Darbyshire kick-starts Canada

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This article was published 19/02/2010 (5994 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — Canada’s Cheryl Bernard prevailed in an early battle of the women’s curling unbeatens Thursday at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

Bernard joined Sweden’s Anette Norberg, who was idle on Thursday, atop the standings in the 10-team round-robin tournament with a 6-5 extra-end win over Germany’s Andrea Schoepp; both teams entered the game carrying 2-0 records.

Bernard made a cold draw to the four-foot with her final stone to nail down the victory.

In contrast to a sometimes sloppy victory over Japan on Wednesday, the win over the German veteran was much more convincing, although it got off to a dicey start.

In the pre-game draw to the button to determine last-rock advantage, Bernard bit the eight-foot circle, which wasn’t good enough to beat Schoepp, but before officials could take a measurement, Canadian second Carolyn Darbyshire kicked the rock off the rings. That could come into play in a tiebreaker scenario because the pre-game measurements are totalled to rank tied teams, although each team can throw out one result, and you can safely assume the 185.4 centimetres (the maximum allowable measurement) that will go in the Canadian book will be off the books. But there’s no margin for error now for Bernard.

That mis-step out of the way, Bernard, Darbyshire, third Susan O’Connor and lead Cori Bartel proceeded to play a sound defensive game, rarely giving Schoepp any opportunities and taking advantage of their own.

— Canwest News Service