The 2012 World Financial Group

Continental Cup of Curling The Continental Cup is a curling tournament held annually between teams from North America (sometimes just Canada) against teams from the rest of the World (sometimes just Europe). Each side is represented by six teams (three women's teams and thr ...

was held from Thursday, January 12 to Sunday, January 15 at the

Langley Events Centre The Langley Events Centre is a multipurpose facility in the Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. The LEC debuted in April 2009, hosting the 2009 BC Gymnastics Championships. It boasts an arena bowl with a 5,276 capacity for sports, in ...

in Langley,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

. Just like in the previous year's event, the Continental Cup featured team events, mixed doubles events, singles competitions, and skins competitions, and the brunt of the points were won in the skins competitions. TSN broadcast the event, as it has in previous years. Team World aimed to level the field after Team North America won the previous cup, which brought the overall total to 4–3 in favour of North America, and was successful, tying the overall total at 4–4. Team World's win ensured that no defending champion to date would successfully defend its title from the previous Cup, continuing a pattern that has occurred since the inception of the event. In their win, Team World also won the most points that they have won in this event, topping their score of 229 points won in

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Event summary

Team World and Team North America started off the event relatively close in points. On Thursday, both teams tied their team draws and Team World took a small lead after the first mixed doubles draw. The second day, Friday, also resulted in tied draws in the team games, but Team World won three close mixed doubles games to take a larger lead heading into Day 3. Saturday saw the singles competition, where Team World swept the women's competition and won the aggregate bonus, and two very close skins draws, which Team North America used to make up their deficit. In the Skins B games, a series of carryovers had resulted in the games' final skins worth a combined total of 52 points. Team North America had the opportunity to take their first lead in the event, but only won one of the three final skins, giving Team World a big advantage. Team North America was able to prevent Team World from winning the Cup on Saturday, but Team World entered Sunday needing only 31 points to win the Cup. In the Women's Skins C game, Stefanie Lawton and her team were able to prevent

Wang Bingyu Wang Bingyu (; ; born October 7, 1984 in Harbin, Heilongjiang; usually referred to in the media as Bingyu "Betty" Wang) is a Chinese curler. In 2009, she became the first non Northern American or European skip to win a World Championship. Cu ...

from winning the Cup in their skins game by winning the first five ends, but Wang and her team came back to pick up the last three skins and thirty points, placing Team World on the brink of victory at 200 points, one point short of the 201 point total needed to win the Cup. The pressure shifted to

Jeff Stoughton Jeffrey R. "Jeff" Stoughton (born July 26, 1963) is a Canadian retired curler. He is a three-time Brier champion and two-time World champion as skip. Stoughton retired from competitive curling in 2015. He is one of the most successful Manitoba ...

to keep the North Americans' hopes of a comeback alive. Team World's position at 200 points meant that it was possible for Team North America to tie the event, if Stoughton won all of the skins in his game versus

Thomas Ulsrud Thomas Ulsrud (21 October 1971 – 24 May 2022) was a Norwegian curler from Oslo. He won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, one World Curling Championship, two European Curling Championships, and fourteen Norwegian titles ( Norwegian M ...

, a feat that

Anette Norberg Anette Norberg (born 12 November 1966) is a retired Swedish curler from Härnösand. She and her team were the Olympic women's curling champions in 2006 and 2010. After winning the 2006 Women's Curling tournament in Turin over Mirjam Ott's Sw ...

accomplished in

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against

Sherry Middaugh Sherry L. Middaugh (née Hamel, born October 11, 1966 in Rosetown, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian curler from Victoria Harbour, Ontario. Before marrying world champion curler Wayne Middaugh, she was known as Sherry Scheirich. She is a five-time ...

. In the event that the Continental Cup ended in a tie, the rules stipulated that the defending champion, North America, would retain the cup, similar to that in the rules of the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

in golf. If there was a tie, the purses would have been split equally among all players. The Men's Skins C game saw Ulsrud and his team capitalize on a mistake by Stoughton to secure a skin of five points and win the eighth edition of the Continental Cup. The winning team, Team World, received a purse of

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

$52,000, CAD$2,000 per player, and the losing team received a purse of CAD$26,000, CAD$1,000 per player. The winning team of the last men's skin game (the Men's Skins C game), Team World, received a bonus of CAD$13,000.

