(by Larry Wood, HeartChart Editor).
Rebecca Jean MacDonald has had considerably more success at the Scotties than this year playing third for Kim Dolan, a good buddy.
“It was a tough week,” said MacDonald. “We had one terrible game but otherwise everything was down to the wire.”
The two were co-chairs at last year’s Scotties renewal at Charlottetown.
CCA Photo by Andrew Klaver (L-R): Rebecca Jean MacDonald, Kim Dolan
MacDonald first surfaced at the Scotties in 1995 with Dolan at third and skipped the Islanders to eight wins. Two years later the combo won five with MacDonald directing. And two years after that they won six.
In 2003 MacDonald played third for Suzanne Birt (then Gaudet) and won a whopping Island record 10. Back on the teehead in 2005, MacDonald won a measly four, one more than this year. Then she teamed up with her sister Robyn, calling the shots while Robyn tossed the last rocks, and won seven at Victoria in 2009.
What’s remembered there, though, is the fact that Robyn had two chances on out-turn layups with skip’s last rocks to eliminate Jennifer Jones and her Team Canada outfit in a tiebreaker and narrowly missed them both — in the 10th and 11th ends
“I was quite happy coming here to play third,” said MacDonald. “Kim wanted to skip again and I had full confidence in her. I’ve always enjoyed playing third.”
Now Dolan, 53, has talked of hanging up the brush and the curling shoes.
“Who knows what the future holds,” said MacDonald. “I’ll be sad to see her leave the game. She’s a great friend. She’s a great curler and it has nothing to do with me.
“We have some good young curlers on the Island and we’ll just have to put some new teams together and see what we can come up with.”
Sister Robyn MacPhee already has decided to take next season off so the sister act isn’t in the immediate cards.
“I really enjoyed playing with her and we had good success, so who knows.”
One thing, though.
“I don’t think I’ll be ready to hang ‘em up yet,” said MacDonald. “I still enjoy the game too much. I feel I have some time left to put into it. We’ll see what happens.”
(reprinted from the CCA HeartChart publication)