Jones wins battle of Olympic curling favourites, holding on after a frenetic tenth end

What a crazy game.

A fifth end peach, a seventh end miscalculation and a tenth end bailout were all part of Jennifer Jones' road to a 3 and oh record at the Olympic Games curling tournament, in a 9 - 6 win over Great Britain, skipped by Eve Muirhead.

In a game that could very well have been a preview of the gold medal game on February 20th, both skips certainly strutted their stuff, packing the game with great shot after great shot after great shot.

Then, there was a crazy tenth end. One that featured uncharacteristic misses, a time clock snafu and a bailout shot by Jones that still had her in peril as Muirhead attempted a triple take out to score three and take the win.

When Muirhead's hit attempt struck a trio of Canadian stones, it was possible that they'd all leave the rings, with Great Britain lying three and taking an 9 - 8 win. However, the shooter hit the clutch of rocks in the wrong spot, and punched one of the Canadian rocks towards the button, giving Jones a steal of one and a Houdini-like win.

That situation was set up when both team's thirds - Canada's Kaitlyn Lawes and Great Britain's Anna Sloan - each missed fairly routine shots to mess things up for their skips. Lawes flashed a hit attempt, meaning that Great Britain might actually have been set up for an easy four, until Sloan followed up with a wasted rock on a tap attempt. That shot actually changed up the look of the house enough for Jones to fire a double that had Muirhead set up to draw for two, and force an extra end. That's when the 23 year old skip from Perth, Scotland spied the possibility of a triple take out that would have actually given her the win.

All of this happened after a delay caused by a lengthy attempt by officials to re-set each team's time clocks, which meant the flow of the end was disrupted, although that shouldn't be used as an excuse for sloppy play. Lawes' miss actually came before the snafu, while Sloan was afforded even more time to set up the shot that she missed.

Jones' splendid double in the tenth was not her only moment of exceptional play.

In the fifth end, she continued her scorching hot shotmaking at this event, playing a difficult angle-raise take out, picking off a buried Great Britain stone in the four-foot and scoring three to bust open a tie game and forge a 6 - 3 lead at the break.

Against a weaker foe, that'd be a killer and would allow a curling powerhouse to run away and hide. But Muirhead and her teammates aren't world champions for nothing and they again showed their mettle by clawing their way back into it.

Muirhead repsponded in the sixth with a superb double with her last stone, to score two and scramble back to within a point.

"There's no give up in that girl," said commentator Joan McCusker. "Sometimes she can beat you all by herself."

In the seventh, Jones and her teammates made a questionable call as they nursed a one point lead. With Great Britain lying one and Jones' final stone to come, the Canadians decided that one of their own stones, very close to the rings, was actually just touching the paint. Because they made that determination, they decided to hit for what they thought would be two. Instead, a measurement showed the rock to be outside the rings and Jones scored just one. Peeling out the Great Britain stone would have led to a blank and holding hammer in the eighth end, a very good thing to have as a tight game gets into the late stages.

Jones, however, made good on that mistake, by throwing a perfect freeze with her last stone of the eighth, forcing Muirhead to settle for one point, instead of the two that would have tied the game and had her in a terrific position to win as the final two ends were played out.

Muirhead turned the tables on Jones in the ninth, planting an outstanding draw with her final stone to lie two, leaving Jones with a difficult tap up to try and salvage one. Jones, continuing her torrid shooting, made it perfectly to secure a big point and head into the tenth with a two point lead.

Both of these skips came into this game on a high.

Jones had personally curled a 100% game in a win over Sweden on Tuesday, while Muirhead and her mates set an Olympic record when they scored seven in one end in their win over the United States.

Canada had things go all their way in impressive, lopsided opening wins against China and Sweden. A different story in this one - as you would expect - as they took on the reigning world champions from Scotland, a team that had blasted Jones and the Canadians a month ago at The Continental Cup, 12 - 2.

This, then, was a big win. Not only because it kept Canada perfect, but because it erased the ghosts of that humbling loss in Las Vegas.

It also meant that, for the time being at least, Canada sits in a tie at the top of the standings with Switzerland, skipped by Mirjam Ott.

Jones and Ott will square off tomorrow, as the competition reaches the halfway point.