■Championship form
Sydney rink wins provincial Travelers championship in front of friends and family
Members of Team Roach are all smiles as they show off the trophy they received for winning the 2018 Nova Scotia Travelers Club Curling championship on Monday at the Sydney Curling Club. From left: lead Robin Nathanson, second Travis Stone, third Mark MacNamara and skip Kurt Roach. The Sydney Curling Club rink also captured the same trophy two years ago in Yarmouth. The team will represent the province at the national Travelers Club Curling championship in November.
A Sydney rink has captured provincial honours as the winner of the 2018 Nova Scotia Travelers Club Curling championship.
The Kurt Roach-skipped squad claimed the title with a thrilling 6-5 victory over Mike Callaghan’s Mayflower Curling Club rink before a lively crowd at the Sydney Curling Club on Monday morning.
The host team, that also includes third Mark MacNamara, second Travis Stone and lead Robin Nathanson, will now carry the provincial banner at the national Travelers championship that takes place in November at a yet-to-be determined location.
Team Roach’s win was its seventh victory in a row following a loss in the opening draw on Friday.
“We were kind of flat on Friday night, but we used that as motivation to pick up our game and turn it around,” said Roach.
And turn it around they did, as the Sydney rink actually had two shots at the title after winning two of the bonspiel’s three brackets. Had the Callaghan team won this morning’s match, then the two sides would have returned to the ice
this afternoon.
For the Roach rink, this marks its second Traveler’s championship. The team, which featured Kevin Gouthro who was replaced by Stone, won the same tournament in 2016 in Yarmouth before moving on to the national championship in Kelowna, B.C., where it finished third. Bonspiel rules dictate that the winner must “sit out” the tournament the following year, so this year marked Roach’s first return to
the competition since the 2016 championship.
In the championship game, Team Roach held a 3-0 lead after three ends before its Halifax opponents began a comeback that saw them take one point in the fourth end that was followed by a steal of two in the fifth. Roach took a single point in the sixth end, but Callaghan managed two points in the seventh to take a one-point lead coming home in the final end.
But the local lads came
through before family and friends as they scored two in the eighth to claim the title. Skip Roach didn’t even have to throw his final rock.
“There’s been good crowds all week and it’s been a really great experience having our family and friends here cheering us on, so to win it here is great — it’s been a great week,” said Roach.
For the Callaghan rink, it was a tough defeat after winning their opening three matches to claim bracket “A”.
“It was tough sledding out there,” said Callaghan. “But Kurt and his team played very well.”
The only other Cape Breton team in the field for the four-day bonspiel was Team Cormier of The Schooner Club, (located at the former Sydney radar base). Teams members included skip Gordie Cormier, third Stephen Leslie, second Thomas Drover and lead Mel Windsor.