PAISLEY, Scotland (CP) - Canada's Jennifer Jones got an unexpected gift that helped her avoid back-to-back losses at the Women's World Curling Championship on Sunday, but she had a hard time summoning enthusiasm about it.
Her Winnipeg team scored four points in the fourth end when the last shot by Russian skip Ludmila Privivkova was pulled by the chief umpire because she took too long to throw it.
Canada ended up stealing a point in the last end to beat the Russians 9-8 after getting thumped 10-3 by Scotland earlier in the day. Canada was 3-1 behind the U.S. at 4-0. Sweden and Norway also had three victories.
Canada was laying four rocks in the house when Privivkova was penalized. Despite taking a 5-2 lead, the Canadians still had to grind out a win on ice that had them flummoxed. Draws died long before their intended target or crashed on guards, and hits did not roll behind cover.
Canadian lead Cathy Gauthier called it a ''bit of a gong show'' and even the normally cool and diplomatic Jones showed her unhappiness.
''It's frustrating to play on ice conditions like this,'' Jones said. ''It's not a lot of fun. I love to play and I love to play on good ice.''
Russia's slow play and their time violation drew attention to the absence of time clocks at these world championship - the first time since 1988 there haven't been timers at a men's or women's world championship.
The clocks give each team 73 minutes to throw their rocks. The teams are also each allowed two one-minute timeouts when their coaches can come onto the ice.
But there were no people to run the clocks. Those recruited to run them pulled out Friday, so the curlers were told before the tournament began they would be warned if they took too long to make their shots.
The World Curling Federation rule book says if the team at fault fails to throw their stone within 30 seconds of a warning, the stone will be removed from play.
The Russian team is rotating the players through the position of skip and 18-year-old Privivkova showed her inexperience by taking a minute or more to decide on her shots in the early ends.
After a full two minutes of deliberating her last shot of the fourth, umpire Christine Shaw told Privivkova to hurry up. But Privivkova did not throw it right away and the stone was taken from her while she stood in the hack to the dismay of formidable Russian coach Olga Andrianova, who came onto the playing surface to complain to the umpire.
''I think it's not right,'' Andrianova said. ''This is not a championships between two houses (clubs). It's a world championship.''
Jones felt the situation wouldn't have occurred if the time clocks were suspended above each sheet where everyone can see them, as they are at Canadian and most provincial championships.
''I don't think they would have made it in 73 minutes,'' Jones said. ''I don't think they would have completed the game. It's unfortunate you don't have time clocks at the world championship when it's a rule of the game.
''I felt really bad for them. I think the best she could have done was given us three, but still, it was really unfortunate. They should have time clocks.''
Gauthier was concerned the image of the game would suffer.
''Things like that should never, ever happen in a world championship,'' she said. ''We are continually striving to put curling higher up there in the (International Olympic Committee's) opinion. Time clocks are part of the rules and part of the international rules and to not have them here and have something like that happen, I just think is just wrong.''
That incident was only part of Sunday's drama as the morning draw had to be called off and rescheduled for Friday - a day set aside for tiebreakers - because of water on the ice on two of the four sheets at The Lagoon Leisure Centre.
Canada didn't have a game Sunday morning. But the team finishes the round-robin Thursday morning and will have to wait until Friday before knowing where it finishes in the standings. The top four teams advance to playoffs.
Jones faces China's Bingyu Wang (1-2) and Sweden's Anette Norberg (3-0) on Monday.
Ian MacAulay, one half of the Canadian ice-making team here, said the ice was warmed Saturday night to draw the frost out of it, but a compressor that was set to come on in the middle of the night to cool it, did not.
''It's not big deal,'' MacAulay said.
Host committee chairman Alastair MacNish said ''there's nothing wrong with the facility. It's not something I expect to happen again.''
Fog enveloped Paisley on Saturday night and a swimming pool in the building also contributes to humidity in the building. Spectators do not as the 850-seat arena hasn't been more than half full for a draw and many of them are volunteers working at the event.
The arena floor is shaped like an upside-down bowl so the ice of the outside sheets is thicker than the inside. In order to keep the ice playable on the outside sheets, frost is going to build up on the inside sheets, said MacAulay, who makes ice at three Ottawa-area rinks.
''Every building is a challenge,'' said MacAulay. ''Some buildings are more challenging than others.''
The World Senior Curling Championship at nearby Greenacres Curling Rink had been interrupted Saturday by an ice machine malfunction, but play resumed Sunday.
Defending men's champion Bas Buckle of Corner Brook, Nfld., was 2-0 after an 8-3 win over Switzerland. Defending women's champion Anne Dunne of Cambridge, Ont., was 1-0 following a 9-3 victory over the U.S.