Norway takes Cathy Kerr final over Quebec as USA I fades

1st - Team Norway
 Jostein Stordahl, Terje Rafdal, Per Fagerhøi, Sissel Løchen, Ole Fredrik Syversen
with coach Thoralf Hognestad
.

Norway, playing without skip Rune Lorentsen who did not travel, took the $400 first prize at the 7th Cathy Kerr Memorial Spiel at the RA in Ottawa. They beat Chris Sobkowicz's national champions Team Cancade 7-3 in the pool cross-over semi-final, then faced Quebec, who handed USA I their first defeat 13-3 in the other semi.

2nd - Team Quebec
Johanne Daly, Sebastien Boisvert, Carl Marquis, Benoit Lessard
with coach Germain Tremblay

The  final went 9-5 to Norway; the margin, two in the 7th and a steal of two in the 8th.


Team Cancade edged USA I 6-5 for 3rd place.

3rd -  Team Cancade
George Horning, Chris Sobkowicz, Melissa Lecyer and Mark Wherrett
with coach Rob Lamb

Scores from the other cross-over games and results from all draws, plus team members, can be viewed HERE.

Final standings

Norway - gold
Quebec - silver
Cancade - bronze
USA1
USA2
Nfld & Lab
Cameron
Ilderton
Toronto
Sudbury
Bradford
Fraser

In the recreational division Quebec visitors Lenoxville prevailed over Michel with Simpson 3rd.

Lennoxville with coach/mentor Al Whittier
Winners of Recreational Division 2011 Cathy Kerr

Photos courtesy of Katie Paialunga's iPhone

News from Norway

Team Norway 2011
Rune Lorentsen skip, Jostein Stordahl 3rd, Tone Edvardsen 2nd, Terje Rafdal lead, Runar Bjørnstad 5

Norway have been practicing this weekend at the Halden Curling Centre in southern Norway close to the Swedish border.

"The ice is keen, with good curl, I like it!" Thoralf Hognestad, their coach, told me. "We're lookijng forward to playing in Prague, and are going for the Page playoffs."

The team leaves for Prague on February 19. "I have a good feeling," says the coach.

Norway's Tone Edvardsen first to use power chair at Worlds

Tone Edvardsen, will be the first to take advantage of the change in the World Curling Federation's rules of competition, when she plays second for Team Norway at the 2011 World Championships in Prague using her power chair. Previously participation in World Championships had been limited to users of manual wheelchairs.

She is one of three changes to the Norwegian team made by coach Thoralf Hognestad, who returned to the team after their disappointing 3-6 finish at the Vancouver Paralympics. Tone, 36, is an occupational therapist and competing in her third season of wheelchair curling. Her major outside interest is photography, and you can see her photos at this link.

photo - Laila Bakke-Larsen

Norway continue 17-0 run with win at Prague Open

Rune Lorentsen, Tone Edvardsen, Jostein Stordahl, Terje Rafdal

Norway won their third successive tournament and notched their 17th consecutive match without a loss, by taking the Prague Open this weekend. Norway's coach Thoralf Hognestad, who took back the reins this season after a year away from the game, took the opportunity to introduce two new players to international competition; Tone Edvartsen and Terje Rafdal. They played with the experienced back end of Rune Lorentsen and his vice, Jostein Stordahl.

Germany, skipped by Marcus Sieger, who threw 3rd stones, were tied with Norway and had hammer going into the final end, but surrendered a single for their only loss, 6-5.

The Italians, though winless, had three of their matches decided by a single point.

Final Standings

1.  Norway  5-0
2.  Germany 4-1
3.  Czech Rep2 3-2 
4.  Czech Rep1 2-3
5.  Poland 1-4
6.  GS Periscopio (ITA) 0-5

Results can be found HERE.

Norway sweeps to win at Kinross International

Maria Duncan, playing lead for Team Norway

Local club curler Maria Duncan played lead for Norway as they completed their sweep of the competition at the Kinross International, earning big wins over Wales and Scotland 4 (who gave up a 6 in the 2nd) before finishing with a 7-4 win over Rosemary Lenton's Scotland 1.

Norway   -   0  2  3  0  1  1   -  7
Sotland1  -  2  0  0  2  0   0  -  4

Norway's full results and some photos can be viewed HERE.

Switzerland earned second place on a countback of ends won to break a tie with Scotland 1.

Winners - Norway
Per Fagerhoi, Runar Bjornstad, Maria Duncan, Rune Lorensten, Jostein Stardahl

 Runners-up - SwitzerlandManfred Bollinger, Sybille Steiner, Claudia Huttenmoser, Rony Liechtenhan, Daniel Meyer

Standing - Councilor Willie Robertson and Brian Martin - Ailsa Craig Jewellery - sponsor.

Norway's Thoralf Hognestad returns as national team coach

Thoralf Hognestad took charge of Team Norway after the Torino Paralympics, and led them to back to back world Championships in 2007 and 2008. Work commitments after the 2009 season prevented him from leading the team at the Vancouver Paralympics. Per Christensen, previously coach of his Danish national team, took over but failed to improve on the previous year's disappointing performance.

This season Thoralf is back with an increased squad and a full schedule of early season competition.

"We have some exciting new players who I hope will be challenging for team places when we choose the team for the Worlds," he told me.

One change that he doesn't expect to make is at skip, where Rune Lorentsen has had a couple of difficult years.

"Rune has his confidence back," says Hognestad. If that's true, it's bad news for the rest of the world.

Norway will be taking two teams to Denmark this coming weekend, and then are scheduled to travel to Inverness in Scotland in October, and Berne, Switzerland, in November. They'll also be competing in regular local bonspiels.

Norway complete sweep in Perth

Norway 3rd Jostein Stordahl

Norway finished the final pre-Paralympic tournament with a six game sweep against major opposition in Perth, Scotland. The beat Great Britain, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland and two Scots development teams.

The final table is HERE.

Though Norway's new coach Per Christensen has not officially announced his Paralympic team, it appears from Bob Cowan's photos of the event that the team may be the one that competed at the 2009 Worlds.