Big CBC weekend in store

CHILLIWACK, B.C. – The see-saw battle continues as Scotland's David Murdoch (CCA photo by Michael Burns) and Team Europe roared back from a poor opening day (and a 39-15 deficit behind Team North America) to almost tie things up Friday morning.

It was the European women who got the job done in the AM, sweeping their opponents in all three games to close the gap to 39-33.

In Singles competition, an interesting array of front-end players and thirds took part, not just skips. The North American women bounced back with some solid "Hot Shots" play and took the running total to 45-39. The men then took to the ice and it was all Europe and then some, as they shut the Northerners out 12-nil. Grand points total heading into tonight's men's team draw is North America 53 to Europe's 51, and look at the tantalizing games underway soon:

Gushue vs. Murdoch
Menard vs. Trulsen
Fenson vs. Uusipaavalniemi

CBC-TV kicks into gear with their first-ever Continental Cup coverage Saturday at 1:30pm ET, with the climactic men's skins finals set for Sunday at 12:30pm ET. CurlTV will still be handling non-televised sheets, so keep your computer handy along with the TV remote control.

What else is going on?

• Still more curling on TV this weekend, on NBC in fact. The Korbel Elite Curling Challenge was filmed in Whistler, B.C. last weekend and takes to the air Sunday between 2:00pm and 4:00pm ET. It's a battle-of-the-sexes between Teams Fenson and McCormick with special guest Olympic athletes – non-curlers – also taking part. Check out this cool USA Today story for a preview ...

• Here’s a U.S. development story out of Minot in the Dakotas; a peek at curling in nearby Fargo – yaah? – and finally a look at Vermont’s burgeoning curling club – the Green Mountain gang – in action ...

• Scottish curling coach Derek "Delboy" Brown has been tagged to replace Mike Hay in steering the national teams under the Scottish Institute of Sport ...

• Super-sub Jon Mead has served notice: he’ll spare for someone at Victoria’s Bear Mountain Classic in April, so long as curling doesn’t interfere with his tee times...

• Three Edmonton curlers – Kevin Martin, his second man Marc Kennedy, and Mark Johnson lead Adam Enright have followed the lead of Ontario’s Team Wayne Middaugh, and bought into the M&M Meats Shops franchise world ...

• Gay curling leagues have always been strong in Metro Toronto, as this Extra! story attests ...

• Big curling boardroom news: noted Canuck TV production guy Scott Moore is now on board with CurlTV, and Grand Slam founder Kevin Albrecht, ex of IMG, is now in charge at Insight Sports ...