Scharf rink wins Scott crown

Like any good curling match should, the final of the 25th-annual Ontario Scott Tournament of Hearts came down to the last rock here Saturday night.
And Krista Scharf delivered to perfection—making a nose hit for two to lead her Fort William Curling Club rink to an exciting 7-6 win over Janet McGhee (Uxbridge and District Curling Club).
The foursome celebrated with a group hug while the large crowd on hand at the Fort Frances Curling Club applauded the new provincial champs.
Scharf’s brother and boyfriend ran onto the ice and yelled out, “You’re awesome,” as they picked her up and spun her around.
“I still can’t imagine me as going to the Scott,” she said afterwards. “I had a great feeling all day.”
The national Scott Tournament of Hearts runs Feb. 25-March 5 in London, Ont.
From now until then, Scharf said the team will have a busy practice schedule.
“We’re going to practice as much as we can and play as many scrub games as we can,” she remarked. “Team dynamic is huge for us and we’re going to keep working together until we go [to London].”
Scharf’s rink includes third Tara George, who is six months’ pregnant, second Tiffany Stubbings, lead Lorraine Lang (a former world champ), and fifth Michelle Boland. Their coach is Bruce Melville.
Coming in to the provincials, Melville had wanted high performance and mental toughness from the Scharf rink. And as it turned out, that certainly was not lacking.
He also was able to relate to what his rink was experiencing when they won Saturday night given he’s competed at both the provincial and national levels before.
“After experiencing such intense pressure, it’s a feeling of euphoria,” Melville said. “It was a cliffhanger, for sure.”
Lang, for her part, has tasted victory in big games before, but said it was a little bit different this time.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling for all of us,” she said. “It’s stronger for me than ever before.”
But while the Scharf rink was overwhelmed with feelings of triumph Saturday night, a disappointed member of the McGhee rink stood on the phone in the corner.
She was trying to catch her breath as she cried and explained to the person on the other end how badly she wanted to win.
“We thought things were going our way,” said second Lee Merklinger. “It’s just very hard to take.”
McGhee also seemed to be having a difficult time with the loss, and admitted to being very disappointed. “When it came down to it, we gave it the best shot we could,” she said.
To McGhee’s credit, her rink of third Julie Reddick, Merklinger, and lead Lori Eddy battled back from an early 4-0 deficit.
After Scharf took one in the first end with the hammer, the Fort William crew stole three in the second when McGhee’s final draw slid through the house.
McGhee was held to a single in the third end, but then stole singles in both the fourth and fifth ends to trail 4-3 at the break.
Scharf went up 5-3 with one in the sixth, but the momentum suddenly swung in McGhee’s favour when she scored a deuce in the seventh to knot the score.
Then after Scharf was forced to blank the eighth end, McGhee stole one in the ninth to lead 6-5 heading home.
But with the hammer, Scharf played the last end perfectly—leaving herself a nose hit for the victory with her final stone.
And it was a no-doubter all the way down the sheet.
McGhee reached the final after beating former two-time world champ Marilyn Bodogh (St. Catharines Curling Club) 8-5 in the semi-final Saturday afternoon, breaking open a close game with a three-ender in the ninth.
McGhee, who finished in second place after the round-robin at 7-2, was relegated to the semi-final after losing 5-4 to Scharf in the #1 vs. #2 game Friday night.
Bodogh, meanwhile, scored two in the ninth and then stole one in the 10th on Friday afternoon to win the #3 vs. #4 game 9-8 that knocked out defending champ Jenn Hanna (Ottawa Curling Club).
Bodogh, who had beaten Hanna 10-3 in the final draw of the round-robin Thursday afternoon to secure third place, was incredibly impressed with her rink and honoured to have been asked to skip them.
“My team played amazing. They are all going to be world champions one day,” said Bodogh, who, at 50, was the oldest competitor at the Ontario Scott here.
But she seemed incredibly impressed with Scharf’s performance in Saturday night’s final.
“There is no question she is going places,” said Bodogh. “She played amazing tonight.”
Marlo Dahl, the other Fort William Curling Club rink competing in the provincials, had a much tougher week here—going winless in her nine draws during the round-robin.
Chrissy Cadorin (Guelph Curling Club) and Jo-Anne Rizzo (Brant Curling Club) both needed Bodogh to lose her final round-robin draw Thursday afternoon in order to get into a tie-breaker for the fourth playoff spot.
As it turned out, they finished tied for fifth at 5-4.
Rounding out the field were Kathy Brown (Sutton Curling Club) at 4-5, Nancy Wickham (Sudbury Curling Club) at 3-6, and Natalie Beauchamp (Coniston Curling Club) at 2-7.