For the first time since they were 11 years old, Canada’s Rachel Homan and Emma Miskew opposed each other in a four-person curling game on Thursday at Rock League in Toronto.
And while Miskew’s Alpine Curling Club emerged with a 6-1 win over Homan’s Maple United, neither emerged particularly thrilled with the outcome.
Homan spent around half an hour — an unusually long time — on the rink after the match, continuing to practise ahead of some crucial Friday games.
Meanwhile, Miskew almost felt badly about winning.
“I always want her to play well and it felt weird to play against her,” Miskew said. “I wouldn’t say it was my favourite thing I’ve ever done, but it’s part of the reality of being on separate teams here.”
On the sheet next door, German skip and Alpine third Marc Muskatewitz got busy clearing the house in the fifth end of the men’s game — until he noticed there were multiple shots still to play.
“Just a small brain fart,” said Muskatewitz, who refused to blame the scrambled teams and new format of Rock League for the error.
Earlier in the match — a 10-6 win for Alpine, which beat Maple 2-1 overall — his side made a separate error with a centre guard, nearly hogging the rock.
“We just got it over the hog line because both sweepers were watching the women, what they are doing. So it’s so nice to have this whole team sticking together and going for this win,” Muksatewitz said.
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Miskew noticed her Alpine teammates peeking over, and admitted to doing the same.
“That’s pretty funny,” she said. “You are definitely watching other sheets and hoping that your team can win the other games. Our game was pretty tight for a bit and we were kind of staring to see what was going on out there.”
Scotland’s Bruce Mouat, captaining Northern United, described he and regular lead Hammy McMillan of Alpine as “really good friends.”
Yet when Northern took on Alpine on Wednesday, there was no love lost.
“He’s a big wind-up merchant, is what we call him back home. He loves to kind of chirp and have a good time. He’s a cheeky chap, so yeah, it was fun to play against him, but I don’t like losing to him,” Mouat said.
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Mouat also made sure to hit back at McMillan.
“He overswept once, so I told him that he was not a very good sweeper. What else did I tell him? I’ve never seen so many teeth in his mouth because he was smiling so much,” Mouat said.
Mouat’s Northern team — made up of curlers from Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Norway — has made a point of spending time together outside of the rink to build chemistry.
Under the direction of general manager Kristoffer Svae, they went to the Toronto Raptors game on Tuesday, then gathered for a game of dodgeball on Wednesday along with Alpine, the other European team.
“We all know each other from the circuit, but it’s nice to really discover the people. … We’re learning about each other’s lives outside of curling, which is the special part of this event,” Mouat said.
In the early draw Thursday, the other two Homan team members — Frontier’s Sarah Wilkes and Shield’s Tracy Fleury — went head-to-head, with Fleury’s side coming out with a dominant 10-1 win, part of an overall 2-1 victory in the match for Shield.
Wilkes has been putting on the red, white and blue all week for the American Frontier team.
“It’s something I never thought I would do. But it’s been a lot of fun, the team’s been great. All of them have been so welcoming,” she said.
In the afternoon draw, Northern pulled off the second sweep of the week over Typhoon Curling Club, winning handily in mixed doubles and men’s before also eking out a draw-to-the-button victory in women’s action.
Northern and Alpine are now tied for first overall with three wins and 3.5 points each. Standard round-robin action concludes Friday before Saturday’s mixed fours determine Sunday’s playoff matchups.
Typhoon’s Bobby Lammie of Scotland — who estimated he’s played with Mouat for 11 years now — said it was “weird” going up against his longtime teammate, though he’d have liked to have beaten him.
Despite the loss, he said his Typhoon rink — which included players of four different nationalities on Thursday — is coming together surprisingly quickly, thanks in part to shared meals and a Blue Jays game.
“It’s felt pretty easy and seamless. It’s just that when it gets to this level everything needs to be really precise to get the wins,” he said.
Canada’s Maple United took in the same baseball game on Tuesday night — and some members indulged themselves, with Colton Flasch and Tanner Horgan each completing the viral 9-9-9 challenge, per Mike McEwen.
The Saskatchewan skip said it’s been fun integrating Scotland’s Ross Whyte onto the team, and he’s even hoping to take some tips back to his regular rink.
“It’s pretty cool to build those dynamics with a big group and play with not just Canadians but a couple of international imports. It’s really neat,” McEwen said.
“The first day I felt kind of disoriented. It was on the ice, it’s fast-paced, it’s music, you’re different teammates. I don’t even know what the heck I’m calling, good strategy or anything. But I think by the second day you kind of sink into it.”
McEwen and Flasch, meanwhile, are reunited just weeks after splitting up their Saskatchewan foursome.
But McEwen said there’s no hard feelings or awkwardness.
“And you know what, that familiarity does help because I know what he does, he knows what I do. So we’re not going to get in each other’s way. It’s actually great. It’s learning about the other teammates and what to say, where to be and what they like to see and do that’s challenging, McEwen said.
“We’re doing this on warp speed.”
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