LONDON, Ont. — Sweden’s Niklas Edin and Scotland’s Eve Muirhead won their opening games Thursday morning to give Team Europe a 2-1 edge on Team Canada at the Continental Cup.
Edin defeated Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher 7-5 and 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 lone 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."
Mixed doubles games are on tap in the afternoon and three more team games are set for the evening at the Sports Centre at Western Fair District.
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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