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Kelly Scott from Team Canada Wins the Scotties Tournament

Sunday, February 25, 2007
Source: Canadian Curling Association

Kelly Scott is headed back to the world championship.

The 29-year-old skip and her team from Kelowna, B.C., successfully defended its title Sunday afternoon at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, Alta., defeating Jan Betker of Saskatchewan 8-5 in the final of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s curling championship.

“Amazing,” said Scott, named the winner of the Tournament of Hearts MVP award after the game. “We couldn’t have dreamed it. It’s unreal.”

With the win, Scott, third Jeanna Schraeder, second Sasha Carter and lead Renee Simons will represent Canada at the world women’s championship in Aomori, Japan, from March 17 to 25, hoping to improve on the bronze medal they won at last year’s Ford worlds in Grande Prairie, Alta.

“We’re going to Japan. That’s pretty wild,” said Scott. “We definitely worked hard with worlds in our sights this season. And we have a few more tricks in our bag this year that we’ll try and pull out in Japan.”

Team Canada couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game. Scott made an open hit to score two in the first end, then added a steal of two in the second when Betker’s last-rock attempt to hit and stick for a point wrecked on a guard. Another deuce in the fourth end made it 6-1, and Team Canada never looked back

“We got caught on the ice a little bit in the second end,” said Betker, who was backed up by third Lana Vey, second Nancy Inglis and lead Marcia Gudereit. “There was a bit of unsuredness there and that was the first time that happened all week.”

The Scott foursome is just the fifth in Canadian women’s championship history to repeat, joining Colleen Jones (who won four in a row), Vera Pezer (three in a row), Sandra Schmirler and Heather Houston.

The win also means Scott’s team will be at next year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Regina as Team Canada. In addition, her team will play at the Continental Cup, Dec. 13 to 16 in Medicine Hat, Alta., the 2008 Strauss Canada Cup of Curling in Kamloops, B.C., and the 2009 Canadian Curling Trials qualifying tournament, in addition to receiving $144,000 in Sport Canada funding over the next two years, as well as approximately $15,000 in cresting money.

Attendance for Sunday’s final was 4,934, bringing the total attendance over the nine days to 79,975 — the fifth-best total in Tournament of Hearts history.

Scott, Schraeder, Manitoba second Jill Officer and Gudereit were named to the first all-star team, while Betker, Vey, Carter and B.C. lead Darah Provencal formed the second all-star team.

The Season of Champions continues, with the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s championship set to open on March 3 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ont.

SOURCE: Canadian Curling Association News

Here are the results of the Final Game

Source: Curlcast

Tags: Scotties, Tournament, of, Hearts

You can read all the latest news on the Canadian Curling Association site .. like this one..

Friday, February 23, 2007
Source: Canadian Curling Association
Three teams will fight it out Friday at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, Alta., to decide the fourth and final playoff berth at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s curling championship.

Alberta’s Cheryl Bernard, P.E.I.’s Suzanne Gaudet and Ontario’s Krista Scharf all finished round-robin play Thursday night with victories to finish with 6-5 records. Alberta will play Ontario Friday at 10:30 a.m. (all times Eastern) with the winner advancing to play P.E.I. at 3 p.m. The winner of that game then advances to the Page playoff three-four game against Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones, who finished third with a 9-2 record. The three tiebreaker teams posted 1-1 records against each other, but P.E.I. advanced to the second round of the tiebreaker by virtue of its superior performance in the pre-event skills competition.

TSN will televise all three draws on Friday.

Alberta clinched its tiebreaker berth by defeating Kelley Law of B.C. 8-5 in Draw 17. Alberta stole one in the fifth end to take its first lead of the game, then put away the win when Bernard made a free draw for three in the ninth. B.C. finished at 5-6.

P.E.I. got into the tiebreaker mix by winning her fourth straight game, drubbing Sandy Comeau of New Brunswick 8-3. The Islanders picked up deuces in the third and fourth ends, and the gloves came off after P.E.I. scored four in the seventh end. New Brunswick finished with a 1-10 record.

Ontario, meanwhile, came back from a 5-3 deficit through six ends to beat Newfoundland/Labrador’s Heather Strong 10-8 in an extra end. Newfoundland/Labrador closed out with a 5-6 record.

