(by Danny Lamoureux)
Alberta curlers continued their dominance at 2012 Canadian curling championships with wins at both the senior men and senior women championships held in Abbotsford, BC.
Edmonton’s Cathy King and Red Deer’s Rob Armitage were both crowned champions today by virtue of wins over Newfoundland & Labrador’s Glenn Goss and Cathy Cunningham respectively.
The Saville Centre’s Cathy King made history today as she becomes the first female curler to win a junior championship (1977 & 1978), a Canadian women’s title (1998 Scott Tournament of Hearts) and now the 2012 Canadian Senior Women’s champion.
She had a tough battle against Cunningham in the women’s final to reach that unique pinnacle. King had a draw to the four foot for a pair in the 2nd end, but was a touch heavy scoring just the single. The teams traded singles over the next three ends knotting the score at 2 at the 5th break.
King scored a nice deuce in the 6th for control at 4-2 but Cunningham roared back with a three ender the very next end and looked to be in control. However, King made two terrific draws in the 8th end to score two and regain the lead at 6-5. Cunningham tried to score a deuce in the 9th but was heavy on her first draw to lie two and then heavy again with a draw against three giving Alberta the steal of three and a lock on the title.
The King team is comprised of third Carolyn Morris, second Lesley McEwan, lead Doreen Gares and coach Marilyn Johnston.
Photography by Davina
In the men’s final, Alberta held the hammer to start the game because of his 10-1 round robin record. After a blanked first end, Armitage grabbed a deuce when Geoff Cunningham, playing last stones for NL, missed a runback. Play was fairly conservative for the next few ends with Goss forced to one in the 3rd and Armitage nosed a blank attempt in the 5th.
After the break, things got interesting with a number of stones in play. Armitage made a nice come around forcing Cunningham to a difficult tap back. He was a bit heavy and slid by to the back 8 foot. Armitage tried to draw right on top of his first stone but was a touch heavy and rolled off his own leaving the RE/MAX Center team a thin slash double for two points or a raise double takeout for three. They chose the raise double, but Cunningham was a bit narrow leaving Alberta with a steal of two and a 5-1 lead.
Against the great hitting team from Alberta, this lead would prove insurmountable with Armitage literally running them out of stones over the next 4 ends.
On the winning team are skip Rob Armitage, third Keith Glover, second Randy Ponich and lead Wilf Edgar. They curl out of the Red Deer Curling Centre.
Both teams will wear the Maple Leaf at the World Seniors next April at a location to be announced.