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I have just arrived into Riga,Latvia for the 2013 Women's World Curling Championships. Yes my presence is to quietly support my wife Erika Brown(USA skip) but to also bring some new insights and perspectives from inside the Championships. Some things that you the blog reader would not normally get a perspective on but also give some feedback on shots of the day, who's trending in which direction and on the culture of Riga.

I am looking forward to the food, beverages and the sights that Riga has to offer. Stay tuned for more to come.

If you have any questions, feel free to rifle off and I will do my best to provide answers.

Cheers

Tet

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Yes, he lost his last round robin game that year to Kip Ready from PEI. If he had won that game he would have won the Brier.
Go figure he drops into a playoff with PeeWee and then has to play Duguid in the final. Obviously losing. who knew PEI would come up big.

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quote:

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Originally posted by IanTetley
I have just arrived into Riga,Latvia for the 2013 Women's World Curling Championships. Yes my presence is to quietly support my wife Erika Brown(USA skip) but to also bring some new insights and perspectives from inside the Championships. Some things that you the blog reader would not normally get a perspective on but also give some feedback on shots of the day, who's trending in which direction and on the culture of Riga.

I am looking forward to the food, beverages and the sights that Riga has to offer. Stay tuned for more to come.

If you have any questions, feel free to rifle off and I will do my best to provide answers.

Cheers

Tet

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Who are you the cra....live in Oakville. Erika lives in Oakville and competes for the USA because she always has and there is no residency restriction.

Difficult to say if this is a big event yet. Apparently the crowds did show up this past weekend to cheer on their home country. As the week unfolds I will comment on this a little more.

The ice is getting better every draw. Draw weight is far more consistent and this will be reflected in the draw percentages.
The rocks are fine....I think early in draws 1-4 the ice was very inconsistent and it showed like the rocks were bad. I think with any set the ladies are going to have to be very cognizant of each rock and the characteristics that they present.

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Team Homan is 24-0 when blanking the first end with the hammer.
Team Brown is 1-3 when the other team has blanked the first end.
Which begs to ask the question, why would USA throw their first rock in the rings if you know these stats? Just saying.
Team Homan has only lost two games with the hammer all year.
My thinking is USA is a huge underdog in this game. The later the game goes with the score being close, the pressure shifts to Homan. Only time will tell.

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Looking forward to your posts.

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Big steal in the fourth, any odds on how Homan responds when being behind? Of course with the few losses they have it will still be a big number.

As for the 24-0 stat you listed earlier, what games did that include? all of the major competitions or the entire year?

Homan is the class of the field but it looks to me like Sweden is making their own case for that spot.

On another note, the youtube broadcast is not working.


TJ

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Hi Ian how come your brother Ross isnt coaching team usa.He knows stuff about curling that hasnt been invented yet.P.S.--stay away from ambulences.

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Homan is 4-2 tied without the hammer playing the 8th end this year.

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Conversely Brown is 6-1 tied with the hammer this year, playing the 8th end.

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This year Homan is 1-1 down one coming home with the hammer.
Brown is also 1-1 up one without this year.

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Hi Tet, nice to meet you.

I don't get many chances to see curlers from the rest of the world. Their results in worlds and Olys are pretty good so there aresome good athletes out there! Two questions, if I may -

Who has impressed you so far that you didn't know about?
Are there big style differnces in shot making and strategy that the Canadian and US teams have had to adapt to?

Thanks. Hope you and Erika find time to enjoy Riga.

TNH

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I think that the rest of the world is starting to open its eyes to the great game of curling. The media and tv interest from China, Japan, and Europe is increasing immensely.

Footnote, during the USA finals that were broadcast on NBC Sports, they broke away from the curling to go to basketball before the end of the game. Rumour has it the email and call backlash was heard loud and clear and their ratings for the curling outweighed the basketball. The TV bigwigs take note of this stuff.

China gets huge ratings when curling is on tv. So the WCF is doing things to grow the sport worldwide.

Latvia has been a member of the WCF since 2001. They have about 250 curlers and a 2 sheet curling club. So the WCF is investing in the development in the sport in this country.

The Volvo Center has two hockey rinks in it. One being used for the WWCC and the other rink has been set-up with 5 curling rinks so fans can come out and try the sport. Which I think is an amazing idea. Something the USA should do more often when choosing sites.

So I don't think the game has changed that much. But I do think that the world is waking up to increased exposure for the game and the tv numbers will help drive the game.

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Here lies the conundrum that curling faces. As the tv numbers increase, the business of curling becomes a very valuable commodity for Olympic associations in all participating countries. Since a lot of curling organizations receive funding based on how well their countries place in Olympic years.

Consequently more emphasis is being placed on who represents each country at the Olympics. These teams start to become hand picked teams because the performance directors need to justify not only their position but to ensure that a high placing is achieved.

Here lies the issue. Countries like Canada and the USA have a democratic process to see who represents Canada at the Olympics.
Other countries are hand picking their teams so that they get the best possible result at the Olympics to secure better funding. The USA is facing this dilemma in a huge way. If better results are not shown with the democratic process, I am sure you will see hand picked teams in the future to ensure that the funding keeps rolling in.

