England Come 10th in 2005 World Wheelchair Curling
Championships
The England
Wheelchair Curling team came a disappointing 10th
in the 2005 World Wheelchair Curling Championships after last year’s superb 4th
place. As a result, England will have to
pre-qualify for the next World Championships in 2007. The team started the week
well with a 5-3 win over Wales and lost a very
close game to the reigning champions and eventual winners Scotland 3-4 in the second
round. Then successive defeats to Denmark (2-7) & Norway (4-5) made it very
difficult for the team to qualify for the semi-finals. A wins over Russia (6-5) and Japan (7-5) in the next
two rounds, put the team on track to automatically pre-qualify for the 2007
World Wheelchair Curling Championships. A win over the USA in the last round
would have secured England’s place in the
next World Championships, but the 3-10 defeat left the teams tied and they had
to play each other again in a play-off for the last pre-qualification place. A
confident USA team proceeded to inflict
a 1-5 defeat on the England team leaving them
to play their final game against Italy for the honour of
coming 9th. The Italians won 9-3, leaving England with a
disappointing 3-6 win-loss record.
On a positive note,
with the new curling rink in Kent, we now have two
years to build up our wheelchair curling pool of players so that we can regain
our place in the World Wheelchair Curling Championships. It should also be
remembered that the team and their coach, Joan Reed, have been working very
hard, with minimal funding, to compete in this fast developing and increasingly
competitive area of our sport. We wish them all the best of luck over the next
couple of years.
Click here for the full results on the
official event website