Senior curlers book their tickets to nationals

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This article was published 25/02/2019 (2734 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RIVERS — Butch Mouck knocked out a pair of past Manitoba senior men’s curling champions to reach Monday’s final, but he couldn’t find a way to defeat a third.

The Gilbert Plains product and his team of Glenn Parrott, Scott Gray and James Barnett lost 7-1 to Dave Boehmer’s foursome from Petersfield in the Manitoba senior men’s championship at the Riverdale Community Centre.

In the women’s final, Terry Ursel’s Arden-based team booked their ticket to nationals with a 6-4 victory over Brandonite Maureen Bonar and her Winnipeg-based team.

“It’s pretty disappointing to come out and we weren’t as sharp as we were all week,” Mouck said.

“Dave’s team played unbelievable. They must have played 97.5 per cent. They were on fire. They squeaked everything. We were so close, and then all of a sudden the game gets away from us.”

Mouck finished second in his pool at 6-1, with his only loss coming to Boehmer, who topped the group at 7-0. Mouck advanced to the 3 vs. 4 Page playoff game where he defeated three-time provincial champion Kelly Robertson of Neepawa 9-8 before topping two-time provincial champion Randy Neufeld 6-3 in the semifinal. Boehmer reached the final by upending Neufeld 6-5 in the 1 vs. 2 Page playoff.

The final was a different story when Mouck took on Boehmer and his defending championship team of Terry McRae, Tom Want and George Hacking. After scoring one in the first end Boehmer’s team made four perfect draws behind cover in the second, leaving Mouck facing three with his last. He tried an angle-raise takeout on a path he didn’t know and missed it to give up the steal of three.

Things didn’t get any easier for Mouck after that, as his team missed four attempted raises to give up a steal of two in the third end, and then he rubbed on shot rock on a draw to give up one in the fourth. After making a hit and stay for one in the fifth, the teams shook hands.

For Boehmer, it capped an undefeated run through the championship event.

“I never thought we’d go undefeated with the calibre of curling. It’s great,” he said.

Boehmer was fuelled by last year’s run at senior nationals. The team went 6-4, but was haunted by a loss to the Northwest Territories in the second draw that cost them a playoff spot.

They came out this year determined to get back to nationals. Now that they’ve accomplished that goal, they’re setting their focus to making a playoff appearance in Chilliwack, B.C. The Canadian senior men’s and women’s events run from March 22 to 28.

“We beat all the teams that were in the final and the third-place team, so we know we can compete there,” Boehmer said.

“We’re looking to go back hungry and take it all.”

As for Mouck, he’s proud to have reached his first provincial final, but wishes it would have gone a little better.

“At the moment it kind of sucks,” he said. “We played great all week. We had a really good week. We played tough teams and came back, played good with the lead and the ice was fantastic. Everyone was awesome here.”

Wanda Rainka couldn’t think of better people to go to the Canadian championships with than her current teammates. The Neepawa resident, who throws third stones, and the rest of Ursel’s team booked their ticket to nationals with the win against Bonar’s team.

The foursome, which also includes Brenda Walker of Plumas and Tracy Igonia of Winnipeg, went to nationals two years ago, when Rainka was the team’s fifth.

Ursel’s team took the easiest possible path to the final. They defeated Patti Ulrich, Bonar and Hamiota’s Sandra Cowling to qualify through the A-event in the triple-knockout qualifying round and advance to the A vs. B Page playoff game. After having Saturday and Sunday off, they returned to the ice on Monday and topped Bonar, who plays with Janice Blair, Allyson Bell and Deb McCreanor, 8-5 in the Page game.

A third meeting was needed between the two after Bonar beat Laurie Deprez 9-3 in the semifinals.

The final was played close to the chest early on without a lot of rocks in play. Ursel took one in the second end and got a break in the third when Bonar, facing two, hit and rolled out with her last to give up a steal of one. A draw to the back of the four-foot in the fourth end by Ursel’s team took away a promising end for Bonar, who was light with her first and then promoted an Ursel stone with her last one to trail 4-0 at the break.

Bonar didn’t give up. She got partially behind cover in the fifth end and had an open draw for two when Ursel’s final stone didn’t curl enough to remove Bonar’s counter. She then stole singles in each of the next two ends to tie things up coming home.

Ursel got a break in the eighth end when Bonar came up light trying to come around a centre-line guard, allowing Ursel to draw to the top four-foot edge-on-edge with the guard. Bonar was wide with her last hit, giving Ursel the game.

Now Ursel’s team changes its focus to improving on its finish from the 2017 national championships. The squad, which had Gwen Wooley at third, topped its preliminary round pool with a 5-1 record, but lost three of its final four games in the championship pool and missed the playoffs by one victory.

Rainka would like to at least reach the playoff round at this year’s event.

“We have a lot of experience and we’re just going to build off of that,” she said.

“Manitoba is obviously a hard province to get out of. Any time you can go and then go again, it’s something you want to take advantage of.”

cjaster@brandonsun.com

Twitter: @jasterch