In the other Draw 17 game, Team Canada’s Kelly Scott, who clinched first place in the round-robin earlier Thursday with an 8-3 win over Manitoba, improved to 10-1 with an 8-5 triumph over Chantal Osborne of Quebec. The Osborne foursome bowed out of the Scotties with a 4-7 record.

The two Page playoff games are scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday. While Manitoba plays the survivor of the tiebreakers for a berth in Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. semifinal on CBC, Team Canada will take on Jan Betker of Saskatchewan in the Page one-two game. The winner will go to Sunday’s 1:30 p.m. championship final on CBC, while the loser drops to the semifinal.
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Source: Canadian Curling Association News Site

Tags: Scotties, Tournament, of, Hearts

Charley Thomas Wins the Canadian Junior Title (again)

Saturday, February 10, 2007
Source: Canadian Curling Association
ST. CATHARINES, February 10…Alberta’s Charley Thomas, representing the Calgary Curling Club, successfully defended his title at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, Saturday at the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club, defeating Prince Edward Island, 7-6 in an extra end.

It was the first extra end men’s final since 2000, when British Columbia’s Brad Kuhn edged Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue in Moncton, 8-7.

In last year’s final in Thunder Bay, Thomas took control in the second half, eventually defeating British Columbia, 7-2. This year’s final was much closer, as he also had two new players, third Brock Virtue and second Matt Ng, joining himself and lead Kyle Reynolds.

“It’s totally different,” said the 20-year-old Thomas, who actually now lives in Edmonton but curled out of Grande Prairie last year when winning the Canadian and world junior titles. “ This one seems real, the other one so surreal. The first time we were happy to win the province. Now that we knew we had the ability to do it, it makes it a lot more worthwhile.”

The final was a tight one throughout. After a blanked first end, Alberta was forced to take one, as Thomas, facing two PEI counters, made a difficult draw through a port.

Prince Edward Island, skipped by lanky 16-year-old Brett Gallant of Charlottetown, answered by making an open hit for a deuce in the third for a 2-1 lead.

Thomas came back with one in the fourth but Gallant made a beautiful split for two in the fifth, as the Islanders took a 4-2 lead at the break.

After an Alberta single in the sixth closed the gap to 4-3, the seventh end proved pivotal, as Gallant was a little heavy on an overswept rock, leaving Alberta with a steal of two and a 5-4 lead. The teams then traded singles in the next three ends, as the final was tied at 6 after regulation.

However, in the 11th end, Gallant was forced to try a runback to remove an Alberta counter with his last stone, a tough shot which just missed, allowing Thomas to win the title, 7-6, without throwing his final rock.

“We knew it was going to be a close game,” continued Thomas. “We expected it to go all 10 ends. Their whole team, the first part of the game, they outplayed us immensely and we just kind of stuck in there and weathered the storm a bit. All the finals that we played in, we always lost to the team in the round robin that we played in the final and we beat them.”

Team shooting percentages actually gave a slight edge to Prince Edward Island, 73%-71%, but Thomas held a 73%-60% margin over Gallant, who was making his third appearance in four years, after becoming the youngest skip, at age 13, to compete in the Juniors back in 2004, a record subsequently eclipsed this year by 12-year-old Thomas Scoffin of Yukon.

It was a leading 15th title for Alberta since the men’s championship began in 1950. Thomas, who wound up with an overall record of 12-1, losing only to Prince Edward Island, 6-4 during the week, will now try to join Ontario’s John Morris (1998-99) as the only two-time consecutive winner of Canadian and world junior titles, when he takes to the ice March 3-11 in Eveleth, Minnesota, for the 2007 world juniors. Last year, he captured world honours in Jeonju, Korea.

“We still have one more step, but I never compare myself to anyone else,” continued Thomas. “We knew it was going to be a really tough fought game. We were ready to play from the get-go. But we never expected them to play that well at the beginning. We just had to call on our experience, stay calm and be really patient throughout the whole game.”

“Charley’s got a great team,” said Gallant. “We were pretty happy after five ends. We held them to one in the sixth end, but the seventh end kind of got away from us.”

On his team’s goals coming into the event, Gallant added, “We wanted to make the playoffs, first of all. We reached that goal. Then we wanted to win our semi and we did that. Then when we won that, we wanted to win the final. But all in all, a pretty good week.”

Gallant’s record in his 2004 debut was 3-9. He improved to 7-5 last year, then finished this year’s edition with a 10-4 record, as he was trying to become just the second Prince Edward Island skip to win the Canadian junior men’s title, joining Bill Jenkins, who took the1976 crown in Kapuskasing.

