(By Norm Cowley, Edmonton Journal)
EDMONTON — Val Sweeting reached across the country to fill the vacancy on her Alberta women’s curling championship rink, so she also got creative when she introduced her new lineup.
Alberta skip Val Sweeting takes a shot during her match against Quebec at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts draw fourteen curling action Thursday, February 6, 2014 in Montreal.
Photograph by: Ryan Remiorz , THE CANADIAN PRESS
Sweeting used a TSN graphic often seen during Canadian championships to show off her new team Tuesday on Twitter.
“TSN is so much fun to work with and we really appreciate them doing that for us,” Sweeting said after officially adding seven-time New Brunswick women’s champion Andrea Crawford to her Saville Centre crew.
Crawford, a human resources manager with the Canadian Forces in New Brunswick, decided to move to Edmonton. Her husband is hopeful of getting a job with the Edmonton Police Service.
“Alberta has such a talented pool of curlers and we found a lot of them were either taking the season off or already committed to a team,” Sweeting said. “That still left a lot of talented curlers, but we found that Andrea fit all of the characteristics that we wanted in a teammate and the added bonus that ended up tipping the scale was the experience she has at the Scotties.
Crawford, a longtime skip, has never made the playoffs at the Scotties, with her best record 6-5 each of the last two years. She will play third for Sweeting, with Dana Ferguson becoming a full-time second. Ferguson threw second rocks last season but held the broom for Sweeting’s shots.