Rooster finally rules roost

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This article was published 02/03/2010 (5898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — After numerous playoff appearances and a 1995 men’s final loss to Kerry Burtnyk, Baldur’s Rob Ramage finally slipped on his first Manitoba championship curling jacket on Monday at the Brandon Curling Club.

The former chicken farmer, nicknamed Rooster, looked on as Bob Sigurdson of the Fort Garry club came up light on a ninth-end last rock draw against two Ramage counters, then conceded a 9-4 defeat.

“This was a dream and I didn’t want to lose another one,” said Ramage, who entered the Strathcona senior men’s championship as an unseeded team. “You don’t get too many chances. I don’t know if I heard any crowing (from the crowd), but I’m betting they’re crowing now. It’s going to be so good to put that Manitoba jacket on.”

It was the first championship for the Ramage squad of third Shawn McCutcheon of Carman, second Laurie Stewart of MacGregor, lead Dave Boutet of Winnipeg and fifth Eric Atkins of Manitou.

While the ninth end clinched the win, Ramage grabbed his destiny by the collar in the eighth end by executing an angle raise that welded his stone to a Sigurdson rock touching the back of the button behind a wall of granite that gave him a steal of one and a 7-4 advantage.

“There was another shot to draw on to another stone where we cut him to one… but I just feel sometimes I look at a shot and say ‘Let’s play it.’ We had just played a draw there and it ran perfect,” Ramage said.

Sigurdson lamented that lost opportunity in the eighth when he ticked a guard with his first shot in an end he was setting up for a big score.

“We could never get the lead in the game and we’re finally setting up for three and maybe get that lead,” Sigurdson said. “If I get by that guard, we can get three, maybe four. Then he steps up and makes that angle raise. What can you do?”

Sigurdson had to play two must-win tiebreakers on Sunday just to reach the playoffs on Monday, where he defeated Vic Peters 12-6 in a single-elimination Page playoff, then knocked out Brandon’s Jim Renwick 7-4 to set up the final matchup.

“Actually, I think that helped us in the end because we got in more games,” Sigurdson said. “There was less sitting around that way and we got into a groove and kept playing. Rob just made too many shots for us today.”

Ramage will now face other provincial champions at the Canadian senior men’s and women’s championship in Ottawa, March 20-28.

— Brandon Sun