Joey Payeur
Hailey Beaudry’s first competitive try at mixed doubles curling nearly wound up with her playing for a national title.
The Fort Frances native teamed up with Sudbury’s Nicholas Bissonnette to take part in the NOCA provincial mixed doubles playdowns in Sturgeon Falls over the weekend.
“Nicholas and I both went to the Amethyst Curling Camp this past summer and following our junior playdowns this year, we thought it would be a fun and competitive event to participate in,” explained the former NorWOSSA and NWOSSAA champion skip for the Muskie girls’ curling rink.
“I really liked curling mixed doubles,” Beaudry added. “It was fun and challenging to play.”
Besides the obvious difference of having just two players rather than the four used in traditional curling games, Beaudry said there were other adjustments she had to make.
“Mixed doubles is a completely different game–I didn’t really realize how different the style of strategy is,” she admitted.
“There is a lot of draws in mixed doubles,” Beaudry said.
“Additionally, new this year to the game of mixed doubles, each team has the option to put the rocks in a ‘power play’ mode when they have the hammer.
“Mixed doubles, I thought, took a little bit more endurance with the fast pace of the game and the amount of focus needed to make the shots,” she added.
“Unlike the eight-rock game where one miss might not be too bad each end, in mixed doubles only five rocks are thrown per team every end so when a shot is missed, it is harder to recover from that.”
Beaudry and Bissonnette opened the triple-knockout competition with two-straight wins to reach the ‘A’-event final before losing to Megan St. Amand and Chris Glibota (Sault Ste. Marie).
Then in the ‘B’ qualifier, the duo lost to Mackenzie Daley and Eric Gelinas (Sturgeon Falls) to be relegated to the ‘C’ event.
They then ran into Karen and Dean Pigeau, also of Sturgeon Falls, who went on to win the ‘C’ event–as well as the entire championship to qualify for the 2017 Canadian mixed doubles curling championship April 5-9 in Saskatoon.
“In the ‘A’ qualifier, the key shot that changed the game was the wick shot the other team made in the seventh end to tie up the game,” Beaudry recalled.
“Our ‘B’ qualifier game, Nicholas and myself just struggled with finding our draw weight,” she added.
“But I was throwing the first rocks, which are extremely important and their placement really does dictate how the end plays out, so that was the biggest dilemma we had that game.
“In the ‘C’ qualifier, we played well, but one of my draws for two was heavy and we only took one, which put us only up one in the eighth end without the hammer,” said Beaudry.
“The Pigeaus ended up taking their two and going on.”
Beaudry, meanwhile, is counting on drawing from her mixed doubles experience to help her and her Lakehead Thunderwolves’ women’s team, which also includes fellow Muskie alumnus Erin Tomalty of Nestor Falls at lead, at the 2017 U Sports-Curling Canada University Championships coming up March 19-22 in Thunder Bay.
“Playing this new style of curling, I think that it has definitely broadened my scope of strategy and I can use it to benefit our university team,” she reasoned.