The M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior women’s final will be played Sunday at 12:30 pm ET, live on CBC-TV, pitting Newfoundland and Labrador (Stacie Devereaux of St. John’s), seeking its first junior women’s title, against last year’s runner-up, Manitoba (Calleen Neufeld of Winnipeg.)

SOURCE: Canadian Curling Association

Tags: Canadian, Juniors

Stacie Devereaux Wins Canadian Junior Women’s Championship

Sunday, February 11, 2007
Source: Canadian Curling Association

ST. CATHARINES, February 11…Newfoundland and Labrador, skipped by Stacie Devereaux of St. John’s, pulled out a dramatic 7-6 win over Manitoba, Sunday at the St. Catharines Golf & Country Club, to win its first ever M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior women’s championship.

Down 6-4 in the 10th end, Devereaux was able to draw the rings with her last stone, under vigorous sweeping, to count three after Manitoba skip Calleen Neufeld, staring at two opponent counters, tried a freeze, but hit and rolled to the outside with her last rock.

“I knew the sweepers would get it there for me,” said the 20-year-old Devereaux. “You can’t think about that (how much was on the line). If that enters your mind, you go a little crazy. It was just a draw for the win. That’s all it was. We were looking to get two in 10 (end) and play for the extra. But she (Neufeld) was a little heavy and rubbed open, so I said, let’s draw.”

“It was a little light, but that’s kind of my tendency, to be a little light. The girls jumped it and they got it there for me. It looked good.”

It was the first win for the province since the Canadian junior women’s championship began in 1971. The closest Newfoundland had come in recent years was in 2002 in Summerside, when, skipped by Jennifer Guzzwell, it finished second to Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Gaudet, 6-4. Today, Guzzwell’s sister, Stephanie, was a member of the winning team, as Devereaux’s third.

It was the fourth trip to the national championship for Devereaux and third consecutive appearance for the team, which finished with a 5-6 mark last year in Thunder Bay.

The victory capped a remarkable week for Newfoundland and Labrador. After dropping its opener, 9-3 to Prince Edward Island, it proceeded to win its next 12 games, including today’s final, finishing with an impressive 12-1 mark.

“We had really close games and we really believed in each other,” continued Devereaux. “ We believed we could do it. The 10th end came along and we managed to make all of our shots and got a couple of breaks along the way.

“(At the start of the week) We were looking for a playoff berth and we just got on a roll and kept on going. We said, let’s finish first and when we got in the final, we said that’s not good enough, let’s win the final.”

It’s certainly ironic that the junior women would win the province’s first title in St. Catharines. Six years ago, here at the same venue in 2001, Newfoundland skip Brad Gushue won the first junior men’s title for his province, also defeating Manitoba in the final.

Today’s final started off as a conservative affair, as the teams were tied at 2 through the first five ends.

After a blanked sixth end, Newfoundland and Labrador gained the upper hand, 4-2, by stealing a deuce in the seventh when Neufeld, who also was the runner-up in last year’s final, was heavy with her final draw.

But the Manitobans rebounded with three in the eighth end, after a measure, to gain a 5-4 lead, then stole one in the ninth when Devereaux missed a double.

That set the stage for the 10th end dramatics.

“That’s probably the worst part, just waiting and hoping that they’ll miss,” said Neufeld. “But that’s all you can do at that point. We didn’t play badly in the final. It hurts, but I’m not crying. We played pretty crappy last year in the final (when they lost 10-6 to Saskatchewan). It was an up and down week. We started off really good (5-0), then a couple of losses. But then we pulled it together, made the playoffs. But that’s all it really comes down to…one game.”

Devereaux and her St. John’s Curling Club team of third Stephanie Guzzwell, second Sarah Paul and lead Julie Devereaux will now represent Canada at the 2007 world junior curling championships, which take place March 3-11 in Eveleth, Minnesota. Canada has won a leading eight world junior women’s crowns since 1988.

They’ll join Charley Thomas and his Calgary Curling Club team, which won Saturday’s M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior men’s final. Canada has won a leading 15 world junior men’s titles since 1975.

Thomas will try to join Ontario’s John Morris as the only two-time consecutive Canadian and world junior champion. Morris accomplished the feat in 1998-99.

SOURCE: Canadian Curling Association

Tags: Canadian, Juniors