USA and Switzerland in the extra end.
A typical Canadian town (over two hundred thousand inhabitants) with an industrial district pushed to the edge with a woman's name Regina (read redjay) manages to fill a small hockey arena with five thousand curling fans who competently cheer their own team and still manage to appreciate the quality of the opponent. Remarkably, the average age of the crowd is somewhere in the sixties, and it is greatly reduced by the horny school kids who amuse themselves by cheering on other teams and making Mexican waves. I missed the USA game in the morning (committee meeting), but the record shows that everything important for the development of the game happened in the fourth end, when the USA (skip Fenson) scored a five on 6 : 2 and the comeback was apparently very difficult. The earlier the match with the Americans ended, the later the match with the Swiss (skip Ch. Schwaller) finished. The Swiss had a slight advantage until two periods of the game, but then they made several mistakes and we (this time with Jakub on the double) wisely shot the seventh end, put in two for two in the eighth for 5 : 5 and left the opponent to think what to do with the rest. In the ninth end, Schwaller decided to try an almost impossible deuce into an obscure situation where the yellow and red stones were close to the tee and it was not obvious which was better. He slid his out and we were tied for one. On the tenth the Swiss tried for a deuce for so long that they almost didn't make one. Perhaps a pity about our carefully thrown and unthrown stone to the guard position. We let Schwaller double to a theoretical two, but with a chance of our winning. Double was, but only on one. We had a very well played extra end. The tap back played with the last stone really missed the mark. The loss is unfortunate because we managed to turn around a bad match with some excellent tactics. On the sidelines in the TV match, Canada led 6-1 over France after three ends and calmly finished the match. The Norwegian laboriously beat the American and the Korean did the Dane. Tonight is the Scotland vs Canada showdown.
rnPhoto: Fenson (USA)