Team Yizek wins 5th straight Alberta Championship

Bruno Yizek, Jack Smart, Anne Hibberd, Bridget Wilson, Martin Purvis
Coach Andy Jones

 Cliff Nuspl skip, Mike McMullan 3rd, Warren Fleury 2nd, Shawna Walsh lead
Coach Cathy Craig. 

Calgary's Team Yizek, playing on home ice and looking for their fifth consecutive provincial title, went out to an early 7-0 lead over Edmonton's Cliff Nuspl in today's final of the Alberta Wheelchair Curling Championship at the Ogden Legion CC. After the break, Nuspl took a single in 5 and stole 1 in the 6th, but gave up 4 in the 7th. Yizek won 11-2.

Team Yizek, with Jack Smart, Anne Hibberd, Bridget Wilson and Martin Purvis, is a talented team that has been working together since Ernie Comerford started the program in Calgary in 2004.

Bruno Yizek is a Paralympic gold medallist who will be in Prague defending Canada's World title in Prague in three weeks. Both Anne and Bridget have also worked with the Team Canada squad, and their experiences have been integrated into the teams practices.

Now coached by Andy Jones, for the past two plus seasons they were guided by Tony Zummack, newly appointed British national coach. He told me the team prepares just as hard as Team Canada; the only diference is lack of access to the specialists and off-site resources that the national team enjoys.

Team Yizek's experience and the time and effort they put into preparing for championships, made them heavy favourites to repeat as provincial champions. In seven weeks they will know if they are good enough to go one better than in 2007 and 2009, and break BC's stranglehold on the national championship.

Calgary's Yizek faces Edmonton's Nuspl in Alberta Provincial Final

Five time defending champion Bruno Yizek's rink reached the finals of the Alberta Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championships at Calgary's Ogden Legion CC, defeating fellow Calgarian Dale Keith 14-6 with seven unanswered points in the second half of the game.

Cliff Nuspl beat David Graves 10-2 in the battle to choose which Edmonton team would reach the final and therefore gain a place either as champion or host at the Nationals March 20-27.

The Provincial final between Yizek (4-0) and Nuspl (3-1) starts at 10.30AM tomorrow (Sunday January 30)

Alberta Provincials - Day 2

In the last draw in the four team round robin for the Alberta Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championship, the Calgary teams played each other - Yizek beating Keith 10-1 in 6 ends. They'll face each other again in the 1v4 semi-final. Nuspl beat Graves 7-3 and will face each other in the all Edmonton 2v3 semi-final.

Keith losing to Yizek this morning means the final will have a team from each community. With two teams to qualify for the Nationals, this guarantees there'll be an Edmonton team at the Nationals in Edmonton in March.

Alberta Provincials Day 1

Calgary and Edmonton each have two teams competing at the 2011 Alberta Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championships being held at Calgary's Ogden Legion Curling Club.

In the opening draw, heavily favoured Team Yizek played against their 2010 alternate Cliff's Nuspl's Edmonton rink. The teams were tied at 2 at the 4th end break, Nuspl pulled ahead 4-2 after 6, but could not hold on as Team Yizek put three more on the board to win 5-4.

Edmonton posted a win with Dave Graves defeating Calgary's Dale Keith 7-3.

In the second draw Yizek (2-0) beat Graves (1-1)  12-5 and Nuspl (1-1) beat Keith (0-2) 7-3, both games called after 7 ends.

Cathy Craig is posting occasional scores via Twitter - account 1CathyC

Calgary host Alberta Provincials Jan 28-30

The Alberta Provincial Championship will be held at the Ogden Legion CC in Calgary from Friday January 28 with the final on Sunday January 30. As last year, four teams will compete; two from Calgary and two from Edmonton.

Team Canada alternate Bruno Yizek rejoins his Calgary teammates after Paralympic duty last year. Team Smart 2010 thus becomes Team Yizek 2011 with Bruno Yizek at skip, Jack Smart, Anne Hibberd, Bridget Wilson and Martin Purvis, the all-star 2nd at last year's Nationals in Kelowna.

