The Morning Cup - Day 3 Edition

CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009 -

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Morning MorningCupCup

Offi cial Newspaper of the Canada Cup of Curling

THE NEWS REVIEWTHE NEWS REVIEW

Teams jockeying for playoff positions in Canada Cup

Torontoʼs Wayne Middaugh has hiseyes focused on a playoff spot. The

former world champion enterstodayʼs action with a 2-1 record.

See story, Page 3

- CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

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Marie-France Larouche of St-Romuald, P.Q., remained the loneunbeaten team in Canada Cup

women’s championship play on Thursday atthe Gallagher Arena.

Larouche, in her only outing of the day,knocked off Edmonton veteran Cathy King8-6 and heads into the final round-robinschedule with games against winlessdefending champion Stefanie Lawton and

fellow Saskatchewansmoothie AmberHolland (2-2).

“We are just mak-ing good shots,” saidthe tertiary finisherat last month’sScotties TournamentOf Hearts inVictoria. “We pay noattention to per-

ceived pressure.”Larouche broke into a smile.“We have won three games ($800 per) so

now we can eat,” she chirped. “And now wecan fly home.’’

And the rest is gravy, right?“No, no,” she cautioned. “Not gravy yet

because we have hotel bills. We have to winsome more.”

Regina’s surprising Michelle Englot alsoboasted three wins on Thursday to go withone loss. Englot trounced winless SherryMiddaugh of Coldwater, Ont., 9-3 on thelate shift after earlier handing Mary-Anne

Arsenault of Halifax her first loss, 7-5 in theafternoon.

Arsenault shared a 2-1 mark withShannon Kleibrink of Calgary and KellyScott of Kelowna. At 2-2 were Holland andKing.

Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard won her firstouting of the piece, 8-5 over Lawton ofSaskatoon.

“We’ve been struggling with the rocksbut a win’s a win,” said Bernard. “All wewant is a W. Anything for a W. We’re usu-ally pretty good with our backs to the walland we have to win our last two. We seemto be able to dig out. I think we will get ona roll.”

Bernard tackles Arsenault and King today.King stole a 7-4 verdict from Holland on

Thursday night. It was Holland’s secondloss of the day after going 2-and-0 on DayOne.

Kleibrink needed an extra end to subdueHolland 9-8 in the afternoon.

“We’re on the upswing now,” assessedKleibrink, who has qualified for theCanadian Olympic trials at Edmonton nextDecember along with absent Canadianchampion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg.

“We had a little dip in the middle of theseason where we didn’t play that well.”

Kleibrink, a native of nearby Norquay,winds it up against Scott and Middaughtoday.

It’s not all gravy, yetBy LARRY WOOD

Morning Cup Editor

Larouche paying bills with Canada Cup wins

SEERESULTS,Page 10

PLEASE SEE WOMEN P11Marie-France Larouche has rolled to an undefeated 3 and 0 record.

WOMEN


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He’s 4-and-0!Going into Thursday night’s tussle

at the Farrell Agencies Arena, hesaid he should have been 0-and-3!

Whatever the case, Edmonton’s KevinMartin, who repeated as Brier champion lastweek at Calgary, has some kind of charmriding on his shoulder at the Canada Cup.

“Whatever it is, I hope it doesn’t fall off,”Martin said Thursday. “I’m just not playing verywell.

“I don’t know. I’m not clear in the headright yet. A few more sleeps and we’ll see ifI can shake it off.

“It seems like we’re throwing pretty goodbut we’re just not getting the results. It’s alittle frustrating but we’re also getting a lit-tle fortunate so what the heck?”

What the heck, indeed!Martin cracked his fourth straight win with

an 7-6 night-shift win over Saville Centrerival Ted Appelman of Edmonton, a compar-ative babe in the woods on a sheet of ice withMartin and his powerhouse lineup of JohnMorris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert.

Appelman had battled back to square theaccount heading into the 10th end but could-n’t force Martin to wield the hammer to win.

Earlier, Martin rallied for three straightwins. On Thursday morning, Mike McEwen(2-2) of Winnipeg gassed an open draw tothe four-foot to yield an 8-7 duke. On DayOne, Martin’s turnaround victims were RussHoward and Brad Gushue.

“It’s a big opportunity for us playinghere,” said Appelman. “For some of ourguys it’s the biggest event they’ve played in.It was a little unnerving the first two games.But we’re a little more comfortable now andit showed today. We played really well.”

