Sunday, February 7, 2010

Meet the new champs, same as the old champs

Alberta skip Jack Smart, beaced by Martin Purvis with lead Bridget Wilson watching
at 2009 Nationals - photo by Ian Readey

It was deja vu all over again in Edmonton and Kenora as Jack Smart and Wayne Ficek successfully defended their Provincial titles.

Smart's Calgary rink, with Anne Hibberd and Bridget Wilson maintaining their record of making every Alberta provincial team, beat Edmonton's Cliff Nuspl 11-2, completing a tournament where they averaged 8 point winning margins in their 5 games.

N. Ontario skip Wayne Ficek braced by Chester Draper
 at 2009 Nationals - photo by Ian Readey

It was a much tighter affair in Kenora, where local favourite Ficek faced Thunder Bay's Carl Levesque, 7-4 winner over Dawid in Saturday's semi-final. It was a back and forth game with Levesque stealing an early lead but being held to a single with hammer in the 8th, forcing an extra end.

In the extra the play was in the four foot with Ficek second Chester Draper drawing to the top of the 4, and Thunder Bay's Ron Brunelle playing a tap back. Ficek 3rd Mark Wherrett drew to the four foot but Levesque, facing two, put his last rock in the four foot just behind the t-line to sit shot.

Ficek with his last rock drew down to it to win by a measurement. Final score 7-6.

Ficek     0  0  2  0  3  0  1  0  1  -  7
Levesque  1  1  0  1  0  2  0  1  0  -  6 

5 comments:

Chris Daw said...

Congrats to both Jack and Wayne!

Well done guys!

Val said...

Congrats to the Ficek Rink Good luck at the Nationals!!!!!

Val from Millerville Alberta

Anonymous said...

With the present field, it should be a wide open affair....

Brian Rivers said...

Congratulations to Jack, Anne, Martin, and Bridget (and Tony Zummack) for winning the Alberta Wheelchair Curling Championship held this past weekend in Edmonton!!!

Good luck at the Canadian Championships!!

Anonymous said...

B.C. will certainly not be their powerhouse this year...bad enough four are at Paralympics, but BC had to field two teams for Nationals.