The Dale Briske rink returns to the Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions as the President’s Cup men’s playoff winners for the second time in four years.
The 52nd annual competition starts Tuesday night at the Glen Allen Curling Club in Sherwood Park.
“It means a lot to us to go back there again,” Briske said after Wednesday’s 7-2 decision in seven ends over Gary Hoekstra in the A-B final at the St. Albert Curling Club. “We did pretty well there the last time. We got to the semifinal and we’re going to try and improve that record and go for it this time.”
The Tuesday league foursome of Briske, third Les Ferguson, second Rick Dallyn and newcomer Grant Cook march into cities with very few losses.
“We’re on a pretty good streak this year. We went through the regular round-robin with only one loss maybe,” Briske said. “The big thing was the ice here was really good. I really liked the ice this year at the club.”
Consistency is the name of the game for Briske’s veteran lineup.
“We’re getting a year older every year unfortunately so we’re just trying for more consistency with our board weight, our hits and our control weight,” Briske said. “We did some timing this year to make sure we’re throwing the same speed all the time. We’re all trying to get a similar time so we can call the ice better so we have better consistent throws.”
A conservative game plan resulted in a perfect 4-0 record in the eight-team double-knockout playoff format.
“It really served us well because we can hit with a lot of teams and once we need to start putting pressure on we seem to be able to make the odd draw too and really get the other team into some difficulty,” Briske said. “As long as you keep it clean and don’t give up any big ends we have an excellent chance of winning.”
The final looked like it would go down to the wire until Briske broke it open with a draw for three in five to lead 4-2. After steals of two in six and one in seven the handshakes started.
“The big end was the turning point. We actually had some rocks in play and we were able to chip them out enough that they were trying to freeze and they made some not bad ones but we actually made some better chip outs at the end,” Briske said.
There were very few rocks in the play leading up to the fifth end.
“It was a really tight game. We were basically playing a conservative game right from the start and so was Gary. There weren’t very many misses,” Briske said. “We had chances but we couldn’t get draw weight until about the second half. It was very keen ice. Very nice.”
Hoekstra opened the scoring in the first end and Briske blanked the second before settling for one in third when his draw attempt on the last shot was a tad heavy.
In four, with only one rock in the house, Hoekstra’s hit and stick for one made it 2-1.
“We actually did start off strong but once we got to the middle ends we just kind of missed a few key shots,” Hoekstra said. “All the credit to those guys. They curled well. They played a wide-open game. We just couldn’t seem to get any pressure on them and they had a lot of pressure on us throughout the final.”
Hoekstra’s band of brothers – Eldon at third and Brian at second – all firefighters, were joined by spare Jeff Wilson with rinkmates Brad Hoekstra and Tim Famulak on the team’s five-man rotation unavailable for the final.
It was the first time in “way too many years” together that the mighty Hoekstras reached the final after toiling in the Thursday league shadows of Hootie and the Old Fish – the King rink won its 10th President’s Cup in 22 years in 2014 but this year the three-time city champions bowed out in two straight games.
“This was our best run. It all started off when we played (Briske) in the very first game of the championships. They scored seven on us in the first two ends so we were down 7-0 but we came back and Dale made a really good double to win the game for them. We made it all the way back against them so all of a sudden we got a little bit of momentum and we made it all the way through the B side and it just seemed like we kind of ran out of gas tonight on just the real key shots,” Hoekstra said of the team’s 3-2 playoff showing.
Briske’s core group have curled together for at least six years and their first trip to the President’s Cup final in 2010 ended with losses of 8-6 in eight ends and 7-1 in four ends against King, the B-side challenger.
“We have a good squad. We just have to play consistent to be successful,” Briske said.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the winning team’s picture.
