The 2014 World Financial GroupContinental Cup of Curling will be held from January 16 to 19 at the Orleans Arena in Paradise, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas.[1][2][3] This edition of the Continental Cup will be the first held outside of Canada. The Continental Cup, based on the Ryder Cup of golf, pits teams from North America against teams from the rest of the World. The tournament will feature team events, mixed doubles events, singles competitions, and skins competitions, and the brunt of available points will be awarded in the skins competitions. TSN will broadcast the event, as it has in previous years.[4]
The event has been well attended and is expected to break the attendance record of 42,317 set at the 2004 Continental Cup of Curling in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It is also expected to be the most attended curling event ever in the United States. However, most of the fans have flown in from Canada.[5]
Competition format
This edition of the Continental Cup will use the same format as that of the previous year. Out of the sixty total points available, a majority of points will be needed to win the cup. The mixed doubles, singles, and team games will be worth one point each, and ties will be worth one half point each to both teams. The skins games will be worth a total of five points. Six mixed doubles and six singles games will be played, along with eighteen team games and six skins games.[4]
Teams
The teams were selected from the top teams in each region. Six teams from each region will compete against each other in the competition. Four teams from Canada earn the right to represent Team North America by virtue of winning certain events, namely the Canada Cup of Curling and the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials/Canadian National Championships (the Brier and the Tournament of Hearts). Two teams from the United States, namely the winners of the 2014 United States Olympic Curling Trials, were chosen to represent North America, and the teams representing Team World were selected by the World Curling Federation.
The teams in the table below have been announced as representatives of their respective regions.[4][6]
Team World and Team North America began the event with team play. Eve Muirhead capitalized on numerous mistakes from Jennifer Jones's rink to steal five points and secure a substantial win. Jeff Stoughton and Thomas Ulsrud played a tight game until Ulsrud scored three in the fourth end, holding the lead to score another point for Team World. Erika Brown and Satsuki Fujisawa played a close game, but a key steal by Brown's team gave them a slight edge, which they held to win after Brown made a draw to the four-foot, allowing Team North America to escape a sweep by Team World.[7][8]
The evening team draw saw the first sweep of the event by Team North America. Brad Jacobs played Niklas Edin in a rematch of the previous year's world championship game, and scored one in the final end to take a one-point victory. Rachel Homan scored five straight points, of which three were steals, to overcome a three-point deficit against Margaretha Sigfridsson, and John Shuster made an early steal against David Murdoch and built up a two-point lead, which he held to win the game.[11]
Day 2
The morning draw consisted of team play. Jennifer Jones found an easy win over Margaretha Sigfridsson, stealing eight points in the first half against Sigfridsson, whose fourth, Maria Prytz, was struggling to make her shots. Niklas Edin scored multiple points in the third and fifth ends against John Shuster, and held his lead to win a point for Team World. Rachel Homan was in the lead against Satsuki Fujisawa coming into the final end, but she flashed her last shot, giving Fujisawa a steal of two. As a result, the game ended as a draw, and Team World split the points with Team North America.[12] Team North America held a three-point lead over Team World after the morning draw.[13]
The singles competition, similar to a skills competition in ice hockey, involved team members from each of the twelve teams attempting six types of shots. Team World was the clear winner in the singles competition, sweeping all but one of the matchups to bounce out to a one-point lead in the tournament. On the women's side, the team skipped by Margaretha Sigfridsson scored the highest total of points at 24 points, while on the men's side, Thomas Ulsrud's team scored the highest total of points at 18 points.[14]
