Photo: Rebecca Jean MacDonald, Robert Campbell (Credit: World Curling Federation)
Team Canada (PEI’s Robert Campbell and Rebecca Jean MacDonald) lost a close 8-7 extra end decision to Slovakia in their lone Wednesday game this afternoon at the World Mixed Doubles in Saint Paul Minnesota, to slip to 2-3 in their round robin pool. Switzerland leads the pool with a perfect 5-0 record, followed by Russia at 4-1, and Denmark and Slovakia at 3-2.
In today’s game, Slovakia picked up a big lead early, taking four in the first end, and stealing a single in the second. Campbell fought back with deuces in ends three and six, while Slovakia had singles in four and five to lead 7-4 after six. PEI then tied the game by stealing a single in seven and a deuce in eight to force an extra end, where Campbell failed to execute his final shot. “We weren’t positive on the ice on whether it was going to run straight or curl up at the end. I just got a hair tight on it. We were just trying to hit half rock and pick the one off the button that was shot rock. It’s just been a struggle for me to throw around the centreline. I threw a really bad shot with my last one on the first end. Getting wide is not a problem. I’ve been try to back Rebecca Jean up and I’ve just not been doing a very good job of it right now.”
Round robin play play wraps up on Thursday, with Canada playing Italy (1-4) and Russia (4-1). The finals go Saturday afternoon.
Mixed doubles curling has teams of two players – one male and one female (no alternate/spare player is allowed).
– Teams have only six stones each (instead of eight) – and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned on the centreline before each end of play starts.
– Player one delivers the first and last stones and player two plays the second, third and fourth stones. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next.
– Sweeping can be done by both team members.
– Each team receives 46 minutes of playing time and games are fixed at 8 ends – compared to 73 minutes and 10 ends for “traditional” curling.
Website: www.2011worldcurling.com