Going to the nationals
Morrow, Watts teams win provincial club championships in O’Leary
O’LEARY – Rinks from the Silver Fox in Summerside and Charlottetown will represent P.E.I. at the national curling club championships.
Melissa Morrow and her Silver Fox rink of lead Miranda Ellis, second stone Lindsey Spencer and third stone Darcee Birch avenged their only round-robin loss with a 7-0 win over the host Bobbi-Jean Boylan rink from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in the women’s championship final Monday afternoon.
Both teams had completed round-robin play with 4-1 records. Boylan was awarded first place and a bye to the finals, because of their round robin win against Morrow on Sunday morning.
Morrow punched her ticket to the final with a 9-5 semifinal win over Montague’s Tammy Dewar rink Monday morning, capitalizing on a five-point sixth end.
Despite losing the final, skip Boylan was pleased with how her team performed. It was the first time in the event’s 11-year history that Maple Leaf entered a women’s team. They finished play on the one-month anniversary of their team being created.
Execution was the difference in the two games she played against the host women, Morrow suggested.
“Our first game, we kind of played more of an open style game, where this was more of one where we decided to junk it up a bit and get some rocks in play.” The Silver Fox rink never had hammer in the final.
Morrow has been to the national curling club championship once before, in 2015 with the Lisa Jackson rink out of Cornwall, and she and Ellis have been to a national mixed. Her mate has been there in juniors. Her team made it to the final of last year’s provincial curling club championship and they also played together in this year’s provincial Scotties.
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Dennis Watts and his Charlottetown Curling Complex team of Erik Brodersen, Andrew MacDougall and Doug MacGregor are heading to the nationals for the second time in four years, following a 7-4 win over the Tim Hockin rink from the Silver Fox. Hockin won a tight 4-3 semifinal over Montague’s Matthew MacDonald in the morning draw.
Watts, who scored three in the seventh to break open a 4-4 game, felt his wide in-off for a deuce in the fifth was the turning point in the close game. It came right after Hockin made a brilliant double to roll under cover to sit one.
“It really sparked our team there,” said Watts.
Since they went through the round robin undefeated, the Watts rink needed to be beaten twice to be denied the title. Watts said they were relieved to have won the title in their first playoff game.
“Just keep our focus out there and our emotions in check,” he said of their simple game plan.