World's Top Wheelchair Curlers at The Green Hotel

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Well, the 2011/12 curling season has started in fine style on our Curling Rink situated at the back of the hotel. No sooner had we completed the Kinross Junior Curling Classic (7th - 9th October) than preparations began to stage the 2011 Kinross Wheelchair Curling International.

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We were absolutely delighted that 10 teams from all over the world converged on Kinross for this years tournament, including 3 Scottish teams, 2 each from Canada and Russia and one each from Sweden, Norway & Latvia. Not only was there a true international flavour to the tournament but the quality was as good as it gets. Canada 1 skipped by Jim Armstrong won Gold at the 2011 World Championships in Prague earlier in the year, Scotland 1 (Aileen Neilson) were silver medallists and Norway (Rune Lorentsen) winners of the bronze. With Russia 1 having just missed out on a medal at those World Championships, this was about as strong a field for wheelchair curling as you can get. We were guaranteed to see some brilliant stuff on the ice and that is exactly what we got over 3 days of great competition (18th - 20th October).

The 10 teams were split into two groups of 5 for the round robin group stages. The format then saw the winners of each section play off for 1st & 2nd places with the runners up in each section playing off for 3rd / 4th places.

SECTION A

CANADA 1 SCOTLAND 2 RUSSIA 1

Jim Armstrong                       Michael McCreadie                Andrey Smirnov
Darryl Neighbour                  Jim Gault                                 Marat Romanov
Ina Forrest                             Ian Donaldson                       Oxana Slesarenko
Sonja Gaudet                        Gill Keith                                  Alexander Shevchenko
                                                                                                   Svetlana Pakhomova

SWITZERLAND                     SCOTLAND 3
Manfred Bollinger                Michael McKenzie
Claudia Huttenmoser          Jackie Cayton
Eric Decorvet                          Mo Simpson
Felix Wagner                         Rosemary Lenton
Melanie Nadja Villars         Jim Sellar

SECTION B

CANADA 2                              SCOTLAND 1                             RUSSIA 2
Chris Sobkowicz                  Aileen Neilson                       Konstantin Kurokhtin
Bruno Yizek                           Tom Killin                                Boris Gorchakov
Jack Smart                             Gregor Ewan                            Mikhail Mokretcov
Anne Hibberd                       Angela Malone                       Daria Shchukina
                                                                                                   Aleksandr Dmitriev

NORWAY                                 LATVIA
Rune Lorentsen                    Aleksandrs Dimbovskis
Jostein Stordahl                   Ojars Briedis
Terje Rafdal                          Ilmars Nicmanis
Sissel Lochen                        Polina Rozkova

As might have been expected, the games in both sections were keenly contested. Section A saw a major surprise with World Champions Canada 1 only finishing in 3rd place and therefore missing out on the finals. Scotland 2 (skipped by Michael McCreadie) emerged unbeaten with Switzerland in the runner up position.

Section B was if anything even more closely contested. Russia 2 (skipped by Konstantin Kurokhtin) played superbly to emerge unbeaten and win the section. However, three teams (Scotland 1, Canada 2 & Norway) all finished with 2 wins & 2 losses on 4 points but Norway duly went through as section runners up courtesy of having won more ends during their 4 matches than either Scotland 1 or Canada 2.

The final Section tables looked as follows:

SECTION A

TEAM WON LOST DREW POINTS ENDS WON SHOTS UP TOTAL SHOTS

SCOTLAND 2                      3          0           1           7                         16                 5                      26
SWITZERLAND                  3          1           0            6                         18               10                      30
CANADA 1                         2          2           0            4                        16                 6                      24
RUSSIA 1                           1          2           1            3                        11               -6                      22
SCOTLAND 3                      0         4            0            0                        12              -15                      19

SECTION B

TEAM WON LOST DREW POINTS ENDS WON SHOTS UP TOTAL SHOTS

RUSSIA 2                           3          0           1            7                        20                 9                      30
NORWAY                           2          2           0            4                      17                 3                      26
CANADA 2                         2          2           0            4                       13                 1                      20
SCOTLAND 1                     2          2           0            4                       13                 0                      26
LATVIA                              0          3           1            1                        13              -13                      20

As Section Runners Up, Switzerland faced Norway in the 3rd / 4th Place game and it proved a very tight affair with very high quality curling until the last end. After the first 6 ends had been shared with scores tied at 4-4, Switzerland (Mannfred Bollinger) scored a 5 at the 7th end to force Norway to concede.

In the play off for 1st / 2nd, Russia 2 played brilliantly throughout and forced Michael McCreadie's Scotland 2 onto the back foot with an early 4. The Scots battled away to reduce the deficit but Russia 2 (Konstantin Kurokhtin) were giving precious little away and emerged worthy winners 9-4.

Whereas our congratulations go to Konstantin Kurokhtin and his team, our thanks go to all 10 teams for producing a tremendous competition over 3 days here at the Green Hotel. It was a real pleasure to see them all in action and we sincerely hope most will be back here again next season.

Finally, our thanks also go to Coucillor Kellas (Perth & Kinross Council) for laying on the Prize-Giving Reception for the competitors and for Brian Martin of Ailsa Craig Jewellery for providing some lovely prizes. Thanks also to Steven Kerr and his team of ice technicians for producing great ice throughout the 3 days of competition.

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