The 7th Glynhill Ladies International Curling Championship at Braehead Curling 17-19 January reached a thrilling climax when two of the Olympic contenders won through to the Championship final to battle it out for the magnificent silver kettle trophy.
Bingyu Wang and her fellow Chinese team of Yan Zhou, Qinshuang Yue, and Yin Liu, put on a devastating display of precision curling to overcome Switzerland’s representatives, the 2012 World Champions, Mirjam Ott, Carmen Schafer, Carmen Kung and Janine Greiner by a score of 9 shots to 4 after only 6 ends.
The contest was one of the best finals ever witnessed at Braehead and
was by no means one way traffic. Each millimetrically perfect shot was
followed by another equally brilliant. Ott opened with a 2 at the first end
but only after a measure had discounted a further 2 stones. The second end was even closer with five stones looking equidistantly clustered round the centre and by a matter of millimetres, Wang pulled back 2 to level the match.
The teams were level 4-4 at the half way stage, and 2 ends of sheer brilliance by the Chinese saw them pull away into an unassailable 9-5 lead, by which time the bemused Ott rink conceded.
Earlier in the day, Wang had beaten the fancied Russian Olympic rink of Anna Sidorova by 6 shots to 5 in the first semi-final, and Ott had outplayed the 2013 champion and fellow Swiss rink of Binia Feltscher by 5 shots to 2.
The three Scottish rinks competing had mixed results with only Lorna Vevers rink of Sarah Reid, Becca Kesley and Rachel Hannen winning through in the Consolation Event to the semi-finals where they lost out 7 shots to 5 on the very last stone to another Swiss Rink skipped by Alina Paetz. Paetz went on to secure the Consolation title with a thrilling 11 -9 win over Team Albatross from Russia.
Words: Alan Sloan
Photo: Leslie Ingram-Brown
Bingyu Wang and her fellow Chinese team of Yan Zhou, Qinshuang Yue, and Yin Liu, put on a devastating display of precision curling to overcome Switzerland’s representatives, the 2012 World Champions, Mirjam Ott, Carmen Schafer, Carmen Kung and Janine Greiner by a score of 9 shots to 4 after only 6 ends.
The contest was one of the best finals ever witnessed at Braehead and
was by no means one way traffic. Each millimetrically perfect shot was
followed by another equally brilliant. Ott opened with a 2 at the first end
but only after a measure had discounted a further 2 stones. The second end was even closer with five stones looking equidistantly clustered round the centre and by a matter of millimetres, Wang pulled back 2 to level the match.
The teams were level 4-4 at the half way stage, and 2 ends of sheer brilliance by the Chinese saw them pull away into an unassailable 9-5 lead, by which time the bemused Ott rink conceded.
Earlier in the day, Wang had beaten the fancied Russian Olympic rink of Anna Sidorova by 6 shots to 5 in the first semi-final, and Ott had outplayed the 2013 champion and fellow Swiss rink of Binia Feltscher by 5 shots to 2.
The three Scottish rinks competing had mixed results with only Lorna Vevers rink of Sarah Reid, Becca Kesley and Rachel Hannen winning through in the Consolation Event to the semi-finals where they lost out 7 shots to 5 on the very last stone to another Swiss Rink skipped by Alina Paetz. Paetz went on to secure the Consolation title with a thrilling 11 -9 win over Team Albatross from Russia.
Words: Alan Sloan
Photo: Leslie Ingram-Brown