What a fabulous week of curling we've just come through -- the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Regina. The game tonight between the first and second-ranked teams (Alberta skipped by Shannon Kleibrink versus Ontario skipped by Sherry Middaugh) had shot-making I've rarely seen in women's curling. (How about 115 lb. Amy Nixon, Alberta's third, who heaved a granite bullet into a house with about five rocks frozen around the button and blew the whole thing apart. Who says the women can't throw the big weight?) The Alberta rink won, but it came down to the last rock of an extra end.
The morning and afternoon games, both won by Jennifer Jones of Manitoba (who at one point was one loss away from even making it into the round robin) were also great.
The big disappointment of the week was Team Canada. The girls from Kelowna just weren't their old selves. They struggled all week (were actually painful to watch) and didn't make it into the finals.
There are two games left in the tournament. Sherri Middaugh (the loser of this evening's match) plays Jennifer Jones tomorrow. Then on Sunday is the final with Shannon Kleibrink playing the winner of tomorrow's match.
I get so little done on curling weeks it's disgusting. It's the one sport I love to follow, and I indulge myself. We have one more week of it in March, when the big annual men's curling tournament, the Brier, happens in Winnipeg.
(And I see that the Scotties are coming to Victoria next February. I'm determined get to one of those big bonspiels in person one of these years -- maybe next...)
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Update: Jennifer Jones stole the end of the very exciting 2008 Scotties Tournament of Hearts story Sunday afternoon. Read about it here.
Friday, February 22, 2008
curling!
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2 comments:
My Mom and Dad were great curlers. I have tired it but never kept it up.
Pei has had some great rinks in the past.
I curled too - one winter when I taught in northern BC... just enough to know the challenges and rules but never enough to master anything. I find it a fun sport to watch - love the strategy and the ordinary folks who get to be stars. (Actually, your PEI rink has a third whose name is McPhee... - but I think you said no relation.)
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