Picks pack a punch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2009 (6068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON — It’s a streak Jeff Stoughton is oh, so desperate to end and end ASAP. But when the curling gods reach down and play a role in extending his misery, well, it’s enough to have even one of the steeliest men in the game ready to curse the heavens.

Stoughton and his Charleswood Curling Club foursome lost to Kevin Martin 7-4 at the ‘Roar of the Rings’ Canadian Olympic Curling Trials Tuesday night, although that in itself isn’t exactly a newsflash. Martin, after all, has now won 10 straight against Stoughton, including a 10-4 smackdown in the Brier final last spring.

But in the eighth end — and with the two teams tied 4-4 and serving up a dandy — Stoughton had both of his rocks pick, leaving Martin for an easy draw for three in what was effectively the game’s knockout punch.

"It’s tough when you have a couple bad breaks go against you," said Stoughton, who kicked a couple of stones to bumpers at the end of the eighth and slammed his broom down in frustration.

"It’s disappointing, because we had them… we were sitting really good in that end. We’ve played four games and we hadn’t had anything (picks) and that’s why it’s so surprising.

"It’s disappointing because it was a good game. There were some great shots on both sides. It’s disappointing that it came down to basically two bad breaks on our side."

"It happens to everybody," added Martin. "It’s a terrible break in the eighth end. It’s so late in the game there’s no time to recover."

The loss drops Stoughton to 2-2 while Martin improved to 3-1. All the men’s teams are still chasing Glenn Howard, a perfect 4-0.

"It hurts now, but hopefully it won’t matter if we reel off a few more… wins, that is, not losses," said Stoughton. "We’ll just keep plugging away."

Stoughton meets fellow Manitoban Jason Gunnlaugson, now 0-4 after losing 9-4 to Randy Ferbey Tuesday night, in his lone game Wednesday before rapping up the round robin with games against Wayne Middaugh and Pat Simmons.

Gunnlaugson actually led Ferbey 3-0 after two ends and battled with the vet to the end before giving up five in the ninth.

"You can just see why they’ve done so well as a team, they just keep bringing it and applying the pressure," said Gunnlaugson.

"We’ve played these teams before, but to play them in this atmosphere with this kind of intensity and this many fans… this is exactly what we need. You might say we might end up with not a very good record here, but this is a good part of the system for us to play in the pre-Trials as a young team and then to get to see the big show. We were a heckuva long shot here, but come four years from now — which is more where our goal is at — we’ll have seen it before and we’ll have a lot better chance to compete."

Meanwhile, Jennifer Jones and her St. Vital foursome won their second straight in their only game Tuesday, knocking off Cheryl Webster 8-7 to improve to 2-2.

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"We still weren’t as sharp as we’d like to be. Hopefully we can be sharp (Wednesday), it’ll be a big day for us," said Jones, who faces Stefanie Lawton (2-2) and Cheryl Bernard (4-0) in the next two draws.

"Coming off the 0-2 start we felt like we’d have to grind it out. Now we’re kinda back even keel and I feel that we can take a deep breath and move on.

"If we just go and win the rest of our games I think we’re in a pretty good spot. It just gets too hard to scoreboard watch and standings watch… we’ve known better because of years gone by that anything can happen and as long as you go out and do your thing then it’s all right."

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

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