Staff
If anyone was uncertain who the team to beat was, that was cleared up in a hurry yesterday.
Defending champ Tracy Fleury (formerly Horgan) of Sudbury, with Devlin native Jenna Walsh (formerly Enge) at second, dumped Gale Wiseman of the host Timmins club 13-2 in eight ends in last night’s opening draw at the Northern Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
The Fleury crew struck for deuces in the first and third ends, and led 5-2 after five.
Fleury stole one in the sixth, then burned Wiseman for a steal of five more in the seventh.
She added a steal of one in the eighth before Wiseman shook hands.
Fleury, along with Walsh, third Jennifer Horgan, and lead Amanda Gates, won the inaugural Northern Ontario Scotties title last year after having to try and qualify for the national Scotties in previous years by winning the Ontario crown.
The rink then won its two play-in games at the nationals against the Yukon and the Northwest Territories to make it into the main field of 12 teams.
Northern Ontario came within one win of making the playoffs—losing to Team Canada’s Rachel Homan 6-4 in their final round-robin game to finish in fifth place with a 6-5 record.
That was good enough to ensure Northern Ontario won’t have to be part of the play-in group of last year’s bottom three finishers at this year’s Canadian championship, which is set for Feb. 20-28 in Grande Prairie, Alta.
In last night’s other game in the four-team field, Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville made a triumphant return to Scotties’ competition by beating Laura Payne (North Bay) 9-2 in eight ends.
McCarville, a four-time Ontario champion, took the last two years off of competitive curling to focus on her family and career.
Today’s morning draw had Fleury facing Payne while McCarville took on Wiseman (scores were unavailable at press time).
The double round-robin continues tonight with Fleury and McCarville duking it out.
Payne and Wiseman will face off in the other game.
The final is set for Sunday.
