News Tour Challenge

CRANBROOK, B.C. — Mark Nichols skipped Team Gushue of St. John’s, N.L., to a pair of big wins Wednesday in the Tour Challenge Tier 1.

Nichols, who regularly plays third, has taken the reins with Brad Gushue out indefinitely due to a hip/groin injury. Adam Spencer is filling in as the super spare at third alongside second Brett Gallant and lead Geoff Walker.

Team Gushue scored a 9-4 victory over Kyle Smith of Scotland in the early afternoon and powered past Edmonton’s Charley Thomas 8-4 during the evening.

“There were some mistakes by both teams but I think we’re still trying to catch on to the ice and the new set of rocks,” Gallant said. “We got fortunate that we got a few in a row there in that end and got five.” 

Team Gushue trailed by two points at the fourth-end break and turned things around dramatically in the fifth after Thomas crashed on a guard to draw for five points and jump into the lead 7-4. Thomas (0-2) attempted a tricky in-off shot in the sixth to try and remove Team Gushue’s covered counters but was unable to eliminate both of them and gave up a single steal.

Gallant said it was certainly a bit odd facing Thomas, who has also filled in at third for Team Gushue this season and played with them two weeks ago at the WFG Masters.

“It’s different seeing him on the other side,” Gallant said. “We have more respect for his shooting ability now after playing with him and seeing what he can do. We knew we had to make a lot of shots against him so it was good to get the win.” 

Twelve-time Grand Slam champion Craig Savill joined Team Thomas at lead and is making his season debut at the Tour Challenge. Savill missed most of last year battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

Meanwhile, Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock also made it a 2-0 Wednesday scoring a deuce in the eighth end to top American John Shuster 6-5. Shuster’s record is now level at 1-1. 

Defending champion Kevin Koe of Calgary drew level for the day with a 6-5 extra-end win over Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud. Both teams are at 1-1. 

In women’s division action, Edmonton’s Val Sweeting improved to a 1-1 record tripling up on Anna Hasselborg of Sweden 9-3. Trailing by one, Sweeting grabbed the lead with a three-ender in the fifth and stole back-to-back pairs of points in the sixth and seventh to ice the game. Hasselborg also holds a 1-1 record. 

“I thought that the girls played really well,” Sweeting said. “The ice was a little bit heavier out there than it was yesterday but I thought that the girls caught onto it really well and we made some pretty precise shots. We did get some breaks but then we also capitalized too so it as a good game overall.”

Michelle Englot and her Winnipeg-based team also went 2-0 on the day capped with a 7-5 score over Calgary’s Chelsea Carey (0-2).

NOTES: The Tour Challenge is the second of seven events on the 2016-17 Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling schedule. … TV coverage begins Thursday at 3 p.m. ET / Noon PT on Sportsnet and online/mobile at Sportsnet NOW. … Tour Challenge action resumes Thursday at 8:30 a.m. MT. … 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).