Which means nothing much when you’retangling with Martin who has found morewinning routes than you’ll find in Nevada

“Hey,” said Appelman. “We’re looking atthe top teams in Canada and we’re a littleout of our comfort zone. The first day it real-ly showed in our play.

“It’s that old saying, you have to be luckyto win but you have to be good to be lucky.What can you say, they’re the best team inthe world right now.”

Martin rideslucky streak

By LARRY WOODMorning Cup Editor

Winning with smoke and mirrors

PLEASE SEE MEN P11 Kevin Martin has pulled off some great escapes to remain unbeaten.

MEN


The Wood file

Frustration is gnawing away at Brad Gushue in moreways than one.

The defending Olympic gold medallist has beennicked for a number of 10th-end setbacks the past coupleof weeks — two of them by Brier champion Kevin Martin

— and there’s evidence the adver-sity is beginning to manifest itselfas wear and tear.

But Gushue’s agony isn’t con-fined to the ice lanes at theGallagher Centre right now. Whatis even more annoying is the factthat eight teams have been assuredof starting-gate berths in either theeight-team Canadian Olympic tri-als or the 12-team Olympic pre-tri-als and Gushue’sNewfoundlanders aren’t included.Yet.

“It seems,” he was saying thisweek, “to be part of the system that guys are playing hardearly and they get their spot and they’re able to sit backand, maybe not take a year off, but maybe not push ashard. I don’t think that’s a positive thing. I think you con-stantly want to try to improve.”

Gushue, who has been a severe critic from the get-go ofthe current system to declare Canada’s Olympic reps, feels

he’s forged improvement by toughening up his front end . .. but at great expense.

“I think this system really punishes a team like ours,” hesaid. “We were trying to improve and we made changes inour lineup and because it was a significant change withtwo players we lost all of our points. That denied us anychance of getting directly into the trials. But all we weretrying to do was get better. I don’t think that’s a positivething to say to all of the teams around here.

“I think there a lot of teams that actually stayed togetherbecause they didn’t want to do what we did, to start fromzero. So you’re going to have teams that are going to bestale or with guys who just don’t like each other playing atthe pre-trials because of this format.

“The system needs some re-working before the next tri-

als process. I don’t think it’s right that you have someteams that aren’t playing very well this year that alreadyare qualified, and you have some teams that are perform-ing very well right now and they’re not qualified. So Ithink there needs to be some tweaking for sure.”

Canada can’t improve next year on Gushue’s effort atTorino in 2006 so he doesn’t understand the reasonsbehind the new convoluted points and qualification rules.

“I’d like to see it go back to the other system where youhave to win to get in,” he says, thereby making perfectsense.

“Right now, there are a lot of teams that haven’t won anysignificant events that are either going to qualify or already

have qualified. And I don’t think that’s a positive thinggoing into the trials which is probably the most pressure-packed event you’ve ever play in next to the Olympics.

“So you want to have performed in and have won a bigevent leading into that and, you know, there’s going to behalf-dozen teams if not more that haven’t recently wonanything going into this.”

Ironically, winning events was the reason this new sys-tem was devised. But instead of the one or two non-win-ners who slipped in for the 2005 Trials, there could bemany more easing into the starting gate this time.

LLarryWOOD

EDITOR Larry WoodASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave KomoskyPHOTOGRAPHER Mike Burns Jr.PUBLISHED BY The News Review

Brad Gushue, the 2006 gold-medal winner, is still chasing a berth in the Olympic curling trials.

Gushue major criticof selection processfor Canadaʼs repsin Olympic curling

PLEASE SEE WOOD P6


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Yorkton 783-5603Kay Zinck has had an enjoyable year, without constant knee pain.

Queen Colleen, she of the half-dozenCanadian women’s curling titles,may not be around the ice lanes any

more but that doesn’t mean Bluenose galsare tossing in the towel and standing onJones’s laurels.

Which is why Mary-Anne Arsenault andKay Zinck, a pair of Jones alumnus fromdown Halifax way, are tossing boulders atthe Gallagher Centre this week with areformed team that’s boldly attempting tobarge into the Canadian Olympic curlingpre-trials in its first year.

“We need points big-time,” admitsArsenault, who won five national titlesdelivering second stones for the old Jonesjuggernaut.

