KAMLOOPS, February 27…Day One came to a close at the Strauss Canada Cup with three men’s teams and four women’s teams unbeaten through four draws.

In Wednesday evening’s final session at the Interior Savings Centre, Jeff Stoughton defeated fellow Winnipegger Kerry Burtnyk, 7-4, Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ontario took three in the ninth end to beat Reid Carruthers (skipped by Charley Thomas), 8-4 and Brad Gushue of St. John’s whipped Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey, 9-4.

The results left Edmonton’s Kevin Koe and Stoughton tied with 2-0 marks in Section A, with Kevin Martin and Pat Simmons at 1-1 and Mike McEwen winless at 0-2.

Howard is the only unbeaten team in Section B at 2-0, chased by Ferbey and Gushue at 1-1, with Kerry Burtnyk and Reid Carruthers at 0-2.

On the women’s side, Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard are perfect at 2-0 in Section A, followed by Sherry Anderson at 1-1, while Cathy King and Janet Harvey sit at 0-2.

Over in Section B, Kelly Scott of Kelowna and Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink are also at 2-0, after both won their games Wednesday night.  Scott eked out a 9-8 decision over Heather Rankin, while Kleibrink disposed of Kristie Moore, 10-6.

Behind those two is Stefanie Lawton at 1-1, while Rankin and Moore are winless.

Draws on Thursday are at 8:30 am, 1:30 pm and 7:00 pm, with Friday’s games at 8:30 am, 1:30 pm and 6:00 pm, prior to the playoffs.

The Cup teams are seeded into two five-team groups and play a round robin within the group plus a crossover game against an opponent in the other group.  The top two in each pool then advance to a crossover Page Playoff system, whereby the group winners meet in one game (winner to final, loser to semi-final), while the group runners-up meet in another game (winner to semi-final, loser eliminated).

CBC-TV will televise the 1 vs 1 Page Playoff games on Saturday, March 1 and the women’s and men’s finals on Sunday, March 2, in a special five-hour telecast.   CurlTV (www.curltv.com) is also providing event coverage to its subscribers.

There’s plenty on the line at the Strauss Canada Cup this year.  Not only do the winning teams get $25,000 each, but more importantly, they also become part of the pool of 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams eligible for the 2009 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials, which will determine Canada’s representatives for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

The winners also get berths into the 2008 Continental Cup in Camrose, Alberta as members of Team North America and return as the defending Canada Cup champions when the event moves to Yorkton, Saskatchewan next year.  

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