Muirhead, Mouat maintain strong start for Scotland in Champions Cup
Scotland’s Team Eve Muirhead moved up to a 2-0 round-robin record in the Humpty’s Champions Cup motoring past defending champions Team Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland 9-3 Friday morning at Calgary’s WinSport Arena.
Team Muirhead held off Team Anna Hasselborg of Sweden 6-5 Thursday having to face the reigning Olympic gold medallists followed by the reigning world champions right off the bat.
Muirhead didn’t mind the front-loaded schedule to start her Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling run now that her team has come out with two wins, of course.
“It was definitely going to be a test for us but it can’t be a bad thing,” said Muirhead, who has won four Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles. “You realize as soon as you go there you’ve got to bring your A-game and I’m sure they were thinking the same. To start with two wins it gets us up and running on the right foot in our three-week, three-competition run as such.”
Muirhead only held the hammer once in the women’s worlds preview and converted for a deuce in the third end to tie it 3-3. From there it was a trip on the steal train with Muirhead swiping singles in three consecutive ends followed by a three count in seven that finished the match early.
“Things have gone well,” Muirhead said. “It’s always nice to kick off a tournament with a couple wins, isn’t it? It’s obviously been a very long pre-season, if you know what I mean, with absolutely no international competition. It was always going to be a little bit of the unknown going straight into the deep end as such against the world’s best. I’m absolutely delighted to get two wins under our belts early on and we do believe we have got more to show and keep progressing from this.”
Muirhead said what’s been key to both victories has been trusting what’s in front of them.
“We believed in the ice conditions,” Muirhead said. “We’ve committed to all the shots. I think our stone placement has been good. We capitalized on a lot of mistakes and also I think the thing we’ve done really well is made our zeros into half-shots. If you can do that in games when you are playing the world’s best, it always gives you a chance.”
Tirinzoni (1-1) captured the 2019 Humpty’s Champions Cup and remained the title holders as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of last year’s event plus the fall schedule.
Humpty’s Champions Cup: Scores and standings | Draw schedule | Broadcast schedule
The Humpty’s Champions Cup is the first of back-to-back Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events featuring 12 of the top men’s teams and 12 of the top women’s teams from around the world. The series is testing a new rule at the Humpty’s Champions Cup called the no tick zone. A rock touching the centre line, in the free guard zone, may not be moved off the centre line by the opposing team until the sixth rock of the end.
Muirhead holds a share of the Pool B standings lead with Team Tracy Fleury. The East St. Paul, Man., club improved to 2-0 with a single in the extra end to win 7-6 over Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones (0-2). Team Jones alternate Lisa Weagle is in for lead Dawn McEwen, who gave birth to her second child Thursday.
Team Min-Ji Kim of South Korea scored a deuce in the eighth end to halt Hasselborg 8-7 in a rematch but no repeat of the 2020 Meridian Canadian Open women’s final. Hasselborg won her third consecutive Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling women’s title in that championship game, and the most recent in the series, but has now dropped to 0-2 and is on the brink of elimination. Kim is even at a 1-1 record.
Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat, fresh from earning silver Sunday at the men’s worlds, also climbed to a 2-0 record. Mouat scored four in the fifth during a 7-4 victory over Winnipeg’s Team Mike McEwen (0-2).
Reid Carruthers has moved up to skip with McEwen (paternity leave) away. Tyler Tardi of Langley, B.C., is subbing at third with second Derek Samagalski rounding out the lineup as just a trio as lead Colin Hodgson (personal) opted out of the bubble.
The event is closed to the general public. Round-robin play continues Friday at 2 p.m. ET / Noon local time on Sportsnet with online streaming at Sportsnet Now (Canada) and Yare (international).
Pool play runs through to Saturday with quarterfinals and semifinals on Sunday and both finals set for Monday. The Princess Auto Players’ Championship begins Tuesday.