“And we’ve had a pretty good year exceptfor one little boo-boo. So we’re we’re quiet-ly confident.”

And these women should be. With LainePeters at second and Theresa Breen, a four-time Scotties vice-skip with Anne

Merklinger at lead, there’s a tote-bag ofexperience here.

Arsenault is tossing the last rocks andZinck, a Canadian junior champion skip in1980 and Queen Colleen’s initial Scotties-winning vice-skip in 1982, is directing traf-fic and throwing third. The team qualifiedundefeated in two major events this seasonincluding the Canada Cup Qualifiers atOttawa.

But then there was that “boo-boo”.Sailing into the Nova Scotia provincial

final without a setback, a sudden one-gamecollapse cost them a week’s competitivehead-knocking at the Scotties in Victoria.

“We forgot how to curl that day,” recallsArsenault, a nine-time Scotties participant at40 years of age. “I have no idea what hap-pened. It’s a mystery. We all played terribly.We talked about it. We didn’t do anythingdifferent. The ice was different but that hap-pens when it’s the only game out there. So itisn’t that we weren’t prepared for that. But .. . it was ugly.

By LARRY WOODMorning Cup Editor

These ladieshave theirgame together

PLEASE SEE BLUENOSERS P8

From A . . .

Arsenaultto Z . . .

Zinck


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WoodFrom Page 4

“I think you go back to the old system andif you don’t win the event it goes to the CTRSor something like that,” argued Gushue. “Ithink it can be simplified much better. Theargument they made to sell me on this systemwas you had to win to get in but when itcomes down to the 12 teams in the pre-trialsand the four teams direct to the trials — out ofthose 16, there’ll be at least eight or nine thathave not won a significant event. By that Imean a Grand Slam, a Canada Cup, a Brier,the Players, or even a bigger cashspiel. Andeven when you get to the pre-trials you don’thave to win them, you just have to qualifythrough the B or C side and be one of the sur-viving four.”

Gushue also worries about the ongoinggrind that doesn’t favour his far-flung teamand what’s liable to transpire post-Olympics asa result.

“This system just adds to the grind that hasbeen going on for four years,” he said. “Andthere’s going for be a lot of guys taking theyear off after this.

“I agree with Randy’s (Ferbey’s) assessment(of the CTRS system). You start lookingaround hoping guys are losing so you can passthem on the points list.

“We’ve played so much this year becausewe started off at zero. We’ve played muchmore than we’d like and we’re pretty tired.Honestly, I could hardly stand on my leg thelast couple of weeks. I’ve been training sohard and playing so many events.

“I don’t think that’s a positive thing but it’sa necessary thing under the system that wehave. We have to secure a spot.”

Everybody knows, of course, that Gushue’steam averages two plane flights to every com-

petition compared to one for most other con-tenders. When his team heads west, it’s a dayout and a day back in addition to the playingtime.

“It comes down to trying to earn enoughpoints,” he said. “If you could tailor yourschedule for three or four events, or if youknew that if you won those events you’d be in,I think that’s a more positive thing for some-one leading into the Olympics. If you win oneof those events you can’t play in the next one.Or something like that. There are a lot ofthings that could be done.”

And another thing.“I just don’t like it that the general curling

fan has no idea what’s going on,” he said. “Ittook me two years to figure it out. Therehasn’t been a lot of explanation.”

Gushue stands third in the points standingsfor the current year.

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” hesaid. “A year out from the trials and we’rethird in Canada by a decent margin of close to25 points and you’ve got to scratch your heada little bit when the third team is not in yet andis really not going to be better off than a guywho qualified two years ago.”

Gushue suggests the powers-that-beknocked off for a year following theOlympics, then set up a system whereby thenext three Brier winners, the next threeCanada Cup winners, the next three Playerschampions and then the top points guy afterthat, form the field for Olympic trials.

“You’re going to get consistency and teamsthat win,” he said. “And it’s going to be veryeasy to understand for the fans.

“Then teams that are geographically chal-lenged like us and other Atlantic teams andguys in B.C. can tailor their schedules aroundthose big events, really get geared up for thoseand if you win, you’re in, and if you don’tthen you have to play a little bit more and alittle bit harder to get higher in the pointsstandings.”

Brad Gushue says the system just adds to the grind for some teams.


