Last-stone defeat for Muirhead in Toronto

Courier columnist Eve Muirhead and her team narrowly lost their opening Group A match to old rival Jennifer Jones at the Players Championship in Toronto.

The Perthshire curler has postponed hip surgery to play in Canada this week, but she looked as fiercelycompetitive as ever against the newlycrowned world champion and defending Players champion.

Muirhead and teammates Lauren Gray, Vicki Adams and Anna Sloan are three-time Players champions themselves and led 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 before the Winnipeg skip counted two stones with her final delivery to edge another classic contest 5-4.

The Scots face Korea’s Olympic silver medallist EunJung Kim next.

“I had to draw to the four-foot circle with the last shot of the game and the girls swept it perfectly,” said Jones.

“I thought it was a pretty good match with lots of good shots made.

“It’s a really tough field here, so you’ve got to take every win you can get.”

Perth’s Kyle Smith also lost his opening game at the Players Championship in Toronto last night after one bad end cost him dearly.

The Olympic skip and his team-mates Cammy Smith, Kyle Drummond and Thomas Muirhead led 2014 Olympic champion Brad Jacobs early on.

However, the Ontario curler counted four stones at the second end to seize control of the match.

The Scots fought hard to reduce the deficit to a single stone, but they were unable to get any closer and Jacobs eased away again to win 7-4.

Smith and his team face Edinburgh’s Bruce Mouat next.