Lucas Punkari
Having qualified for the Dominion Curling Club Championships in Charlottetown, P.E.I. two years ago, Fort Frances skip Raymond Roy is anxious to make it back to the nationals once again.
Roy, along with third Mark Broman, second Butch Wensley, and lead Patrick Briere, began their quest over the weekend at the Keewatin Curling Club, where they captured the men’s Region 1 title and qualified for the provincial playdowns.
“We had a good weekend and the team played really well,” Roy said.
“We had a really good tune-up here a couple of weekends ago [during] the men’s bonspiel, and we just kept on playing like we had as of late at the regionals,” he added.
The Roy foursome opened play Friday afternoon with an 8-2 win in six ends over Laurie Jefferson (Sioux Lookout), then followed that up with a 6-2 triumph in six ends versus Ted Szajewski (Keewatin) on Saturday morning.
After suffering their only loss Saturday afternoon (a 7-6 extra-end thriller to Kenora’s Stephen Lundin), the local rink bounced back with a pair of wins.
They doubled Stratton’s Bryan Bonot 6-3 that evening, then thumped Clint Taylor (Atikokan) 7-1 in just four ends Sunday afternoon to clinch the provincial berth.
“We were pretty much strong right through the weekend from lead to the skip,” Roy recalled.
“We were never really in trouble all that often, and in all of our wins we pretty much controlled every end.
“Plus, we have a really enthusiastic front end for
sweeping and they can make up for some of our mistakes,” he added.
The Roy rink now is preparing for the provincial playdowns coming up March 29-April 1 in New Liskeard, with that winner advancing to the Dominion Club Championships in November in Scarborough.
“We all play on our different teams here a couple of times a week, so we will get some ice time from that along with a couple of practices before we leave,” Roy explained.
“Our goal is to go and try and win it, of course, as we want to go back to the nationals again,” he said.
“But it’s also a fun event, as well, as it’s a different atmosphere than the other provincial events.”
Meanwhile, at the women’s Region 1 playdowns in Keewatin last weekend, Kathie Jackson’s rink from the Fort Frances Curling Club, which included third Teresa McFayden, second Lisa Penner, and lead Kris Sinclair, just missed snagging a provincial berth with a 2-2 record.
“We were a little slow coming out of the gate on Friday, and it was those two losses that ended up killing us,” Sinclair noted.
“On Saturday we curled a lot better, and we did beat the winning team from Kenora [Lori Hoppe], but it was too late to try and win the event,” she added.
The Fort Frances foursome fell 7-4 in seven ends to Jackie McCormick (Stratton) in their opener on Friday, then dropped a narrow 6-5 decision to Stacey Szajewski (Keewatin).
Things turned around the following day, however, as they beat Hoppe in the afternoon draw before blanking Atikokan’s Val Stus 7-0 in just four ends that night.
“I don’t think there was any difference with the way that we played during those two days,” McFayden remarked.
“It’s a game of inches, and we were on the right side of the inch on Saturday,” she noted.
“And unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the inch on Friday.”
