News Canadian Open

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. — Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher said his Meridian Canadian Open kickoff win Tuesday night was big in many ways.

Bottcher topped Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock 7-4 to stay in the A event of the triple knockout preliminary round.

It was Team Bottcher’s first game since parting with third Pat Simmons. The two-time Brier champion had just joined the club at the start of the season but the club was in a slump and Simmons was dealing with a lingering injury, according to Bottcher, leading to both sides deciding to part ways. Darren Moulding from Team Blandford will play third for the squad this week at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling major tournament.

“It’s just nice to have Darren out there and have Darren play really well,” Bottcher said. “The team seemed to work well together. A win obviously gets us off on the right track, gets us moving forward, so it’s good. I think it sets us up good for the rest of the week.” 

Bottcher opened with the hammer and made an early impact with a three-ender in the first. Laycock was limited to just a single in the second and Bottcher put two more on the board in the fourth to lead 5-1 at the break. After Laycock narrowed the gap with a three-ender in the fifth, Bottcher scored one in the sixth, stole a point in seven to reclaim the three-point advantage and ran his opponent out of rocks in the final frame.

Bottcher credited Moulding for helping them get into the win column to start.

“I’ve played against him for a long time. He’s a good curler and a good friend of mine,” Bottcher said. “He’s playing great. I couldn’t really ask for a better person out there. As far as that all goes I think it went well, as well as game one can go with anybody.” 

Bottcher said it’s a play-it-by-ear scenario with regards to whether Moulding will stay on afterwards.

“We’re a couple weeks away from going to Europe and playing over there and then a couple weeks after that is provincials,” he said. “It’s sort of a tight turnaround all around so it depends on how things go. We’ll see how this weekend goes and we’ll take it from there.”

Meanwhile, Greg Balsdon and his Kingston, Ont., team beat defending champion John Epping of Toronto 7-4. Balsdon qualified for the Meridian Canadian Open by winning the Tour Challenge Tier 2 two months ago in Cranbrook, B.C., and kept spare second David Staples from Dayna Deruelle’s team on board for the event. 

“It was a fun game,” Balsdon said. “The ice was really good. I watched the first couple Grand Slams and it seemed like the guys were struggling with the rocks and the ice and whatnot so we were a little apprehensive of coming to battle through the ice but the ice is perfect. We threw it pretty well. I made some key draws early in that game to keep us in it because they were on us early. We had a straight rock that we didn’t notice until one of David’s, his first one was straight, and in the first couple ends we were under-curling but then we figured it out and he started making shots and the team played really well.”

Balsdon is up in the double digits for spares this season after losing Don Bowser due to injury during their first tournament of the year.

“David is a really down-to-earth nice guy. He throws it good and is really easy to get along with,” Balsdon said. “I think with the demeanour on our team we could play with almost anybody and we’d have a good time and be in games. David has fit in nicely and hopefully we can keep this rolling.” 

Balsdon said although Bowser has been back playing, they made a promise to Staples to bring him along even though his own team back in Ontario has regionals coming up this weekend.

“Don is feeling a lot better,” Balsdon said. “We played in Minnesota with him and we won the Kingston spiel with him so he’s been back for two spiels. It’s funny because we said to David, ‘If we win the Tier 2, you can go with us,’ and it’s also funny because his normal team has regionals this weekend so if we don’t qualify he’s on a flight to Ottawa Friday. We’re hoping to keep playing like that and if we do then we might be in the weekend and then Team Deruelle is going to have to find a spare.” 

Elsewhere, Brad Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., edged out an 8-7 extra-end victory over Saskatoon’s Bruce Korte, who earned the sponsor’s exemption spot for the event. American John Shuster also scored an 8-7 OT extra-end win against Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers. 

Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland downed Winnipeg’s Kerri Einarson 6-4 in the lone women’s division game and a rematch of last month’s Boost National final. Einarson came out on top that time to capture her first career Grand Slam title. Cathy Overton-Clapham is filling in at third again on Team Tirinzoni with Manuela Siegrist still out due to a knee injury.

Meridian Canadian Open action resumes Wednesday at 8 a.m. CT and runs through to Sunday at the Civic Centre.

NOTES: The Meridian Canadian Open is the fourth event and third major of the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling season. … TV coverage begins Thursday at 11:30 a.m. CT on Sportsnet. … The event features a triple knockout preliminary round where teams must win three games before they lose three in order to qualify for the playoffs. … Winners of the Meridian Canadian Open qualify for the season-ending Humpty’s Champions Cup taking place at the end of April in Calgary.