A Weyburn rink skipped by Danette Tracey placed fifth out of 14 women’s rinks at the Travelers Club Curling Championships held recently in Kelowna, B.C.
The rink, including Jade Bloor as vice, Charla Moore as second and Lianne Cretin as lead, were the provincial champions for the second time this year, and represented Saskatchewan at the national championships, finishing fourth in their pool after playing six round-robin games and ending with a 4-2 record. They played a tie-breaker game versus Quebec and lost 6-4, ending their run at a national title.
“Wearing your provincial colours is a dream come true, and we’ve been fortunate enough to do it twice,” said Tracey, as she and Cretin shared about their experiences with the Rotary Club on Thursday.
The women’s rink stayed to cheer on the Saskatchewan men’s team, who advanced to the gold medal final, but as Team Ontario defeated them, they went home with a silver medal.
“We had three of our games televised, and it’s still available on YouTube,” said Cretin, adding that playing the game while miked-up was “nerve-wracking”.
The women used “eye on the hog” rocks which had circuitry that flashed red if a curler went over the hog line, which happened to the Weyburn team once.
As the championships were held in wine country, the women took advantage of wine sampling at the hotel and at local establishments.
Before each game, the teams took turns singing O Canada, and when it was the Tracey rink’s turn, they recruited the chair of the event who was an a capella singer, said Cretin. “We wanted to be the best, and we were.”
Part of the event’s purpose was to raise funds for junior curling in Canada, and the Tracey rink raised $3,060, including $2,500 raised through a perogy supper hosted by Stan’s Perogies at the Curling Rink. The national event as a whole raised $35,000 for junior curling, and the Weyburn Curling Rink was awarded $1,000 for junior curling and club improvements.
Tracey noted that a highlight for them was on the return trip, meeting members of Canada’s Olympic-medal winning men’s rink in the Edmonton airport, and they were surprised to find out the men had been following the event and knew how the Alberta team had done.
Cretin pointed out that the underlying purpose of these championships is to encourage those who play in local curling clubs to have the opportunity to win at the provincial and national levels of competition.
Asked about ongoing discussions over the use of curling brooms and new rules governing what can or cannot be used, Tracey said the new rules did affect them this year, but as recently as last year at provincials the rules weren’t in effect yet.
For the national championships, there was only a certain kind of broom head allowed, and these were strictly enforced, with each player’s brooms colour-coded and officials watching to make sure no one switched brooms during play.
“You could still do directional sweeping, but it doesn’t have much of an effect on the rock’s direction,” said Tracey.
Holding up a sample of the permitted broomhead, Cretin said, “These are better for the ice.”
Asked if the curlers like them, Tracey responded, “They don’t feel as powerful, and they stick a little bit on the ice. We’ve only had them for about six to eight weeks.”
Tracey added that the purpose of the broom restriction is to make sure there is a level playing field for all curlers.
