Van Daele beats traffic to claim third senior title

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This article was published 02/03/2010 (5992 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — Linda Van Daele won her third Manitoba senior women’s championship in classic fashion Monday at the Brandon Curling Club.

She drew to the button around traffic in the 11th end, with third Betty Couling, second Sharon Shannon and lead Liliane Fargey vigorously sweeping much of the way, to beat the defending champion and Brandon Curling Club mate Lois Fowler 7-6 in a rematch of Sunday’s Page playoff game.

“I just wanted to give it to the sweepers because I was heavy on a couple of draws,” said Van Daele. “This one feels pretty good because it’s been a while. I was due.”

One shot earlier, Fowler attempted to deny Van Daele draw access to button with a centre-line guard and was almost perfect. When Fowler’s stone was slightly light and failed to curl one inch more, Van Daele had her chance to draw for the win.

“We needed to be tighter in the house to at least put pressure on her and make the draw tougher,” said Fowler, who sought her seventh provincial title.

A key score of three in the sixth end gave Fowler her only lead of the contest, a 5-4 advantage.

However, the top-seeded Fowler gave up her momentum by throwing a heavy draw with her last stone of the seventh end, leaving Van Daele an open draw to the four-foot for a deuce.

“I thought (after the sixth end), ‘don’t even panic’, we just have to get two back and we did,” Van Daele said.

Van Daele’s victory still allowed the Fowler clan to celebrate, as the victorious second, Sharon Shannon, is sister-in-law to Fowler (sister of Brian Fowler, Lois’s husband and coach). Shannon’s third provincial title, adding to her 1998 mixed and women’s victories won with Lois Fowler as a teammate, gives the family a 16th Manitoba curling championship.

“We just had the hammer early and that’s what did it,” Shannon said. “We’ve got tons of respect for them. They would have done a great job at nationals, too.”

Westman’s top teams played to their potential, with third-seeded Joyce McDougall of the Brandon club reaching the semifinal before falling 6-4 to Fowler on Monday morning.

“We are the strongest because we build our teams to face each other and we want to beat each other,” Van Daele said. “If we can beat each other, the rest of the province is nothing.”

The next challenge for the champions awaits in Ottawa at the Canadian seniors men’s and women’s championships, March 20-28.

Van Daele’s best finish in two previous national appearances came in 2001, where she earned first place with a 9-2 round robin record. She lost that final 10-4 to Ontario’s Anne Dunn.

— Brandon Sun