(Dec 19, 2008) -- Alberta and Saskatchewan pairing the only bright spot for North American on a gloomy Friday
CAMROSE, Canada -- Team World continued piling on the wins through two draws on day two of the 2008 Continental Cup of Curling.
Team World swept all three women's games Friday morning at the 2008 Continental Cup to open a 54-18 point lead over North America. In the afternoon mixed doubles session, North America managed only one win out of three matches, and now trail Team World 66-24 overall.
Scotland's David Murdoch teamed with Swiss women's third Carmen Schaefer to demolish the U.S. pairing of Debbie McCormick and Rich Ruohonen 13-2, and China's Fengchun Wang and Yin Liu edged Canada's Carter Rycroft and Stefanie Lawton by an 8-7 scoreline.
The sole bright spot of the day for North America was the victory of another Alberta/Saskatchewan pairing: John Morris of Calgary and Marliese Kasner of Saskatoon, who took out China's Bingyu Wang and Rui Liu 9-5.
Morris joked about his pre-game preparation with Kasner, regarding the format - introduced last year with the inaugural World Mixed Doubles Championship, in which Canada finished out of the medals in fifth place - which has provided some confusion for the North American team.
"Our preparation involved going to Booster Juice, and then to Extreme Pita," said Morris.
"Then we took a nap. But not together."
Morris admitted one point of confusion during the match, in which the twosome never trailed.
"At one time I forgot it was the last shot. I couldn't believe it."
Kasner decided to use Morris' brushes from the Team Kevin Martin collection. During the game, the players were alternating different weaponry for throwing and sweeping.
"It worked well for us," said Kasner.
Murdoch and Schaefer both won the recent Le Gruyère European Championships in northern Sweden with their respective men's and women's teams.
"David was awesome," said Schaefer.
"He played very well. He makes it easy."
"That's great, great fun," said Murdoch, who who improved to 2-2 in mixed doubles matches in his career.
"If it goes to the Olympics (medal status) then I would play both, men's and mixed doubles for sure. It's a great format."
In morning action, Schaefer joined her regular Team Mirjam Ott to hammer Canada's Lawton by an 8-5 count. Sweden's Anette Norberg, the 2006 Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion, defeated 2003 world champion McCormick 5-3. In the third game, China's Bingyu Wang edged Canada's Jennifer Jones 5-4 in a rematch of last year's final of the Ford World Women's Curling Championship in Vernon, British Columbia. Wang stole the last end when Jones was heavy on a draw with her final stone.
The last round of men's team play goes Friday night (10:00pm ET on TSN) as Murdoch takes on Kevin Koe, Norway's Thomas Ulsrud challenges Martin, and Fengchun Wang meets U.S. champion Craig Brown. |