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BluenosersFrom Page 5

“But other than that, it’s been a good sea-son and we’re still on line for our goals. Themiscue getting to the Scotties wasn’t the be-all and end-all, luckily. I would have pre-ferred to keep playing with the big gamesthat you get at the Scotties. But we took a lit-tle time off after the provincials and then gotback to practising.

“The trouble is not very many peoplewere left playing. Once the playdowns aredone people hang up the boots, right? So it’shard to get a good game. We had some prac-tise games against the Nova Scotia seniormen’s team (Bryan MacPherson ofMayflower). They were a good opponent forus.”

The 47-year-old Zinck, who has made sixScotties appearances, has one overbearingattribute.

“I’m always gung-ho,” she says. “Once Istep on the ice in the fall it’s all about win-ning.”

Zinck was planning to take this season offbecause of nagging knee problems. But shedecided to speed up a medical solution afterArsenault called last spring, looking for areplacement for retiring Kim Kelly.

“Mary-Anne said the three of themalready were formed and asked, ‘Would youcome and call the game and play third?’ Isaid, ‘Mary-Anne, I don’t even know if Ican. My knee’s still hurting me.’

“I went out and curled and had the sameknee pain that I had before. So I talked to asurgeon and he gave me a couple of options.The quickest option was to get a scope intwo weeks. So in April I had a scope on myknee, they cleaned it out, and I worked onconditioning over the summer. In the fall itgave me a little trouble in the beginning butnow it’s pretty good.

“It actually was just wear and tear on thejoint from 36 years of throwing rocks andsquatting on that knee. It was really aboutthe endurance of time.”

The team has dominated the Nova Scotia

scene this season. Except for that one blip.“I thought we were physically and mental-

ly prepared but we came out flat,” recallsZinck. “We were up two at the half but wewere really fighting for it and nobody wasthrowing real pretty. Each of us admitted itwas probably the worst game of her life. Itwas hard to pick an all-star.

“We worked through it, took some time,talked to a lot of people, pulled in a sportspsychologist and tried to all find that com-fort zone and put that one to bed. I thinkevery competitive team has had one ofthose. Every athlete, too. On that one thatgiven day we got outcurled. You have toaccept that and move on.”

That aside, says Zinck, “we have a blasttogether and it doesn’t matter if we’re intough situations or not, we’re a team thatpulls together and we really support eachother. It has been an enjoyable year”.

A year ago, Arsenault’s team labelled it’shotel rooms during the Scotties as “the vine-yard”.

“Let’s just say,” quips Zinck, “that I can’treally keep up with them (other three) andI’m the first one to go to bed.”

Arsenault operates a massage clinic whileZinck is a practising physiotherapist 70 percent of the time and a clinic manager theother 30 per cent.

“I’ve probably ’spieled harder than I havein quite a while,” she says of her new align-ment. “It’s been a few years since I’ve trav-elled like this to get the competition that wedon’t have locally. But, in the east, it’s defi-nitely something you have to commit to.

“It’s like all amateur sports, you know? Iwork full time, I have three children, I put onmy chef’s hat and then I put on my chauf-feur’s hat, so it’s the time away from thefamily that’s a major commitment. It’s goingto get easier in the next couple of years butI’ll be that much older. But, come seniors . .if my knee holds out . . .”

This team is aware that destiny in itshands here at the Canada Cup. But successat this stage is paramount.

“We also know there are no gimmeshere,” said Zinck. “We have to show the A-game every game this week.

Edmontonʼs Ted Appelman exhorts his brushers to lean into it Thursday.


It happens every day at major curling events.A number of people settle into their chairs on press

row and take out their laptop computers. But they aren’tjournalists. They’re members of the Canadian CurlingAssociation stats crew.

Long gone are the days when the only thing that materedwere wins and loses at events such as the Canada Cup ofCurling. Now there are people keeping track of every shot,inturn and out-turn, and recording it for posterity.

This is curling in the new era and it gives curlers and fans abit more information.

Which isn’t a bad thing. Curling’s been chronically under-staticized. All you see in the papers are the scorelines andmoney lists. If you can add information, it’s all good. It’snothing near what they do in baseball and other sports, but itcertainly has come a long way since felt boots and cornbrooms.

But all this emphasis on stats begs the question: does any-one need a plethora of statistics being produced by theRoarin’ Game these days?

Some think they have an important place in the game,especially for fans who want more information.

“For the most part they’re pretty good,” says John Morris,who is throwing third stones for Brier champ Kevin Martin atthe Canada Cup this week. “They still indicate if that person’splaying a strong game or not and that’s helpful for the fanswatching.”

