The question this year was, after the fabulously entertaining Gothenburg moose hunt of 2010, what form the draw would take for the JWCC in 2012. The answer: a Swedish summer festival, with the flower garlands worn by dancers containing the numbers to determine skate order.

With the draw for the top teams strictly setted so that the world’s top-seeded teams would skate in the last two groups, the draw’s main issue was in which order the remaining nine teams would skate. Wight Jewels was among these, and was represented on the ice by co-captains Izzy Coeshott and Gemma Marsh. Gemma picked the dancer with garland number one, and so the Wight Jewels will be first on the ice when the competition begins at 6pm CET (5pm GMT) on Friday evening. The opening ceremony begins at 5pm CET (see schedule).

Skating first has a number of advantages, the main one being absolutely clean ice, free of errant hairpins and sequins. Of course it can be unnerving to set the standard, but the team will benefit from having the opportunity of seeing everyone after them skate, and be able to draw on the experience. Usually teams get a fractured view of what the rest of the world is like.

The full skate order is as follows: 1 Wight Jewels (Great Britain), 2 Hot Shivers (Italy), 3 Idel (Russia), 4 Majestic Ice (Australia), 5 Cool Dreams (Switzerland), 6 Black Diam’s (France), 7 Team Berlin Juniors (Germany), 8 Frost Work (Hungary), 9 Duke Town Twinkle Stars (Netherlands), 10 Team Spirit (Sweden), 11 Spartak Junost (Russia), 12 Nexxice (Canada), 13 Team Convivium (Sweden), 14 Les Supremes (Canada), 15 Musketeers (Finland), 16 Skyliners (USA), 17 Braemar (USA), 18 Team Fintastic (Finland).