Team World increases lead at Continental Cup

Team World won two of three Mixed Doubles matches, and tied the other game, Thursday afternoon to increase its lead to 30-6 over North America at the Continental Cup, presented by Monsanto, taking place at the Edgeworth Centre. The novel discipline pairs a male and female curler from each side as both throwers and sweepers, with five rocks per team per end.  The World victories were provided by the tandem of Sweden’s Anette Norberg and Norway’s Torger Nergård, who defeated USA’s Allison Pottinger and Craig Brown, 7-5, and by Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott and Scotland’s Ewan MacDonald, who hammered Canada’s Cathy Overton-Clapham and Kevin Koe, 12-6. The third game proved a saw-off, as the World’s Cathrine Lindahl of Sweden and Thomas Ulsrud of Norway rallied from a 5-0 first end deficit, stealing one in the eighth and final end to tie Canada’s Jennifer Jones and Marc Kennedy, 7-7. Each win was worth six points, a tie three points, so Team World tallied another 15 points in Draw 2, while North America could only manage three points.   This morning, in women’s team play, the World similarly won two of the three contests, with the third game ending in a tie. The Continental Cup, the first event in curling’s Season of Champions, involves Team games (72 points), Mixed Doubles (36 points), Singles (32 points) and Skins (Men’s, Women’s and Mixed, worth a total of 260 points).   The first side to score 201 points is declared the winner. Tonight’s draw at 7:00 pm MT/9:00 pm ET showcases three men’s team games, again worth six points each, with Thomas Ulsrud facing Kevin Koe, China’s Fengchun Wang playing Canada’s reigning world champion Kevin Martin and Scotland’s 2006 world champion David Murdoch battling Craig Brown of the USA. TSN and TSN2 is providing live national coverage of the entire competition, encompassing 28 hours. The Continental Cup is a joint venture of the Canadian Curling Association, the United States Curling Association and the World Curling Federation.