Former world women’s champion Kelly Scott of Kelownasays some stats can be a great scouting tool.

“You look for trends . . . turn preference, how their drawweight has been. Sometimes a player has a better feel for oneturn or another. Those can be important to know,” she says.

Every shot made at the Gallagher Centre is graded on a scaleof 0-to-4, with the exception of the odd ‘circus’ shot or twowhich warrants a five. There’s even been a couple of sixsscored at previous championships. Jennier Jones of Winnipegscored a six for her shot that won the Scott Tournament of

championship in 2005. It’s all up to the discretion of thestatistician.

Of course, there’s an element of subjectivity in scoring.And that’s where some players take issue with the

numbers. A scorer has to know exactly what the skipwas asking his player to play in order to score it correct-ly. The skip doesn’t always make his/her intentions clear,and who can read their mind?

In other words, there is a lot of room for human error.“And that’s why I have trouble with them,” says

Olympic champion Russ Howard of Moncton, who isvery vocal about stats. “I don’t think they’re correct. Getrid of them. They’re totally irrelevant. I think it’s nearlyimpossible, so don’t do it.”

Howard says it’s impossible to score a game correctlybecause a scorer doesn’t really know what’s the skip’s inten-tion.

The issue came to a head in Salmon Arm, B.C., whereHoward’s daughter Ashley was competing for NewBrunswick at the Canadian junior championship.

“I sat with the guy in Salmon Arm and he said to me ‘isthat where they want to put it?’ He didn’t even know. So ifyou don’t know, how do you score it?

“I’m sure there’s some great statisticians, but they don’teven know what we’re trying to play half the time.Sometimes you call a B plan and you get nothing for it. Wehad a pick one end that overcurled. That looks like a zero butit was a well-thrown rock.”

Morris agrees.“Sometimes you play a great game,” he says, “and the stats

have you at 75 or 80 and sometimes you think you’ve had anaverage game and you’re up there in the 90s. It makes youshake your head sometimes.”

Sharon Thiessen-Woods of Winnipeg is the head statisti-cian for the Canada Cup, and agrees the art of scoring issomewhat subjective. But the scorers — all local — are allknowledgeable in the game and operate under strict scoringguidelines. In short, they’re doing the best they can.

Howard says the only people really qualified to score agame are the players themselves.

“They’re the only ones who know what they’re trying to do.”

Morris says a degree of difficulty should be worked intothe stats package.

“A lot of teams will play defensive and obviously theirshots are easier,” he says. “So naturally they are going toscore higher than somebody playing aggressively.”

There’s another side of stats Howard doesn’t like.“It hurts a lot of teams,” he says. “My daughter’s team had

trouble accepting some bad scores. They saw the bad scoresand lost their confidence.”

Of course there are some statistics that are totally meaning-ful because there is no subjectivity involved. Stats for forceefficiency, steal efficiency and hammer efficiency are strictlyblack-and-white numbers and indicate trends. Force efficien-cy documents how often you force another team to take a sin-gle point or less if you don’t have the hammer. Steal efficien-cy charts how often you steal a point without having the ham-mer. And hammer efficiency counts how well you do withlast rock.

Veteran curling reporters see these stats as a welcome com-plement to the player percentages which have been chartedsince 1985.

Like them or not, Morris says stats are always going to bepart of the game.

“It’s great to have the volunteers to do the stats,” he says.“We appreciate that as players. But I don’t think it’s the be-all and end-all. ”

Love them orhate them, statsare here to stay

Yorktonʼs LorettaLusney is one of a

dozen people lined upto score games at the

Canada Cup ofCurling.

By DAVE KOMOSKYMorning Cup Associate Editor

Russ Howard has a major issue with statistics.


THURSDAYDRAW 5

9 a.m.

MENRuss Howard (a) 101 001 011 0 — 5Kevin Koe (b) 010 110 100 3 — 7 S P % S P %HOWARD 80 235 73 KOE 80 265 83

Kerry Burtnyk (b) 010 200 010 0 — 4Ted Appelman (b) 001 021 100 1 — 6 S P % S P %BURTNYK 80 261 82 APP. 79 262 83

Wayne Middaugh (a) 100 302 000 1 — 7Brad Gushue (a) 010 020 210 0 — 6 S P % S P %MIDD. 79 278 88 GUSHUE 80 274 86

Mike McEwen (a) 001 020 040 0 — 7Kevin Martin (a) 210 200 101 1 — 8 S P % S P %McEWEN 80 262 82 MARTIN 79 255 81

WOMENSherry Middaugh (a) 010 201 0xx x — 4Kelly Scott (a) 101 020 6xx x — 10 S P % S P %MIDD. 56 163 73 SCOTT 56 181 81

DRAW 61:30 p.m.

