Anderson wins seventh provincial title
MELFORT Sherry Anderson turned 54 years old Saturday. The next day, she demonstrated clearly that she’s no creaking geriatric.
Anderson, whose first provincial women’s curling title came in 1994 — before anybody on her current team was born — grabbed No. 7 Sunday night in Melfort. She pulled on her latest Team Saskatchewan jacket and smiled broadly, several times.
“I’m going to have a very big glass of wine as soon as we go up to that meeting (with Curl Sask), and maybe another one,” Anderson told reporters after her Saskatoon Nutana quartet beat hardluck North Battleford skip Robyn Silvernagle 7-6 in an extra end. “Then we’ll discuss (the upcoming national Scotties).”
Anderson’s new jacket gives her 12, all told — five as a Scotties skip, two as a third for Stefanie Lawton, two more as a fifth, two as a senior, and one in mixed doubles.
Anderson won the 2017 Canadian seniors title with Silvernagle’s mother Anita playing lead, and they’ll curl together at the world seniors April 21-28 in Oestersund, Sweden.
But first, there’s this matter of competing at the national Scotties with a young squad that includes 23-year-old twins Kourtney and Krista Fesser at third and second respectively, and lead Karlee Korchinski, who’s even younger.
After Lawton split with Anderson in 2015, citing a need to prepare for the next couple of Olympic cycles, Anderson insisted that “I’m not dead. The desire’s still there.”
And boy, did she back that up on Sunday.
“I’m older,” Anderson noted as the arena cleared out Sunday night. “But I still think I can compete. I think I proved that today — that I can still make shots. I actually feel, in my head, that I’m as good or better than I was 25 years ago, and 20 years ago, and 10 years ago. I’m always trying to improve. If I didn’t think I could compete, I wouldn’t play. I wouldn’t go out, embarrass myself, and get waxed all the time.”
She endured an up-and-down week en route to the title. Silvernagle — the runner-up last year and a semifinal loser the season before — dropped her first game, then reeled off eight straight wins.
Anderson eked out a 4-4 roundrobin record, which was just good enough to get them into the playoff round. From there, they beat defending champion Penny Barker 4-3, and Chantelle Eberle 6-5 in an extra end.
“We knew it would be a grind, and it was,” said Kourtney Fesser. “It was a grind of a week.”
“They came out playing their absolute A game, and we just weren’t as sharp as we needed to be,” said Silvernagle, who plays with third Jolene Campbell, second Dayna Demers and lead Kara Thevenot. “Kudos to them for playing absolutely fabulous.
“(Anderson’s) a veteran at this, and she knows how to play them. You’ve got to give it to her.”
Silvernagle, trailing 6-5 in the 10th frame, drew for a single to salvage an extra end, but Anderson wielded the hammer with authority in the 11th, and drew to the pin for the game-winning point.
“I feel for the losers, because I’ve been in that position a lot more times than I ever wanted to be, and it sucks,” Anderson said. “There’s nothing to say other than it really sucks. I feel bad for them, but I’m obviously very happy for our team.”
Anderson noted that her teammates are no strangers to highlevel competition, though this will be their first trip to a national Scotties. Kourtney Fesser, who won two provincial junior titles and another in mixed, now has four Team Saskatchewan jackets — eight fewer than Anderson, but it’s a nice collection nonetheless.
“She lets us be the players we want to be on the ice, while still giving us direction,” Fesser said.
“She’s one of the best of all time in Saskatchewan. To play with her is an honour.”
The national Scotties go Jan. 27 to Feb. 4 in Penticton, B.C.