Fowler triumph would be perfect

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This article was published 25/03/2009 (6255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With Lois Fowler and her Team Manitoba coasting through the Canadian seniors curling championships with a 7-1 record heading into today, there was just one obvious question for the Brandon skip Tuesday:

Is this the year Manitoba women’s curlers are perfect?

“Boy, wouldn’t that be nice,” Fowler said by telephone from Summerside, P.E.I., where her team won a couple of nail-biters over Quebec and Saskatchewan Tuesday to improve to 7-1.

“We’d love to do our part.”

A Canadian senior women’s championship by Fowler in P.E.I. this coming weekend is now the only thing standing in the way of a picture-perfect run for Manitoba’s women curlers, who already this winter have won a Canadian women’s title (Jennifer Jones), a Canadian junior women’s title (Kaitlyn Lawes) and a Canadian mixed title (Allison Nimik and Kendra Green, in support of Sean Grassie and Ross Derksen.)

It has been an utterly remarkable year for Manitoba’s women curlers, and a Fowler win in P.E.I. would cap a year that also saw Jeff Stoughton, with Fowler’s son Rob at second, make it all the way to the Brier final.

But she will have to overcome some long odds if she’s going to make it perfect for Manitoba’s women this year. A Manitoba team has not won a Canadian senior women’s title since Mabel Mitchell did it way back in 1983.

“We know that team and we’d love to replicate what they did,” Fowler said.

So far, so good. After suffering their first loss of the week against B.C. Monday night, Fowler and company stormed back Tuesday with a couple of gritty victories. First, they dropped Quebec 7-4 in the morning, stealing the eighth, ninth and tenth ends to sew up the victory.

They needed to dig even deeper against Saskatchewan in the afternoon, taking two in the ninth end, then stealing two more in the tenth to eke out an unlikely 7-6 victory. “It was a real battle,” Fowler said. “I’d gotten us into a bit of a pickle. And then to steal two? I never thought we’d steal the game.

“We’re just thrilled right now. We didn’t come here just for a good time. We came here with the goal of making the playoffs. And we’re not letting up, I’ll tell you that.”

Fowler sits in second place heading into today, trailing undefeated Nova Scotia. Those two teams meet on the final draw Thursday.

Fowler has a deeply personal stake in what happens in P.E.I. this week. Although she has won three provincial women’s titles and a mixed title, she has never worn a Canada jacket as a national curling champion.

Next year’s world seniors in Russia and Fowler said the idea of wearing a Canada jacket at that event is almost otherworldly. “It would be a dream come true,” she said.

Manitoba’s other team in Summerside also ground out a big win Tuesday. Clinging to a 3-4 record and needing to win all his remaining games, Hamiota’s Brent Strachan stole the 10th end against defending champion Eugene Hritzuk of Saskatchewan for a 7-6 victory, evening his record at .500.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca