Notebook

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 1:00 AM CST Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012

Scott wins without third

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This article was published 21/02/2012 (5218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Scott wins without third

RED DEER, Alta. — B.C.’s Kelly Scott continued her undefeated run at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Monday — and she did it despite missing a key team member from the lineup.

Ashern’s Sasha Carter — Scott’s longtime teammate and current third — did not play Monday morning in B.C.’s 7-5 victory over Team Canada’s Amber Holland because of what Scott later described as a severe bout of the flu.

CP
photos by jonathan hayward / the canadian press
British Columbia skip Kelly Scott is still the class of the field at the Scotties. — CP photos by jonathan hayward / the canadian press British Columbia skip Kelly Scott is still the class of the field at the Scotties.

Scott said Carter — who is pregnant — became ill following a 9-8 B.C. win Sunday night over Ontario’s Tracy Horgan.

“We had to pull the van over on the way back to the hotel, and she was still sick when we got back to the hotel,” said Scott, who rooms with Carter.

“We thought that might be it, but it carried on till about 2 in the morning. So, skippy had only about three hours of sleep.”

Despite the midnight misadventures, B.C. continued its surprising roll with a convincing victory over a previously undefeated Holland team.

Scott jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, yielded a game-tying three-ender to Holland in the fifth end but then regained control in the second half of the game to become the last undefeated team remaining in the 12-team field.

Carter was also absent from her team’s game against Nova Scotia’s Heather Smith-Dacey last night. In Carter’s absence, B.C. second and vice-skip Dailene Silverton has moved up to throw third rocks and alternate Sherry Fraser is throwing second stones.

Englot loses despite four-ender

SASKATCHEWAN’S Michelle Englot snatched defeat from the jaws of victory Monday afternoon, while simulataneously becoming one of the few teams to have scored a four-ender at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and still lost.

Playing P.E.I.’s Kim Dolan, Englot played a quiet tap with her final stone of the seventh end to score a four-ender and seize control of the game at 7-4.

Things looked even better for the Saskatchewan skip when she held Dolan to a single with the hammer in the eighth end. And that’s when it all came apart.

First, a disastrous end by Saskatchewan in the ninth end led to a game-tying steal of two for P.E.I. And then things went from bad to worse in the 10th end as Saskatchewan got in all kinds of trouble yet again, leaving Englot nothing but a thin double-takeout through a tiny port with the final rock of the game to try and secure the victory.

Englot was close — negotiating the port and removing one of the two P.E.I. counters, but the second one stuck around for the game-winning steal for P.E.I.

“I thought once we were through the hole, we couldn’t hit it too thick,” said Englot. “But it finished hard at the end and just over-curled on us… They made a lot of great shots to put us under pressure.

“It’s frustrating to have total control and then give it up.”

It was a costly loss for Englot, who looked like she was about to improve to 3-1 and a share of second place with Manitoba and Team Canada heading into tonight’s draw only to suddenly find herself instead at 2-2 and mired in a four-way tie for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Winner faces tough Scots

WHOEVER wins the Canadian women’s curling championship next Sunday will have the Scottish women’s curling juggernaut skipped by Eve Muirhead to contend with at next month’s World Women’s Curling Championship in Lethbridge.

A four-time world junior champion and the world women’s runner-up in 2010, Muirhead won her third Scottish women’s championship in the last four years in Perth last weekend.

Also curling in Lethbridge will be the USA’s Allison Pottinger, who curled for the Americans at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and 2011 European silver medallist Margaretha Sigfridsson of Sweden. Sigfridsson beat two-time Olympic gold medallist Anette Norberg in the Swedish final in January.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca