PEICurling.com

November 10, 2009 (CCA)…The Canadian Mixed Curling Championship begins this Saturday at the Burlington Golf and Country Club in Burlington, Ontario.

Twelve teams, representing the 10 provinces, plus Northern Ontario and Yukon/Northwest Territories, will contest the 47th edition of The Mixed from November 14-21.

PEI is represented by the rink of Kyle Stevenson, Donna Butler, Doug MacGregor, and Tricia Affleck from the Charlottetown Curling Club, who beat out Montague’s Larry Dewar foursome in the PEI final on March 1st.

Photo L-R: Kyle Stevenson, Donna Butler, Doug MacGregor, Tricia Affleck

The teams play a round robin, concluding Friday morning, after which the first place team advances directly to Saturday’s final, while the second and third place teams meet in a semi-final.

Ontario has won The Mixed twice since the championship began in 1964 in Toronto – in 1986 by skip Dave Van Dine in Kamloops and by skip John Epping at the 2006 edition in Whitehorse. Alberta leads all provinces with nine wins, while Manitoba and Saskatchewan are next with eight victories each.

This year, the host province is represented by skip Mark Bice and his Sarnia Golf and Curling Club team of Leslie Bishop, Codey Maus and Courtney Davies. Bice and Maus are former provincial junior champions.

Topping the field this year is Nova Scotia, skipped by 2004 Brier winner Mark Dacey, along with his wife, Heather Smith-Dacey, at third, second Andrew Gibson and lead Jill Mouzar. The Daceys teamed to win the 2002 Mixed in Halifax, while Gibson played lead for Dacey on the Brier-winning team and bronze medal winners at the Ford Worlds in Sweden that year. Mouzar (2004) and Smith-Dacey (1991) are also former Canadian junior champions, while Smith-Dacey won her first Mixed title as third for New Brunswick’s Grant Odishaw in 1994 in Leduc, Alberta. Mouzar also skipped Nova Scotia at the 2007 Scotties.

Other skips include former provincial junior champions Jason Montgomery of Duncan, British Columbia, Matt Blandford of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island’s Kyle Stevenson of Charlottetown and New Brunswick’s Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton, who will attempt to become just the second female skip to win the Mixed. Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink became the first to do so in 2004 in Schumacher, Ontario.

The roster also includes Quebec second William Dion, who skipped his province to victory at the 2008 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Sault Ste. Marie, then earned a bronze medal at the World Juniors in Östersund, Sweden, New Brunswick third Jérémy Mallais and Northern Ontario third Tracy Horgan, both former provincial junior champion skips, former Brier and Mixed competitor Wade Scoffin of Whitehorse, who will skip the Yukon/Northwest Territories team and Alberta’s Karen Powell, a former Scotties and Mixed participant who will skip her province but throw third stones.

Saskatchewan’s Lana Vey, the lead for Stefanie Lawton’s Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials-bound team next month in Edmonton, will play third for another former provincial junior champion, Jason Ackerman, as she replaces Amber Holland, who is skipping her team this week at the Pre-Trials Road to the Roar in Prince George.

In addition to the Canadian title, two players from the winning team will also represent Canada at the 2010 World Mixed Doubles Championship, slated for April 16-24, 2010 in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Up to the minute draw results will be available at the Canadian Curling Association’s website (www.seasonofchampions.ca/2010Mixed ).

Last year, The Mixed, which was won by Manitoba’s Sean Grassie, was held in Iqaluit, Nunavut, the first time the Territory had staged a national sport championship.

For tickets (event passes are only $35.00), please contact Helen Martin, at hmartin2@cogeco.ca or call 905-522-4613. The opening draw is at 7:00 pm Atlantic on Saturday, November 14, followed by three draws daily during the round robin at 10:00 am, 2:30 pm and 7:00 pm Atlantic. The final draw of the round robin takes place Friday, November 13 at 10:00 am, followed by any required tiebreakers and a semi-final, leading to Saturday’s 2:30 pm final.

The Burlington Golf and Country Club, located at 422 North Shore Boulevard East in Burlington, is celebrating 50 years of curling this season while hosting its first national championship.

2010 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship
November 14-21, 2009
Burlington Golf and Country Club, Burlington, Ontario

(Teams listed in order of skip, third, second and lead, unless otherwise noted)

Alberta – Sexsmith CC, Sexsmith
Graham Powell, Karen Powell (skip), Todd Maxwell, Michelle Trarback

British Columbia – Duncan CC, Duncan
Jason Montgomery, Sarah Wark, Will Duggan, Nicole Montgomery (Vice-skip)

Manitoba – Selkirk CC, Selkirk
Dave Boehmer, Kerri Flett, Kyle Einarson, Tamara Bauknecht

New Brunswick – Capital Winter Club, Fredericton
Mary Jane McGuire, Jérémy Mallais, Megan McGuire, Jared Bezanson

Newfoundland and Labrador – Re/Max Centre, St. John’s
Matthew (Matt) Blandford, Stephanie (Steph) LeDrew, Kelly Schuh, Jessica Mouland

Northern Ontario – Idylwylde Golf & Country Club, Sudbury
Jordan Chandler, Tracy Horgan, Clint Cudmore, Lindsay Miners

Nova Scotia – Mayflower CC, Halifax
Mark Dacey, Heather Smith-Dacey, Andrew Gibson, Jill Mouzar

Ontario – Sarnia Golf and Curling Club, Sarnia
Mark Bice, Leslie Bishop, Codey Maus, Courtney Davies

Prince Edward Island – Charlottetown CC, Charlottetown
Kyle Stevenson, Donna Butler, Doug MacGregor, Tricia Affleck

Quebec – Club de Curling Baie-Comeau, Baie-Comeau
Simon Hébert, Noémie Verreault, William Dion, Vicky Tremblay

Saskatchewan – Tartan CC, Regina
Jason Ackerman, Lana Vey (replaces Amber Holland), Andrew Foreman, Colleen Ackerman

Yukon/Northwest Territories – Whitehorse CC, Whitehorse, Yukon
Wade Scoffin, Helen Strong, Steve Fecteau, Rhonda Horte

Todd Kimberley
Morning Roar Associate Editor

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C., November 11 — It’s already backs-to-the-wall time at the Road to the Roar pre-Trials, presented by Monsanto.

After only three draws on the women’s side, two of the top four teams have already dropped to the ‘C’ event qualifier — and have no margin of error remaining in their dream to represent Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

No. 2-ranked Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., dropped an 8-5 decision to No. 3-seeded Marie-France Larouche of St-Romuald, Que., on Wednesday morning, while Regina’s Michelle Englot, the No. 4 seed, was shaded 6-5 by Edmonton’s Cathy King, during first-round meetings in the ‘B’ draw.

“Inconsistency on my part,” sighed Middaugh, a four-time skip at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. “Get momentum, and then give it right back. Half-shots just don’t cut it.

“There was definitely no separation at this tournament from the first to the 12th seed. It was based on the three-year (Canadian Team Ranking System) ranking, and didn’t really mean anything,” added Middaugh.

Englot and Middaugh are now slated to play a late-finishing ‘C1′ quarterfinal against each other on Wednesday night in this pre-Trials tournament, which has a triple-knockout format. For both teams, a ticket to the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Canadian Curling Trials in Edmonton is still just three wins away, but one more loss and it’s all over.

“Backs to the wall now,” said Englot, who’s skipped six Saskatchewan entries at the Scotties. “We just need to pick it up a notch. We’re just a little bit off, but that’s all it takes at this level. We knew coming in that all 12 teams would be really tough, and it has proven to be that way. That’s how even women’s curling is, and on any given day, anybody can beat anybody. You need to come out strong for every game. Unfortunately, we haven’t brought our ‘A’ game yet.”

Middaugh, down 6-5 in the 10th end with the hammer, attempted a hit-and-roll to count one to force an extra end, but Larouche ended up stealing two for a three-point win.

“I threw the weight I wanted, but it just didn’t finish enough,” said Middaugh. “We need a little more execution and a bit more consistency. When we do get that odd miss from the opposition, it’s just capitalizing, and that’s not what we did. We certainly didn’t do it that game.”

Larouche had counted two in the sixth to go up 4-3, and made a crucial steal of one in the seventh to go up 5-3.

“(Tuesday), the team played well, but I was up and down (during an ‘A’-event loss to Rachel Homan of Ottawa). Today, we played a great game as a team,” said Larouche.

In Wednesday morning’s other ‘B’-event first-round clashes, No. 10-ranked Amber Holland of Kronau, Sask., defeated No. 11 seed Eve Belisle of Montreal 8-5, while Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, Ont., ranked No. 9, edged Calgary’s Heather Rankin, the No. 5 seed, 6-5.

Rankin and Belisle, like Middaugh and Englot, have one more life to live in the ‘C’ event. Holland and McCarville, like King and Larouche, move on to the ‘B’ quarterfinals.

