Sisters’ reunion tour nets provincial title

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This article was published 09/02/2009 (6319 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEEPAWA — They decided last summer to stop beating up on each other and to return instead to doing what they do best — beat up on everyone else.

The results of Manitoba curling’s latest family reunion came on the ice Sunday afternoon when sisters Barb Spencer and Darcy Robertson won their third Manitoba women’s curling championship, dropping Fort Rouge clubmate Karen Porritt 10-7 in the final of the provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Spencer gave full credit afterward to Robertson — and their mother — for getting the team back over the top.

"I’m just so happy to have my sister back," Spencer said. "I think this was the key to our success… And thanks to my Mom, she’s kind of the glue that keeps our family together and she worked on both of us to get us back together."

Robertson, meantime, was tipping her hat to Spencer’s play during the previous week. "I hoped I helped in winning this competition," Robertson said, "but she played great all week."

Yesterday marked the third straight year Spencer and Robertson had played in a Manitoba women’s final, but the first time they had done it together since the two sisters parted ways as teammates three years ago.

Two years ago, Robertson curled without Spencer and made it to the provincial final before falling to Jennifer Jones. Last year, Spencer curled without Robertson in the final but with the same result — a loss to Jones.

But with Jones not playing in the provincials this year because she has an automatic nationals berth as the defending champion, Spencer and Robertson — at the urging of their parents, Jim and Cheryl Kirkness — decided to renew a combination that had previously won Manitoba women’s titles in 1986 and 2003 and a Manitoba junior title in 1984.

Spencer skipped, Robertson played third and Barb Enright — who was also on those previous champions — played lead.

Add B.C. emigre Brette Richards to the mix and the combination proved to be too much.

Spencer cruised through the round-robin at 6-1, won back-to-back playoff games Saturday night and then was victorious again in Sunday’s final to close the deal.

Spencer faced in the final a Porritt foursome that had already won convincingly earlier in the day, drilling Kristy Jenion 9-3 in the semifinal. The two teams traded deuces for five consecutive ends before Porritt finally took her first lead of the game with a steal in the ninth end, giving her a 7-6 lead coming home.

But the problem was both teams had displayed terrible time management during the game and had around just five minutes and one timeout each to complete the final end, two minutes less than is generally considered the minimum necessary to effectively play an end.

Both teams rushed through their first six rocks but it was Porritt who paid the higher price, staring at three Spencer rocks in the four-foot when she went to throw her first rock and four Spencer counters when she went to throw her last one.

Both attempts crashed and Porritt — who released her last rock with two seconds left on her clock — was left to wonder later what might have been.

"It was a great game and it’s really too bad the time clocks determined the outcome basically. We couldn’t play that last end, we didn’t have enough time to finish it," said Porritt. "We needed to manage our time better."

Manitoba’s latest curling champions are, like so many curling teams, ordinary folks with abilities to sometimes do extraordinary things. Spencer is 42 and a teacher; Robertson is 43 and a dental hygienist; Richards is 25 and a masters student at University of Manitoba; and Enright is a systems administrator.

Spencer and company will now represent Manitoba in the Canadian women’s curling championship in Victoria later this month where Jones is expected to be the favourite.

Spencer and Robertson missed the playoffs in two previous trips to the women’s nationals, but Spencer thinks this year might be different — and Manitobans might really have something cheer about on the final Sunday.

"We think we have the team that could possibly go further," said Spencer.

"I’d love to be in the final against Jennifer."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca