Team Europe won a pair of mixed doubles games Thursday afternoon to take a 4-2 lead on Team Canada at the Continental Cup.
The Swiss duo of Alina Paetz and Sven Michel scored eight unanswered points in a 10-4 win over Kristin MacCuish of Landmark, Man., and Darren Moulding of Lacombe, Alta. Sweden’s Sofia Mabergs and Niklas Edin outscored Ottawa’s Emma Miskew and Calgary’s Colton Flasch 10-6.
Canada picked up a point when the Edmonton pairing of Sarah Wilkes and Brad Theissen defeated Scotland’s Vicky Wright and Grant Hardie 10-4.
“It was fun, Brad’s easy to play with,” Wilkes said. “We played mixed together a couple of years ago, so we knew how each other throws. It was good.”
Europe also posted a 2-1 scoreline in the morning draw of regular team play at the Sports Centre at Western Fair District.
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Edin defeated Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 7-5 and Scotland’s Eve Muirhead needed only six ends to complete an 11-4 rout of Tracy Fleury of East St. Paul, Man.
Ottawa’s Rachel Homan earned the first Canadian point by drawing the four-foot ring with her final throw for a 6-5 win over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni.
“The girls were watching the lines and made the best guess on that last one,” Homan said. “We hadn’t seen the out-turn all game, so it was a great guess and a great sweep.”
Three more team games were set for the evening.
New team names are being used at this year’s event. Team World beat Team North America 34-26 last year in Las Vegas.
Team Europe/Team World has won the competition on five occasions since the event made its debut in 2002. The competition was not held in 2005, ’09 and ’10.
The first team to reach 30.5 points will win. The winning side receives $135,000 and the losing side gets $67,500.
Play continues through Sunday.
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