Raymond Roy’s rink downed Lorne Jackson 8-3 in the final of the Zone 7 mixed curling playdowns in Rainy River on Sunday to earn a berth at the six-team district playdowns starting tomorrow in Kenora.
Roy jumped out to an early lead with a pair in the first end and led 3-1 after three. But then he broke the game open with a steal of two in the fourth and then another in the fifth en route to the convincing victory.
The teams shook hands after nine ends
It was typical of how the Roy rink, which included Kim Beaudry (third), Wayne Beacham (second), and Stacy Beacham (lead), played all weekend. Grabbing an early lead and then playing almost flawless the rest of the way was the norm for the Fort Frances foursome.
“Our team curled very well. We were able to get ahead of the other teams and then stay ahead by curling well,” said Roy, vying for his first visit to the mixed provincial championships since 1990.
“We played cautious and then once we got the lead, we played defensive,” he noted. “When the other teams made the mistakes, we jumped on them and we didn’t make too many mistakes in back-to-back ends.”
After breezing through his first three matches against Lorne Jackson (8-6), Clint Barton (8-4), and Bryan Bonot (10-2), Roy faced a must-win situation versus Dale Morrison in his final game of the round-robin in order to finish first at 4-0–and force second-place Jackson (3-1) to beat him twice in the final.
Unlike his first three matches, though, Roy had to pull out the win over Morrison in dramatic fashion. Trailing 6-1 midway through the game, Roy scored four in the fifth, then stole one in the sixth to tie it at 6-6. Then he stole two more in the seventh to grab the lead for good en route to an 11-6 victory.
Roy admitted it was his rink’s most impressive win in the five-team event.
“That was a real character builder for our rink because we were able to come back,” he said, noting they had to change their style because they fell behind early.
“Because we were down a couple, we had to become more aggressive, and then they missed some shots,” he added.
It also was an important win because it gave Roy that extra “cushion” in the final against Jackson (not that they needed it in the end).
Rounding out the five-team field were Barton (2-2), and Bonot and Morrison at 0-3 (they chose not to play their final round-robin game because the outcome didn’t matter).
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
