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Nugget Column #23 – Tuesday March 1st, 2016
North Bay’s Kate Sherry is a provincial champion once again.
Representing the Sudbury Curling Club, Sherry played vice for Team Kira Brunton and was successful in defending her Northern Ontario bantam girls title, which was contested at the Community First Curling Centre in Sault Ste. Marie February 25th – 28th, 2016.
The team locked up a berth in Sunday’s final with a perfect 7-0 record after round robin and defeated Team Romyn from Sioux Lookout by a score of 6-4 to seal the deal.
Brunton entered the final end of the championship final tied with hammer and executed a tricky angled raised takeout on her final stone to score two. Video footage of the final shot is available at Facebook.com/NBGraniteClub.
This marks a third provincial crown in two years for the young Widdifield Secondary student who also represented the Northern Ontario Curling Association at this season’s Canadian Juniors as second for Team Megan Smith.
Sherry now prepares for the Under 18 World Curling Championships in Edmonton this month in addition to the OFSAA Curling Championships being hosted by the North Bay Granite Club next week.
Widdifield Secondary School secured automatic entries by virtue of hosting the prestigious event but that didn’t prevent Team Chris Bowman from going out an earning their spot fair and square. Chris Bowman with Ben Alexander, Tanner Johnson and Will Patterson captured the NOSSA Boys Curling banner on February 24th in Sault Ste. Marie.
With OFSAA taking over the club next week, there will be no regular league play all day Monday – Wednesday or Thursday morning. Curling fans are encouraged to view the games and cheer on our home rinks.
The Moose is Loose in Race Towards New “MA Cup”
Curling Canada has created a new provincial/territorial ranking system to measure Member Association (MA) performance at all of the Curling Canada-operated and sanctioned national curling championships.
Northern Ontario is currently sitting in second rank (trailing Alberta by a single point) as a result of numerous exceptional performances by our curlers at the most elite competitions.
In fact, Northern Ontario has medaled at three out of six Canadian championships this season (Mixed Bronze – Colin Koivula, Junior Men’s Silver – Tanner Horgan, Women’s Silver – Krista McCarville) and just barely missed a bronze medal when our women’s team lost by a single point to Alberta at the Traveler’s Curling Club Championship in November.
All eyes will be on Brad Jacobs as he looks to earn his fourth Tim Horton’s Brier medal next week when one of the competition’s strongest fields of all-time hits the ice in Ottawa.
We’ll also be cheering on our Senior and Wheelchair curlers as they approach their respective national championships before the season ends.
The winning Member Association, based on the highest average points, will hoist the MA Cup, presented by TSN. Additionally, the Governor’s Cup will be awarded to the Member Association making the biggest year-to-year improvement on an average points basis.
Both prestigious Cups are formally presented at Curling Canada’s National Curling Congress.
Bobby Ray General Manager North Bay Granite Club