At the 2013 Ford World Men's Curling Championship (#2013WMCC and/or #wmcc2013, depending on who's doing the Tweeting) at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, the United States had last-rock advantage but gave up a 10th-end score to the Czech Republic and lost, 9-8, late last night. This dropped the United States to 4-5 and into a tie for eighth in the 14-team tournament that continues through Sunday. With its win, the Czech Republic advanced to 5-4 and created a four-way tie for fourth with China, Norway and Sweden. Canada (7-2), Scotland (7-2) and Denmark (6-3) are atop the standings.
Team USA gets back on the sheet at 11 Central this morning to face Russia, which is 2-7 so far this week. Then, the United States plays Norway at 4 today. And, then, there's a final draw of four matches tonight in which the United States does not participate, and, presumably, that's when we'll know which four rinks advance to the Saturday/Sunday Percy "Pip" Page-inspired playoffs.
The United States advanced to the #2013WMCC/#wmcc2013 from the Americas zone, "given that no challenges in the Americas zone were issued," says (awesome) Wikipedia. The U.S. skip is Brady Clark, a 35-year-old born in Grand Forks, N.D. To represent Team USA at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre this week, Clark's rink beat the rinks skipped by that dude with the hat from the 2010 Olympics and the Bemidji, Minn., pizza mogul who led the United States to bronze in the 2006 Olympics, en route to winning the 2013 U.S. Men's Curling Championship in Green Bay a couple of months ago. Clark's rink is from Seattle's storied Granite Curling Club.
