Registered: Sep 2011
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So the European championships are set to start this weekend.

WOMEN

The womens field is probably the weakest there has been in a long time. The favorites have to be Russia, Scotland and Switzerland and they are truly head and shoulders above everyone else if they are on their game. the podium should consist of some configuration of those 3. Its truly wide open among everyone else. Denmark has to be considered the dark horse here while sweden could make the playoffs but i dont see them winning it all.Either way sweden and denmark should both finish top 5.

czech republic, finland, estonia, latvia and germany will all be fighting for positions 6-10. they are all equal with each other, i dont think any of them will find easy times against the others. if i had to rank them i'd have this: czech republic, germany, latvia, finland, estonia. i think the first 3 will do enough to stay in the A group ..my prediction is latvia finishing 8th and having to play the world group playoff. finland and estonia back to B.

speaking of B i see Austria coming through this year. They are the best team there. chief challengers will be italy, norway, hungary and maybe the netherlands. I predict norway will come through the group with austria. austria wins and beats latvia in the world group playoff.

MEN

There really isnt anything new to see here. the usual teams are here. edin has had a poor season as has snitil. ulsrud has had progressively worse results and played only 3 events . scotland is good but inexperienced. denmark has looked bad as well, couldnt even win a weak event at home last week. the remaining teams are close with each other. italy has a strong young team but, again inexperience may kill them. i think it'll be germany and italy dropping down to B and latvia finishing 8th and playing the world group playoff. russia is a dark horse, they can be dangerous but im not sure they have what it takes to get by sweden, norway or switzerland for a medal.i do think they will battlke for the 4th playoff spot with scotland and denmark

B group is totally wide open and hard to predict. netherlands and autria have promising young teams. france and finland are experienced. turkey surprised with a respectable performance last year while israel shocked by qualifying. im not sure they can do well here though. i predict that austria and findland get through. finland will battle for the world spot but lose to latvia in 3.

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Registered: Sep 2011
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40% of Team Israel curls out of Potomac.

They are ecstatic to have made the B's, but they aren't satisfied to have just gotten there.

I agree that they're a long shot, but I think they may surprise and be in the running for a promotion. We'll see.

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Both Men's and Women's look like three team races. Sweden, Norway and Switzerland on the Men's and Scotland, Russia and Switzerland on the Women's. The Danes should be in the playoff mix in both as well. Hasselborg and Edwards are the wild cards in each division. Both teams play for strong curling countries but are getting their first opportunity to represent those countries at this level. I'll be particularly interested to see how they do.

I'll go with Scotland over Switzerland in the Women's final and Sweden over Norway in the Men's.

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Registered: Sep 2011
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scotland upsets norway draw 1

and what may be an even bigger upset germany defeats denmark

on the mens side

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not a good start for the reigning world champs

finland ladies could go 4-0 early now but i'd still see them finish 4-5. still that'd be enough to get back to worlds

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Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:

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Originally posted by misty1
WOMEN
czech republic, finland, estonia, latvia and germany will all be fighting for positions 6-10.

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__________________
Lots of major youth (<21) events. Nice for Murdoch... and us :-D.

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quote:

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Originally posted by nelski


So, for me, Estonia arrived out of the blue. I am sure they have been climbing the ladder of B, but I didn't remember that they'd qualified for A. I like to see new countries trickling up.

Following the scores is a bit of a bother. Nothing here at CZ and the ECC site is giving a noServer banner. Anybody have a better link?

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Registered: Sep 2011
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german are an early surprise once again

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2 bad losses for the german men today . 2 matches they could have and probably should have won but just didnt take their chances. going to be tough now

denmark men need to get their asses in motion or it wont just be a spot at worlds in jeopardy it will be keeping their spot in the A group

norway looking extremely shaky here. they still have sweden and switzerland to come so they better get it together

with just how close everyone is i could see 4 losses getting you tiebreakers

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Registered: Nov 2014
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What happened in the Israel v France game? it just says Israel win France lose.

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quote:

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Originally posted by americancurler
What happened in the Israel v France game? it just says Israel win France lose.

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Registered: Feb 2004
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Any reason given for France's no show? Should that not mean a suspension from the WCF?

__________________
Well Behaved Women Don't Make History.

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none that i know. perhaps gerry know something?

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Israel Curling Twitter simply stated "After a forfeit by France (who didn't come to ‪#‎ecc2014‬ because of an injury and some politics"

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So a question which this brings up...

Does that mean that all of the teams in the "B" division "Red" group are safe from relegation, and France will be relegated automatically?

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i think what might be the biggest surprise here so far is denmark. yes stjerne can be up and down but to actually be in sanger is relegation..i didnt see that coming. and its not really like denmark is a team you would guarantee would get back right away either

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Registered: Jan 2012
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...is that NO ONE has made any jokes about the French surrendering yet. Curlingzone, you disappoint me.

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scotland isnt winning this game, edwards is. germany would be up by at least 2 right now if not for edwards.

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Mark,
we save those jokes for Facebook...and yes that joke was already made. This is a serious curling forum

Jason

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Registered: Dec 2012
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Wow. That runback triple for 4 by Baumann was a dandy.

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That shot by the german skip was absolutely brilliant and also gutsy. he could have lost the game there but instead he might have won it

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I was interested to hear people's opinions on the stone that was burned in the SCO-GER game. I had a very similar thing happen in a game this weekend where a stone was clipped by a sweeper after the hogline. We owned up to it, and the opposing skip chose to remove the stone from play.

Germany did not own appear to own up to it, although it could be seen in the replay. Scotland called them on it, but the officials did not intervene. Scotland was noticeably displeased with the outcome, and went on to lose the game.

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quote:

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Originally posted by courtneyshaw
I was interested to hear people's opinions on the stone that was burned in the SCO-GER game. I had a very similar thing happen in a game this weekend where a stone was clipped by a sweeper after the hogline. We owned up to it, and the opposing skip chose to remove the stone from play.

Germany did not own appear to own up to it, although it could be seen in the replay. Scotland called them on it, but the officials did not intervene. Scotland was noticeably displeased with the outcome, and went on to lose the game.

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finland got through the first 4 games 4-0 like i predicted but now we'll see what they are made of with most of the stronger teams to come. think 4-5 is gonna happen

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Registered: Sep 2003
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Great News Canadians

TSN5 will be broadcasting the Euros starting on Wednesday

wed.26 1-4pm mens draw 9
thu.27 1-4pm playoffs
fri.28 1-4pm semis
sat.29 6am womens final 9am mens final

YAY!!

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