Muirhead and Smith back in contention in Canada

Courier columnist Eve Muirhead is back in contention for a fourth Players Championship title following two big wins in Toronto.

The Perthshire curler and her team-mates Lauren Gray, Vicki Adams and Anna Sloan lost their Group A opener to world champion Jennifer Jones but responded with a 7-4 victory over South Korea’s Olympic silver medallist EunJung Kim.

Sloan enjoyed a 90% success rate for the second game in a row when the Scots avenged their Olympic defeat to Nina Roth by beating the US skip 6-4.

A three at the fourth end turned the match their way and they will now face Canadian Laura Crocker’s team.

Meanwhile, Perth curler Kyle Smith scored a famous extraend victory over newly-crowned world champion Niklas Edin at the Players Championship last night.

The Swedish legend led 2-0, 4-3 and 5-4, but Smith took the match to a ninth end and counted two stones there to win 7-5.

Smith earlier gained a small measure of revenge for recent defeats when he beat fellow Scot Bruce Mouat at the Players Championship.

Mouat claimed a bronze medal at last week’s World Championship in Las Vegas after defeating Smith in a best-of-three play-off in Perth, and he also knocked him out of last month’s Aberdeen International.

Smith lost his opening group match in Toronto due to one bad end, while Mouat won his first game, and it looked as though the Edinburgh student would win again when he led Smith early on. The Olympic skip then hit a purple patch, counting six stones in three ends to stun Mouat 8-3.