TOP CURLER COMING
Former Canadian curling champion will play in 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sydney
Rachel Homan guaranteed spot in upcoming Scotties.
Rachel Homan’s rink has a guaranteed berth in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after all.
Curling Canada announced Wednesday that the Ottawa team will play in the wild-card game Feb. 15, 2019 if Homan doesn’t earn an automatic spot by winning the Ontario championship.
The wild-card game, which debuted last year, was slated to have the top two teams on the Canadian Team Ranking System not already automatically in the national women’s championship. Now, Homan is guaranteed a spot in that game, though there was a good chance she would have qualified under the old format as well.
Homan’s rink, which includes third Emma Miskew, second Joanne Courtney and lead Lisa Weagle, was supposed to be Team Canada at the 2018 Scotties but had to decline the berth after winning Canada’s Olympic spot last season.
The wild-card game winner will become the 16th and final team in the Scotties.
Another team guaranteed to compete is the Jennifer Jones rink. Her team will be back to defend its Canadian championship won at the 2018 Scotties held in Penticton, B.C., in February.
The main draw of the Scotties runs Feb. 16-24, 2019 at Centre 200. Nova Scotia will play in the opening draw Feb. 16 and will also play in draw three and draw five on Sunday, draw seven on Monday and draw
nine and 11 on Tuesday and draw 13 on Wednesday.
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Ticket packages include an opening weekend package for $99, which includes the first five draws on opening days Saturday and Sunday. There’s also a championship weekend (Feb. 22-24) package for $189 for the final six draws plus tiebreaker draw, if necessary. Sunday through Wednesday singleday
packages are $59 and includes three draws in one day. A Thursday single-day package is $49 and includes two guaranteed draws, plus tiebreaker if necessary.
Full-event packages are also available for $399, guaranteeing the same seats for all 22 draws plus any necessary tiebreakers. Preliminary-round single-draw tickets will be available Nov. 16. Due to expected high demand
on the championship weekend package, all other single-draw tickets will go on sale Jan. 10.
All ticket packages are available at the Centre 200 box office, online at curling.ca/tickets or by calling 902-564-2200.