“I think we’re catching on to the ice . . . but it’s hard when you only play one game a day. I’m not going to lie. It’s tough to get a feel for things,” said Holland, whose next action is Thursday morning. “I feel like we’ve been here for five days and played two games — which I think maybe we have.”

McCarville never trailed in her game against Rankin, and drew to the button in the 10th end for the winning tally.

“I think we picked up on the ice a little bit better today. I struggled a little bit with that, and I felt like we came out with a little more confidence,” said McCarville. “You’re playing a tough team every single time here. You want to get that win . . . and stay out of ‘C.’ ”

Up for Wednesday’s 12:30 p.m. PT draw are four ‘B’-event, round-of-16 clashes: No. 8 Ted Appelman of Edmonton vs. No. 12 Jason Gunnlaugson of Beausejour, Man.; No. 6 Joel Jordison of Moose Jaw, Sask., vs. No. 7 Jean-Michel Menard of St-Romuald, Que.; No. 9 Bob Ursel of Kelowna, B.C., vs. No. 5 Kerry Burtnyk of Winnipeg; and No. 11 Greg McAulay of Richmond, B.C., vs. No. 2 Wayne Middaugh of Toronto.

By Larry Wood
Morning Roar Editor

PRINCE GEORGE, November 10…Pat Simmons knows all about picked rocks. And losing on last-rock ‘picks’.

He had eventual champion Kevin Martin of Edmonton beaten in the Page One-Two playoff at the 2008 Tim Hortons Brier in Winnipeg and watched his last rock curl awry when contacting a fudge spot in the ice or foreign object.

On Tuesday night at the CN Centre, the shoe was on the other foot for Simmons, of Davidson, SK. He was the recipient when Wayne Middaugh’s final draw shot, aimed at forcing an extra end, picked in the rings and left Simmons with the theft of two and a 9-6 victory.

The win moved Simmons within two A qualifying games of a trip to Edmonton next month for the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings. Joining him in that bracket were Jeff Stoughton and Mike McEwen of Winnipeg and defending Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue of St. John’s.

Middaugh, of Toronto, got off to an early 4-1 lead after four but Simmons tied it with a deuce in the fifth and a theft in the sixth. After another exchange of deuces, Simmons stole the ninth and had Middaugh looking at two when he went down for the draw.

“His last one picked,” admitted Simmons. “It looked good. It was just unfortunate. “After we had it like we had it (at the Brier), I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. It’s part of the game but it’s tough being on skip’s stones, especially on the last rock of the game. It’s hard to recover from that.”

It was the second win of the day for Simmons.

Gushue had his hands full in his opener against Greg McAulay of Richmond, the 2000 world champ. McAulay cracked fourth-end three for a two-point edge but Gushue came right back with a tying deuce and stole another two ends later when McAulay had one his few misses on the night.

“He never gives up, he just keeps grinding away,” said Gushue following his 8-5 win. “That’s the kind of a player he is. We tried to keep the pressure on him and he made some good shots. The only real shot he missed was in the seventh.”

Stoughton was embroiled in a tight fit, leading 2-1 in the eighth when Jim Cotter, throwing last rocks for Bob Ursel’s Kelowna outfit, overcurled on a last-rock draw to the pot and yielded five big ones for a 7-1 duke.

“They had a nice end set up and we made a nice . . . ah . . . double-raise double, so that got us out of the end,” Stoughton said.

The shot was a crowd-raiser.

“It would have been a battle right to end if he had got his one. We’ve just got to get this done and get to the next level.”

McEwen also posted a runaway, 8-2 over fellow Winnipegger Kerry Burtnyk. A four in the fourth for a 6-1 lead tore that issue.

“Our record hasn’t been the best against Kerry,” said McEwen. “He’s had the upper hand on us. So I was hoping we’d get a quick start because we’re normally not a team that starts real fast in a competition. But we played really well in the first half and Kerry’s team was just a little off. It’s pretty easy to get in trouble when the ice is curling that much. You miss a couple and you’re in deep sometimes. I think we’re neck and neck with everybody here. There are only two teams in my mind that are above anybody else. And that’s self-explanatory, right?”

Play resumed Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. with four B-qualifying openers on the women’s side. Combatants will be Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay and Heather Rankin of Calgary, Eve Belisle of Montreal and Amber Holland of Kronau, SK, Cathy King of Edmonton and Michelle Englot of Regina, Marie-France Larouche of St-Romuald, QC, and Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, ON.