WOMENShannon Kleibrink (a) 202 100 201 01 — 9Amber Holland (b) 020 020 020 20 — 8 S P % S P %KLEIB. 87 285 82 HOLL. 88 259 74

Mary-Anne Arsenault (a) 000 003 020 0 — 5Michelle Englot (a) 011 110 100 2 — 7 S P % S P %ARSENAULT 80 230 72 ENGLOT 80 235 73

Cathy King (b) 001 100 202 x — 6Marie-France Larouche (b) 020 012 030 x — 8 S P % S P %KING 80 281 88 LAR. 79 260 82

Stefanie Lawton (b) 001 010 201 x — 5Cheryl Bernard (b) 130 002 020 x — 8 S P % S P %LAWTON 78 223 71 BERN. 75 240 80

MENBrad Gushue (a) 010 102 010 0 — 5Mike McEwen (a) 301 010 101 1 — 8 S P % S P %GUSHUE 80 236 74 McEW. 80 267 83

DRAW 74:30 p.m.

MENTed Appelman (b) 101 010 210 0 — 6Kevin Martin (a) 010 302 000 1 — 7 S P % S P %APP. 79 269 85 MARTIN 79 277 88

Jeff Stoughton (b) 020 021 021 x — 8Kerry Burtnyk (b) 101 100 200 x — 5 S P % S P %STOUGHTON 71 244 86 BURT. 71 224 79

Kevin Koe (b) 010 010 201 0 — 5Randy Ferbey (b) 101 001 020 1 — 6 S P % S P %KOE 79 257 81 FERB. 80 258 81

WOMENMichelle Englot (a) 011 301 3xx x — 9Sherry Middaugh (a) 200 010 0xx x — 3 S P % S P %ENGLOT 62 200 81 MIDD. 63 187 74

Amber Holland (b) 001 011 100 0 — 4Cathy King (b) 200 200 020 1 — 7 S P % S P %HOLLAND 80 255 80 KING 79 248 78

LINESCORES

DRAW (TIME) A B C D E

8 — 9 a.m. Cheryl Bernard Marie-France Larouche Kelly Scott Randy Ferbey Russ Howard vs. vs. vs. vs. vs.

Mary-Anne Arsenault Stefanie Lawton Shannon Kleibrink Jeff Stoughton Wayne Middaugh

9 — 1:30 p.m. Mike McEwen Kelly Scott Cathy King Kerry Burtnyk Ted Appelman vs. vs. vs. vs. vs. Randy Ferbey Mary-Anne Arsenault Cheryl Bernard Kevin Koe Jeff Stoughton

10 — 6 p.m. Stefanie Lawton Wayne Middaugh Brad Gushue Mary-Anne Arsenault Shannon Kleibrink vs. vs. vs. vs. vs. Michelle Englot Kevin Martin Russ Howard Amber Holland Sherry Middaugh

TODAYON THE

ICE

POOL A W LKevin Martin 4 0Wayne Middaugh 2 1Mike McEwen 2 2Brad Gushue 1 3Russ Howard 0 3

POOL B W LJeff Stoughton 3 0Randy Ferbey 2 1Kevin Koe 2 2Kerry Burtnyk 1 3Ted Appelman 1 3

MEN

POOL B W LMarie-France Larouche 3 0Amber Holland 2 2Cathy King 2 2Cheryl Bernard 1 2Stefanie Lawton 0 3

POOL A W LMichelle Englot 3 1Mary-Anne Arsenault 2 1Shannon Kleibrink 2 1Kelly Scott 2 1Sherry Middaugh 0 4

WOMEN

It hasnʼt been a great week for Sherry Middaugh.


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MenFrom Page 3

Not much argument there. But the Martinsstill had one opponent today — he closesagainst Wayne Middaugh (2-1) of Toronto—before advancing to the Page playoff systeminvolving the top two teams from each of theround-robin sections.

