Unranked Finland upset Canada, Canada & Norway top pools

Canada were upset by Finland, a team that have never appeared in a World Championship, in the morning draw of the second day of the Czech Open in Prague.

They gave up single steals in the first two ends, and a steal of 3 in the 5th before making the 8-5 scoreline a little more respectable with a steal of 3 of their own in the seventh and final end. Bruno Yizek played at second in place of ina. This was a team decision to give Bruno some playing time and experience at different positions.

"Finland played very well - Canada struggled with weight control," texts Team Leader Wendy Morgan. "The team is upbeat - took some lessons learned from this morning's game."

Sweden came back from a 4-0 deficit to beat Czech 1 6-5 in a match that only managed to play 6 ends in the allotted time. Germany saw Norway take singles in each of the first four ends in a 5-2 defeat in seven ends. The low scoring reminded some of their Draw 9 match-up at the 2009 Worlds contest, where the teams blanked the first four ends.

Switzerland posted a 7-5 win over Czech 2 in the remaining morning draw.

Finland   1  1  0  3  3  0  0  -  8
Canada*   0  0  1  0  0  1  3  -  5

Czech 1   2  1  1  0  0  1  -  -  5   
Sweden*   0  0  0  3  3  0  -  -  6

Germany   0  0  0  0  1  0  1  -  2
Norway*   1  1  1  1  0  1  0  -  5

Czech 2*      0  1  0  0  3  1  -  5
Switzerland   4  0  2  1  0  0  -  7

In the afternoon draw, Canada went into the break level with Czech 1, but had steals in the next three ends to win 7-3.

"We had a slow start to the game this afternoon but rallied in the second half," texts Wendy Morgan. "Sonja sat and Bruno played lead."

Norway pounded Czech 2 by 13-1 and Sweden took 5 in the third against Finland and won 9-4.

Germany gave up a steal of 3 in the first and 1 in the second, but eked out a win over Switzerland by scoring 3 in the final end of a game that only managed 6 ends in the allotted two hours.

Norway        2  2  1  1  0  3  2  2  -  13
Czech 2*   0  0  0  0  1  0  0  0  -  1

Switzerland   3  1  0  0  1  0  -  -   - 5
Germany*      0  0  2  1  0  3  -  -   - 6

Canada*     1  0  0  1  1  1  3  0   - 7
Czech 1     0  1  1  0  0  0  0  1   - 3

Sweden      0  0  5  0  2  0  2  -   - 9
Finland*    1  1  0  1  0  1  0  -   - 4

Table after round robin

Pool A

1 Norway
2 Switzerland
3 Germany
4 Czech 2

Pool B

1 Canada
2 Sweden
3 Finland
4 Czech 1

Norway plays Sweden and Switzerland plays Canada in tomorrow's semi-finals.