British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

JonH comes home wrote:

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indiana wrote:

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OK, going into tomorrow's final 4 women's matches we have :

Final matches : GB vs Italy, Switzerland vs USA, Canada vs South Korea. Japan vs China

Switzerland: Played 9, won 7, lost 2 ( into the SF )
Sweden: Played 8, won 6, lost 2 ( into the SF )

Canada: Played 8, won 5, lost 3
South Korea: Played 8, won 5 lost 3
( these two meet so one will move onto 6 wins and qualify for the SF )

USA: Played 8, won 5, lost 3 ( a win will see them into the SF )

GB; Played 8, won 4, lost 4 ( must win and hope )

Denmark: Played 9, won 4, lost 5 ( over and out )

The essentials for GB:
GB must beat Italy, and
Switzerland lmust beat USA ( to stop 4 teams going onto 6 or more wins )

If these 2 results happen, we will be tied 4th in wins with USA and either Canada or South Korea

If we were then tied with USA and Canada, we should get the finsl SF spot on H2Hs since we would have beaten both USA and Canada ( so ideally we would prefer South Korea to beat Canada ).

If instead we were then tied with USA and South Korea each nation would have won one and lost one in the results among the 3 of them - and then it appears draw shot challenge would resolve who the 4th semi finalist would be.

Thst's what I think anyway.

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 And we are currently ahead of those teams on draw shot challenge. So hopefully we and Switzerland win and job is a good un. 

cheers

 

Jom 

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 Thanks Jon, I hadn't got my head around the draw shot challenge positions, so it wouldn't matter who won between South Korea and Canada, as long as we kept ahead of both South Korea and USA in the draw shot challenge.

Stircrazy wrote:

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So, the Norwegian men beat the Canucks & the Swiss beat the Italians, which means that we face the Swiss, who are unbeaten, in the semi-final.  Given that we forced the Swiss to an extra end, in the round robin, there may be a glimmer of hope for the final.   

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 In the mixed, the play offs didnt follow the group stage form and looking back through past history it seems the groups dont always act as a good indicator. 

In the mixed we had an 8-1 group record and then lost emphatically to Sweden and Italy who we had beaten comfortably in the groups and lost out on a medal. 

So, fingers crossed in the mens that we cause an upset 

Yes, well done to our world champions, they found good enough form when it mattered and tbf rode a bit of luck with results elsewhere.

But, even good week as the Swiss have had, if GB themselves can be at least close to their best they surely have much more than a glimmer of a chance against the team who they beat ( as Scotland  ) in that World Final in Canada last April.

You'd no doubt rather bring in form than not, but as Jon indicates it is to an extent a new ball ( or stone ) game when you move from the round robin to the SF, and our women's gold medal team from 4 years ago had to rely on their draw shot challenge figure to get to the SF after a W5, L4 record in the RR. 

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 19th of February 2026 02:11:11 PM

Regards our women, the BBC commentary team confirm our extensive thoughts above that our SF chances have come down to the results of just 2 matches, and they would have bitten your hand off for that a few days ago.

GB must beat Italy and Switzerland must beat USA. And that would do it.

Going into the matches, I would expect bookies would say individually the results we want are favourites but probably odds still against both happening.

But fighting chance, and so just go GB, at least do your bit.

livescores.worldcurling.org/og/aspnet/livescores

Above shows the curling live scores, USA leading 3-1 at the moment

I covered the curling, two Winter Olympics ago, at the PyeongChang Games, and following it this week is making me reminisce.

A few conclusions:

- It's surprisingly cold in that arena. I was sat rinkside for the best part of 3 weeks and it's icy.

- Curlers are a great bunch. Reassuringly normal and way less egotistical than other Olympic athletes, quite possibly because many of them are doing elite curling on the side of a full-time job (I remember the US skip that year was also a hospital nurse), and they're also older and most worldly. They all made for fascinating interviews. Short-track speed skaters on the other hand (something I discovered through covering a bunch of World Cup events), genuinely think that the world revolves around them, even though even the most ardent fan only really cares about their sport once every four years.

- Olympic curling is an unexpectedly very glamorous sport. Back in Feb 2018, I was newly single after the breakup of a long-term relationship and seeing the number of husband/wife duos in the mixed event, and just how good looking everyone was, I was like, 'Maybe I should quit the apps, go to live somewhere chilly and curl?' in the hope of finding love. But my Canadian friends tell me that what you see at the Olympics, this isn't reflective of the typical rink, so perhaps wisely, I opted against that plan.

- The pressure on the Canadian teams is intense. I had no idea just how brutally competitive it is to qualify to represent team Canada in curling at the Olympics, and the expectations are HIGH, something which I feel creates unhelpful pressure. The Canadian curlers know that this is in all likelihood their one shot at Olympic glory, so the tension is much higher for them than with other teams.

- Finally, after a month writing about it, I felt that I had to try curling for myself, and it's perhaps for the best that I didn't attempt to curl for love. It is incredibly technical and hard - especially that sliding off which they all make look extremely easy. I essentially ended up bowling in the end!

Good stuff by GB, blanked the end again and even if Italy steal, GB would still have hammer in the last end ( come here fot all the terminology from an every 4 year watcher )

GB *4-3 after 8 ends.

USA *5-3 up after 8 ends.