Vernon’s Jim Cotter can’t afford another round-robin loss at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian Men’s Curling Championships in Kingston, Ont.
The nine-time BC champion saw his record drop to 1-3 Monday with a pair of losses to Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone in the morning, and to Team Wild Card, skipped by Mike McEwen of Winnipeg.
With the top four teams advancing to Round 2 from each eight-team pool, Cotter needs to win his final three preliminary round games to have a shot at moving on.
McEwen leads the group at 4-0, John Epping of Ontario – who beat Cotter 11-3 Sunday – is 3-0. Dunstone is 3-1 and defending Brier champ Kevin Koe’s Team Canada rink is 2-1.
Cotter finishes with games Tuesday and Wednesday against Canada, Yukon and New Brunswick.
McEwen jumped out to a 5-1 lead over Cotter Monday afternoon with deuces in the first and third ends, and a steal of a single point in the fourth.
Cotter and teammates Steve Laycock, Andrew Nerpin and Rick Sawatsky got a deuce back in five, but McEwen basically put the game away in the sixth end by scoring four for a 9-3 lead. The teams shook hands after eight ends.
It was the second time the Cotter rink gave up a four-ender Monday. Dunstone scored four with the hammer in the 10th end in the morning draw for a 9-8 win.
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