Gushue hits a bit of a bump on the ice

St. John’s rink suffers first losses of young season at Cornwall, Ont., event

Brad Gushue and his world championship team from the Bally Haly Golf and Country Club in St. John’s were 1-2 heading into play Friday night at the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic, a World Curling Tour stop in Cornwall, Ont.

Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker have been busy through the early going of the 2017-18 season. The Shorty Jenkins marks the fourth straight weekend the curlers have competed, starting with the Everest Curling Challenge in Fredericton, N.B., Aug. 25-27, the Canad Inns Mixed Doubles Classic Sept. 1-3 in Winnipeg and the Grand Slam of Curling Tour Challenge last weekend in Regina, Sask.

The Gushue foursome won the Tour Challenge, going 6-0. In Fredericton, Gushue, and his specially-drafted team of Cathy Overton, E.J. Harnden and Lisa Weagle won the $200,000 top prize at the Everest Challenge.

In Cornwall, Team Gushue split a pair of games Thursday, beating Joel Retornaz of Italy 9-7 before dropping an 8-7 extra end decision to veteran Glenn Howard of Ontario.

Friday, Gushue gave up a steal of one in the eighth end to lose 6-5 to Kyle Smith of Perth, Scotland. The Newfoundland rink was set to play Codey Maus of London, Ont., on Friday night.

GRAND SLAM OF CURLING/ANIL MUNGAL After going undefeated in winning last weekend’s Tour Challenge Grand Slam event, Brad Gushue (left) and Mark Nichols are spending a little more time trying to figure out the competition in Cornwall, Ont., at the AMJ...