By STEVE GREEN, The London Free Press
Sherry Middaugh is on an early season roll like she’s never seen before. The trick will be converting it to a fifth Ontario women’s curling championship.
Middaugh and her Coldwater rink of Jo-Ann Rizzo, Lee Merklinger and Leigh Armstrong beat Suzanne Birt of Charlottetown 9-3 Monday at Highland in the final of the 15th annual Southwestern Ontario Women’s Charity Cashspiel. It was Middaugh’s third win in five events this season – with the other two resulting in a semifinal and a quarterfinal finish.
Skip Sherry Middaugh watches her sweepers pick up her rock during the final of the Southwestern Ontario Women’s Charity Cashspiel against Suzanne Birt at Highland Country Club on Monday. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)
Middaugh, whose last Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts appearance was in 2009, had Birt under pressure almost from the start in the final. A three in the fourth gave her the lead for good at 4-2 and she stole a vital single in the fifth when Birt just missed a runback double. After Birt was forced into taking one in the sixth, Middaugh ended it with a four in the seventh to collect the $7,000 first-place cheque.
“I thought our rock positioning early on was good,” Middaugh said. “But it seemed Suzanne and I were both heavy on a few shots, or she’d make a half-shot and I’d make a half-shot. It really could have gone either way.”
Birt, the 2003 cashspiel champ and a six-time P.E.I. champion, agreed, citing the steal in the fifth as the crucial point.
“I thought I threw it well,” she said. “It just jumped over at the very end. I make that shot and we score two and it’s a much different game.”