Only Sweden still unbeaten at Ford World Women’s

Monday, March 20, 2006 | Source: Larry Wood

GRANDE PRAIRIE, March 20…Defending champion Anette Norberg and her methodical Swedes paired down the ranks of the undefeated at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championship to themselves on Monday.
And Canada’s Kelly Scott managed to finagle another split out of another hair-raising day on the Canada Games Arena freeze. Sweden defeated Debbie McCormick of the U.S. 8-5 in the morning, then knocked over Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont 8-6 in the afternoon. Dupont was pummelled 9-2 by McCormick in the evening.

The Canucks, meanwhile, wound up facing another pair of hunting parties gunning for the red maple leaf target. “It was our dream to beat Canada,” said 21-year-old Bingyu Wang of Harbin after out-hitting Scott’s Canadian champions 5-4 on the early shift. Scott came back in the afternoon to steal a 7-6 win from Kelly Wood of Scotland when she was off-line on a seven-foot runback with Canada’s winner sitting hidden in the four-foot.

“We needed that break,” said Scott afterward. “We had such a tough day. We were working so hard out there. Two straight games. And thank goodness we got a break in the 10th end because it was battle today.”

The split left Canada in a six-team crowd with a 3-2 record, behind Sweden (5-0) and the U.S. (4-1).

“It’s tough to lose like that, especially when we did so well as a team,” said Wood. “We felt in control the whole game, but it just takes one stone to make the difference and that’s all it was.”

The young Chinese team, which posted a 4-7 record in its world-championship debut a year ago, handed Scotland its second straight loss 10-5 in the evening. It was a tight battle that blew up in the last end when China struck for four big ones. The Canadians weren’t complete strangers to Wang, who calls herself Betty. The teams collided in a cashspiel at Abbotsford, B.C., last fall and Scott wrapped up a victory in eight ends. The same Wang group was blistered 11-1 by Canada’s Jennifer Jones a year ago at Paisley.

“We couldn’t have tried any harder, they just played a great game, everything we tried they came back with a great shot,” said Scott of the shocking defeat. “Credit to them. I don’t think we have to worry about the way we played. We made a lot of good quality shots. They just kept hitting them out of there.”

The subsequent game was another story, with far more crockery in play. But the Canadians chased the Scots from the start and only escaped with the victory on the last shot.

Scott bailed out of big trouble, trailing 2-0 in the third end, with a precise six-foot off-in double-touch from the wings that left Canada with a deuce. But the Scots kept piling on the heat right to the last gasp and skip Scott was faced with several bailout situations.

“It doesn’t happen often on this team to tell you the truth,” said Scott later. “I get to throw a lot of guards, too. “We played well today . . . I have no idea what our numbers were but we weren’t missing many shots. To not get the win in the morning is one thing but to lose another later in the day, that would have been tough, really tough. We got the win, which is big, and we also had a real solid day of curling. I think we can draw a little momentum from that.”

Added Canadian vice-skip Jeanna Schraeder: “When opponents are making everything against you it can be frustrating. But that’s curling and you have to expect the other teams are going to make everything.”

Norberg assessed her team’s morning performance among the best games her Swedish Olympic champs have played. “I think we made a great game, one of the best we’ve done this year,” she said. “We find the ice is perfect here. We are working for each other. I think we have good sweepers. On this kind of ice I think we have an advantage with our sweeping.”

Said McCormick of the key tilt: “We weren’t putting the rocks in the right positions. We weren’t executing. We were giving Anette a lot of easy doubles. No double is easy, but for her? If we wanted to roll we’d stick it. If we wanted to roll one way we’d roll the other way.

“We talked a lot after that game about rock placement and moving the broom in to throw the same weight. That made a big difference tonight (against Denmark), we were making the rolls we weren’t making earlier.”

China, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Italy shared the 3-2 placing with Canada. Norway walloped the winless Netherlands 8-4 Monday night while Italy upended Switzerland 6-4. Italy edged winless tJapan 5-4 in the afternoon and Germany stopped the Dutchies 7-6. The Swiss won their first game in the morning, 8-6 over Japan. Germany upended Norway 8-4. Scotland finished the day at 2-3, Switzerland at 1-4.

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