News Tour Challenge

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. — Kevin Koe and his Calgary-based club kicked off their run in the HearingLife Tour Challenge with a 6-3 victory Tuesday afternoon over Switzerland’s Team Schwaller at the Coca-Cola Centre.

The game started out with a back-and-forth battle as Koe scored a deuce in the second and Schwaller responded with a three-ender in the third. That was all the offence that Schwaller could generate. Koe counted another couple of points in the fourth to reclaim the lead then added an insurance single in the sixth followed by a steal in the seventh.

Elsewhere in Draw 3, Italy’s Team Retornaz also picked up a 6-3 win over Canada’s Team Flasch.

Norway’s Team Walstad slammed Canada’s Team Bottcher 8-4. Walstad built a huge 7-0 lead scoring a deuce in the first, stealing two in the second, one in the third and another pair in the fourth. Bottcher broke the shutout taking two in the fifth and stole two in the sixth, but conceded the match after Walstad added a single in the seventh.

Sweden’s Team Edin scored a deuce in the sixth and stole four points in the seventh to down Team Hoesli of Switzerland 8-3.

TIER 2 RESULTS

• Dropkin 4, Jacques 1
• Asselin 10, Hartung 3
• Wiebe 6, Kim 5
• Sturmay 5, Tao 2

UP NEXT

The HearingLife Tour Challenge continues with Draw 4 at 6:30 p.m. MT.

Broadcast coverage begins Thursday at 2 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. MT on Sportsnet, Sportsnet NOW (Canada) and Yare (international).

NOTES

The HearingLife Tour Challenge is the second of six events on the 2022-23 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling calendar with two tiers and a total of 64 teams. Both tiers feature 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams. … Round-robin play runs through to Friday as teams play four games against opponents outside of their pool. … The top eight teams overall advance to Saturday afternoon’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for Saturday evening with both finals on tap for Sunday.