Canada is fortunate that we have a deep talent pool of teams to draw from and that can represent us well at that level. These other countries are not as fortunate. Therefore to compete at the World/Olympic level they need to hand pick a team to compete.

Which begs to ask the question? Do you think that Canada could get to the point where a coach would need to choose which four players will represent Canada at the Olympics?

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One reason I would say it is unlikely it will get to that point is that the events that decide our reps (Scotties, Brier, Trials) are big revenue generators. These events would suffer significantly if they didn't decide our reps (obviously the trials wouldn't exist).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Manitoba Legend


Thats the key point. Canada is probably the only curling country drawing more than flies for its national playdowns.

Looks like a potential Sweden vs. Scotland finale this weekend, unless Homan can impose herself on the field!

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Greenroad. Curling in Canada is not a niche sport. It will always be behind hockey and figure skating properties at the Olympics. Skiing in relative viewing hours is short, as compared to curling,total programming hours are large and broadcasters like that because they can sell the advertising.

The business of curling is becoming a bigger tv play. When hockey looked like it was going to be out for the season, Sportsnet jumped all over the Slams to ensure they had programming to show.

For the first time here at the WWCC there are two sheets being broadcast at all times. Obviously the Canadian games but also all the Japanese games. The market in Japan for curling is increasing so quick that there are competing tv conglomerates bidding for the Japanese rights. In China CCTV5, which is there major sports channel is trying to get as many China games as possible. Too bad they got off to a slow start. With the size of China the viewership is enormous.

This year there are 8 different tv organizations broadcasting the WWCC. TSN, CCTV5(China), NHK(Japan),Universal Sports(USA), Eurosport(Germany and UK),Latvian TV and a Swedish tv group.
The WCF has started up World Curling TV and is producing all of the feeds that go out to the respective countries and broadcasters produce their own audio. In a case like TSN, they would have an extra camera for extra shots and options for the Canadian program.

People may want to dismiss curling as being small time, but the direction it is headed, with respect to new viewership in more countries is big time and big business.

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Ian, I am a curling fan and I have been for many years. Yes, I would agree it is growing and I am happy to see that but I would be very hard pressed to call it a major sport. I have been to World's in the US and Europe and the crowds have been pathetic, as they have been in Riga. There is a lot more tennis on TV now than there used to be (whenever did you get hours of coverage from Indian Wells, as an example?). That is due to a huge increase in TV networks in recent years - TSN2, Sportsnet One and in Quebec RDS2 and TVASports. I can't ever remember before seeing the Scotties, Brier and Worlds in French. And Guy Hemmimgs is a great spokesman for the sport. More available TV time means more curling - great.

And we can't take anything away from the WCF for its decision to hold the world's in places where there is little interest as a means of promoting the sport.

But the minimalist coverage of the WCCC in the G&M just illustrates that it is not (yet) considered a major sport in Canada.

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Hi Tet --

Thanks for your posts.

Can you share where/how you have access to stats like these?

quote:

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Originally posted by IanTetley
Homan is 4-2 tied without the hammer playing the 8th end this year.

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quote:

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Originally posted by IanTetley
This year Homan is 1-1 down one coming home with the hammer.
Brown is also 1-1 up one without this year.

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StonePunter....Gerry Guerts from Curlingzone(owner of this site) has been building his databank of information over the last 13yrs. He now can now produce these stats and sell them to curling associations around the globe in preparation for International events. I have been working with him this week.

I agree with you this is awesome information and it helps teams understand their opponents strengths and weaknesses. But first an foremost, you need to make shots period.

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Olympic Qualification points

If the event were to end today with the current standings this is where we would be:

1. Sweden 12 + 14 = 26
2. Switzerland 14 + 8 = 22
3. Canada 10 + 10 = 20
4. Scotland 7 + 12 = 19
5. United States 8 + 7 = 15
** Russia 4 + 9 = 13
6. Denmark 5 + 6 = 11
7. Germany 6 + 3 = 9 (Would be ahead of SK due to most recent WWCC appearance)
--------------------------------
South Korea 9 + NA = 9
China 2 + 4 = 6
Japan NA + 5 = 5
Italy 3 + 2 = 5
Latvia NA + 1 = 1
Czech Republic 1

** Russia receives berth as host country.

So there are huge implications with 3 of the games tonite ,
USA vs RUS
CHN vs JPN
GER vs ITA (note Italy has reversed their backend for tonites game)

With a GER win,they would tie either JPN or CHN(one has to lose), and DEN, but GER has lost to all of them so they will not improve their situation.

With a GER loss, they would drop out of the top 8 and be forced to play in the Olympic Challenge Dec 11-15 at TBA in Victoria.

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What happened in the USA vs Russia game? Looking at the scores it looks as though there were multiple people playing each position for the Russian team?

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When a team makes a substitution they can completely change their rotation.

So I'm guessing when they switched out a front end player they switched around the rear end as well for some reason.

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Read about the Russian skip having a "meltdown"....did this happen? Any insights??

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quote:

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Originally posted by Unregistered
What happened in the USA vs Russia game? Looking at the scores it looks as though there were multiple people playing each position for the Russian team?

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