News Tour Challenge

CRANBROOK, B.C. — Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones jumped up to a 2-0 record in the Tour Challenge Tier 1.

The reigning Olympic gold medallist Jones picked up a dicey 5-4 extra-end win over Alina Paetz of Switzerland during Draw 6 action Thursday morning.

Jones held the hammer in the eighth leading by one but faced a trio of Paetz counters and hit and rolled the wrong way to give up a steal and force the additional end. The five-time Players’ Championship winner Jones didn’t need to throw the final stone of the game, however, as she already held shot rock buried at the top of the 12-foot circle in the extra end and Paetz came up light and tight landing on top of it with her last.

“We just got a little unfortunate in the eighth,” Team Jones lead Dawn McEwen said. “Jenn’s rock just rolled a hair too far. We’re improving game-by-game. It was a little bit better but we’ll have to be even better in the next game.”

Jones didn’t have the hammer to start, but it didn’t matter as she stole singles in the first two ends to open with a 2-0 lead. Paetz (0-2) erased the deficit taking two in the third to tie it. Jones was forced to a single in the fourth and reclaimed the two-point advantage in the fifth when Paetz was light on her raise attempt and couldn’t outscore the buried counter.

“We’re still feeling it out, new rocks, so we’re just doing our best with them,” McEwen said. “So far, so good.” 

Meanwhile, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan hammered Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque 7-1 in six ends. Rocque (1-2) opened with the hammer, but it was Homan (2-0) who rolled out to a six-point advantage swiping pairs of points through the first three ends. Rocque was limited to just a single in the fourth, Homan blanked five and tacked on a single in six to bring out the early handshakes.

The thievery continued on the men’s side as Scotland’s Kyle Smith swiped a 6-1 victory to get his first win of the tournament over Winnipeg’s Reid Carruthers (2-1). Smith (1-1) stole two in the second and another pair in the fourth end. Carruthers settled for a single in five and shook hands after Smith scored a deuce in the sixth end with his first, and only, crack at the hammer.

NOTES: The Tour Challenge is the second of seven events on the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule. … Tour Challenge action continues Thursday at 1 p.m. MT with TV coverage on Sportsnet and online/mobile on Sportsnet NOW. … The Tour Challenge runs through to Sunday at Western Financial Place (all Tier 1 games and Tier 2 finals) and Memorial Arena (Tier 2 games from round-robin play to semifinals).