Teams

The teams were selected from the top teams in each region. Six teams from each region will compete against each other in the competition. Teams from Canada get to represent North America by virtue of winning certain events, such as the

Tim Hortons Brier The Tim Hortons Brier, or simply (and more commonly) the Brier (''french: Le Brier''), is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The current event name refers to its main sponsor, the Tim Hortons coffee an ...

and the Canada Cup of Curling. The teams from the United States are chosen by the

United States Curling Association The United States Curling Association (USCA or USA Curling) is the national governing body of the sport of curling in the United States. The goal of the USCA is to grow the sport of curling in the United States and win medals in competitions both ...

to represent North America, and the teams representing Team World are selected by the

World Curling Federation The World Curling Federation (WCF) is the world governing body for curling accreditation, with offices in Perth, Scotland. It was formed out of the International Curling Federation (ICF), when the push for Olympic Winter Sport status was made. ...

. The teams in the table below have been announced as representatives of their respective regions. For Team North America, the teams participating include

Canada Cup The Canada Cup (french: Coupe Canada) was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true worl ...

champions Stefanie Lawton and

Glenn Howard Glenn William Howard (born July 17, 1962) is a Canadian curler who is one of the most decorated curlers of all time. He has won four world championships, four Briers and 17 Ontario provincial championships, including a record eight straight, ...

Tournament of Hearts The Scotties Tournament of Hearts (''french: Le Tournoi des Cœurs Scotties''; commonly referred to as the Scotties) is the annual Canadian women's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada, formerly called the Canadian Curling Associa ...

champion

Amber Holland Amber Holland (born July 10, 1974) is a Canadian curler from Loreburn, Saskatchewan. Holland skipped Saskatchewan's team to a national women's championship in 2011 by defeating defending champion Jennifer Jones in the Scotties Tournament of He ...

Brier Briar, Briars, Brier, or Briers may refer to: * Briar, or brier, common name for a number of unrelated thorny plants that form thicket People * Brier (surname) * Briers, a surname * Briars (surname) Places * Briar, Missouri, U.S. * Bri ...

champion

, and the United States men's and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

champions

Pete Fenson Peter Fenson (born February 29, 1968 in Bemidji, Minnesota) is an American curler. He was the skip of the men's rink that represented the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where they won the bronze medal, the first Olympic medal for th ...

and

Patti Lank Patti Lank (born July 4, 1964) is an American curler from Lewiston, New York. Career Patti Lank began curling at the age of eleven and competed at her first US National Championships in 1994 and her team placed fourth. She has since gone on to ...

. For Team World, the teams participating include

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, former world champion

, world junior champion

Eve Muirhead Eve Muirhead (born 22 April 1990) is a Scottish former curler from Perth and the skip of the British Olympic Curling team. Muirhead and the GB team became Olympic champions at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the bro ...

, world bronze medalist

Niklas Edin Johan Niklas Edin (born 6 July 1985) is a Swedish curler. He currently resides in Karlstad, which has been his curling home base since 2008. He holds several sport distinctions. He is the first and the only skip in World Curling Federation (WCF ...

, world silver medalist

Tom Brewster Thomas Brewster Jr. (born 10 April 1974) is a Scottish curler from Aberdeen, Scotland. He is currently the coach of the Ross Paterson men's team. Career Brewster is a former World Junior champion, having won the title in 1995. The Scottish t ...

, and Olympic silver medalist

;Notes # Steve Gould, Stoughton's lead, was not able to participate in the event due to illness, so Hebert, Kevin Martin's lead, was chosen as his replacement.

Events

All times listed are

Pacific Standard Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC−08:00). ...

. The draws for Thursday and Friday were released on Wednesday night, and the draws for Saturday and Sunday were released on Friday afternoon.

Thursday, January 12

Women's team 8:30 am Mixed doubles 1:00 pm Men's team 6:30 pm

Friday, January 13

Women's team 8:30 am Mixed doubles 1:00 pm Men's team 7:00 pm

Saturday, January 14

A Skins 9:00 am Each skins game has 20 points available. Singles 1:30 pm Each singles game has 4 points available, for a total of 32 points in the singles competition. Team World receives a bonus of 8 points in the singles competition by earning an aggregate total higher than that of Team North America, with 102 points to Team North America's 97 points. B Skins 6:30 pm Each skins game has 30 points available.

Sunday, January 15

Both skins games have 55 points available. Women's C Skins 10:30 am Men's C Skins 5:00 pm With an in-off tap for two in the third end, Ulsrud won the skin of five points and clinched the Continental Cup for Team World. Later on, in the eighth end, Ulsrud and his team took advantage of crucial mistakes from Stoughton to steal the last skin and win the game and the bonus $13,000 for Team World.

References

External links

Official Site
* {{2011–12 curling season

Continental Cup of Curling Langley, British Columbia (district municipality) Curling competitions in British Columbia