Lucas Punkari
It wasn’t the results they wanted but the experience of vying for a provincial crown on home ice was something Judy LaBelle and Roz Broman certainly will remember.
Competing in the 2011 Cameco senior provincial playdowns at the Fort Frances Curling Club last week, Broman missed out on the playoffs after going 2-4 during the round-robin while LaBelle found herself in a four-team tie-breaker for second place at 3-3.
But LaBelle, along with third Mary Beth Tkachuk, second Teresa McFayden, lead Kris Sinclair, and fifth Trudy Badiuk, was ousted from further contention with an 8-5 loss to Roma Lundgren (Idylwylde) on Sunday morning in the first tie-breaker game.
“We curled a lot better in that game than we did on Saturday,” LaBelle noted.
“It all came down to the ninth end where they got three big points.
“She [Lundgren] had a couple of wicks and rolls that turned out in her favour, and her rocks ended up being completely buried, so that was nothing much we could do about that,” LaBelle reasoned.
After opening the event with three-straight wins, LaBelle’s rink dropped their next three games, including a 9-1 loss to Barbara Ward (Port Arthur) on Saturday night that put them into the four-team quagmire for the second playoff spot.
“We took a big stumble in those two games on Saturday,” conceded LaBelle, who lost 12-5 to Peggy Taylor (Kenora) in the afternoon draw.
“We just weren’t up to snuff out there,” she remarked. “And when you don’t curl well, that’s what it’ll get you.”
As for the Broman foursome, which consisted of third Kim Roy, second Cindy McKinnon, and lead Bev Thomson, they had a chance to get into the tie-breaker heading into the final draw Saturday but came out on the losing end of a 13-4 decision to Taylor, with a six-point end for the Kenora rink in the seventh being the final blow.
“Overall, I thought we did really well,” Broman said.
“We went out there and curled our best.
“All of the girls made a real team effort, but in the end we just ran into some really solid curlers,” Broman reasoned.
The women’s title ended up going to the Ward foursome, who nabbed their third senior provincial crown with an 8-1 triumph over Barb McEwen (Port Arthur) in the final.
On the men’s side, Sault Ste. Marie native Eric Harnden, who has been to four Briers himself and also is the dad of E.J. and Ryan Harnden, who play for Brad Jacobs’ Brier-bound Northern Ontario rink, took top honours after a tightly-contested 6-5 victory over Ken Anderson (Red Lake) in Sunday’s final.
Harnden, who led a team made up of three curlers from the Sudbury Curling Club, will be joining Ward at the Canadian senior playdowns March 19-26 in Digby, N.S.
As for LaBelle and Broman, both agreed the event in Fort Frances was one of the best-run provincials they had ever been a part of—and both have the itch to qualify for next year’s event.
“We’ve already talked about, and we’re prepared to put in a little more time and effort into our game and make another run,” LaBelle said.
“I’ll probably look at a few different things first, but it felt really good to actually get back out and have that competitive edge once again after being out of it for a little while,” Broman noted.