Team Yizek in a team meeting
Jack Smart, Bruno Yizek, Martin Purvis, Bridget Wilson, Anne Hibberd

Their coach for the past two-plus seasons has been Tony Zummack, now newly appointed Great Britain wheelchair curling coach. He tells me: "The coaching duties for Team Yizek are now in the capable hands of Andy Jones. 

"I look forward to their continued successes knowing their goals and ambitions. If I am still in Calgary during the Provincials I will be keeping an eye on them as a fan and a friend.

"The decision was made to have a new coach with the team prior to the Provincials so that the transition moving forward would be as smooth as possible and give Andy time to know the players. I have spent the last month with the team and Andy providing as much insight to their development and team philosophies as possible. I am confident that all 5 players and Andy are prepared and looking forward to the upcoming competitions."

Brian Rivers coaches Team Keith, Calgary's other contenders. They have Dale Keith at Skip, Karl Meier 3rd, George Assenheimer 2nd, Wanda Pizzinato  at lead with Curtis Junor the alternate.

Edmonton's Cathy Craig is bringing two teams to Calgary. Cliff Nuspl, who skipped an Edmonton team in 2008 and 2010 and was invited to join Team Smart as allternate in Kelowna last year, has Mike McMullan 3rd, Warren Fleury 2nd, and Shawna Walsh at lead.

The second Edmonton team is skipped by Dave Graves throwing 3rd stones, with Don Donaldson throwing 4th, Dwaine Shupac 2nd and lead Marie Laframboise. Doug MacEachern is the Edmonton alternate.

The format is a 3 draw round robin (first draw 11AM Friday) with 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 semi-finals 2.30PM Saturday, then a Sunday 10.30AM final. Because there will only be 9 provincial teams competing at the Nationals in Edmonton, Alberta will field a Host team. That means that both teams competing in the Alberta final will play at the Nationals.

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 

Alberta and N. Ontario Provincials Day 2

In Edmonton, Jack Smart finished round robin play with a 13-3 defeat of Edmonton's Donaldson in just 6 ends at the Alberta Provincials. Nuspal beat Keith 12-3 in 7 ends setting up an all Calgary (Smart and Keith) and all Edmonton (Donaldson and Nuspl) semi-final.

Both semi-finals ended in early 6th end handshakes, as Smart beat Keith 14-1 and Nuspl beat Donaldson 9-1, setting up a north vs. south final, 12.30pm at the Jasper Place CC.

In Kenora, Wayne Ficek beat Richard Dawid 6-3 to advance to Sunday's N. Ontario provincial final against the winner of the Levesque/Dawid semi-final. Results will be posted HERE.

Championship weekend for Alberta and N. Ontario

Two teams from Calgary will travel to Edmonton's Jasper Place CC to challenge two Edmonton teams for Alberta's Provincial Championship. Jack Smart's Calgary champions make one forced change. Last year's 5th, Martin Purvis, replaces Bruno Yizek who'll be on Team Canada duty during the Nationals. They'll play with the confidence of knowing that they have represented their province at every national championship, coming within a whisker of gold in 2009.

The second Calgary team has Dale Keith at skip, Bruce Matthews at third, with rookies Ron Pawlyk at second, Wanda Pizzinato at lead and Curtis Junor as the alternate.

This will be Keith's third appearance at the Provincial Championship, his first as Skip. Matthews is also making his third appearance at this event. The team is Coached by Glen Brunelle, Coordinator of the Calgary Wheelchair Curling Association.

The Shoppers Home Healthcare 2010 N. Ontario Championship sees 2009 champion Wayne Ficek fielding an unchanged team, as his Kenora club hosts Thunder Bay rivals Carl Levesque and Richard Dawid from the Fort William CC. These three teams have just returned from the Ontario Parasport Winter Games, where Levesque took silver and Ficek took bronze.