“It’s tough coming down from the Brier,”agreed Martin. “There’s inspiration here butit’s hard to find. You have to dig deep andwe actually are digging deep but we keephaving to come from behind. But we haveand we’ve won so that bodes well. But it’ssure nothing fancy.”

Martin disagreed that the invisible targeton his back was any more magnified thanusual.

“I’m missing a lot of shots,” he said. “I’mdown 20 per cent from the Brier. I’m justshooting about 70 right now and just stayingclose and hoping for a break and we’ve —whew! — got ’em so far.”

Martin said the Farrell freeze was improv-ing with every draw, a contention thatbrought a chuckle from head icemaker TimYeo of Gibbons, Alta.

“Four draws the first day is tough,” saidYeo. “You can’t tinker with anythingbecause it’s in use all the time. It’s tough towork on improvements when there aregames all the time. It takes more than a dayto bring good ice around.”

Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg, Martin’s vic-tim in the Brier final last Sunday, remainedunbeaten in the other section of the split

round-robin draw but faced two opponentstoday — Randy Ferbey (2-1) and Appelman(1-3).

Stoughton’s lone assignment on Thursdaywas aginst his provincial final opponent,Kerry Burtnyk. Stoughton reiterated hissuperiority there, by an 8-5 count.

Ferbey’s last-rock shooter Dave Nedohindelivered a last-rock chip to defeat defend-ing champion Kevin Koe (2-2) of Edmonton6-5.

Earlier, Koe dumped Russ Howard (0-3)of Oromocto, N.B. 7-5, Appelman upendedBurtnyk 6-4 and Middaugh shaded BradGushue (1-3) of St. John’s 7-6. Gushue losthis second of the day, 8-5 to McEwen

“Things haven’t been going our way thepast few weeks,” moaned Gushue. “We’redigging ourselves deep holes.”

This is the first tournament in two yearsthat Koe has taken over last-rock duties aswell as shot-calling for his defending cham-pion team that normally calls for third BalkeMacDonald to toss the last pair.

“We’ve been struggling a bit and I thoughtwe’d try changing it up and pick up a bit ofa spark,” said Koe.

“It’s by no means permanent but if youkeep winning it’s tough to change. Wehaven’t had the greatest year and we’re allconfident with the lineup like this as well. Idon’t think it’s a big deal.”

Koe isn’t out of this affair yet and getsBurtnyk in his last match today.

Against Howard, Koe executed a perfectdouble with his last rock with his opponentlying the shot rock buried.

“That’s one of my better spots to throwthat shot and it just hung on,” Koe said.

WomenFrom Page 2

Scott hit for a whopping six-ender duringher lone Thursday assignment againstMiddaugh.

Tied 4-4 playing the seventh, third JeannaSchraeder and skip Scott executed doubletakeouts — Scott with the hammer — whichled to the big six.

“We had a few kickers there,” said two-time Canadian champion Scott of Kelowna.“We haven’t won like that in a while. I’dlike to take a picture of that scoreboard.

“Every game we’re getting a bit tighterwith our margin of error and our drawweight and comfort with the ice.”

Said Middaugh:“We’re too rusty. We can’t seem to get

untracked. This isn’t going to be our week.”King, 49, is directing a team that has been

in upheaval all season.“I said at the last Olympic trials that was

going to be it,” said the 1998 Scotties cham-

pion of a planned retirement at the time.“Then we won the Canada Cup so then westarted to play and now here we are again.

“We’ve lost two close games but we’replaying pretty well. There were a couple ofshots here and there that we could havemade a little better.”

It has been a topsy-turvy season for King.“My third, Lori Olson, showed up three

months pregnant in August,” said King. “Weknew we were going to have to make achange somewhere during the season. Youknow how pregnancies go, they can be real-ly iffy. Lori had to leave early because ofsome pregnancy issues and we’ve had tograb a few spares so that made it a littletough on us but our spares have been fine.”

Currently, Canadian junior champion skipKaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg is filling in atvice-skip and “she’s playing great”.

Olson, meanwhile, has given birth andwill return to the King lineup next fall.

“We think there’s a good chance we’ll bein the trials,” said King, “but we’ll have towait until next month to find out for cer-tain.”

Edmontonʼs Cathy King lets fly during Canada Cup action on Thursday.

- CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009Saskatchewan C a n a d a ’ s H e a r t l a n d

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The Morning Cup - Day 3 Edition

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