’ve lost against our main opponents.”
In the fifth game of the session, Norway were up against Türkiye. In the eighth end, Norway held an 8-5 lead when their skip Magnus Ramsfjell drew his final stone onto the button to move onto a 9-5 lead.
In the next end, Türkiye skip Ugurcan Karagoz played a hit, but his own stone rolled out of the house, to give Norway a steal of two points and an 11-5 win.
After this win, Ramsfjell said, “That was one of the teams that we absolutely have to beat if we want to make it to the semi-finals, so that was an important win. I think we have a good shot of making it to the semi-finals, we just have to win all of our remaining games!”
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Day 4️⃣ sees the first teams qualify for the Semi-finals! 🇮🇹🇨🇭 Check out the standings 👀#ECC #curling pic.twitter.com/o66MDsUE1h
— World Curling (@worldcurling) November 21, 2023
B-Division
Competition in the B-Division takes place in Perth, where ten women’s and 16 men’s teams play for medals and promotion to next season’s A-Division.
In the men’s Group A, Denmark and France are the joint leaders, both on five wins and one loss with two more games to play. In the men’s Group B, England have secured their spot in the play-offs and are leading the table with five wins and no losses.
In the women’s field, Poland are leading the rankings on five wins and one loss. They are followed by four teams—Finland, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania—, who all are on four wins and two losses.
Click here for all the results from the B-Division.
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