The Shannon Germsheid rink punched the winning ticket at the St. Albert Centre Ladies’ Bonspiel with a knockout performance in Sunday’s final.
Last-rock thrower Annette Mortensen called the shots as the St. Albert foursome hit everything in sight to beat Bev Merryweather 4-2 in seven ends at the St. Albert Curling Club.
“We didn’t want to give her the advantage of having rocks in play. We wanted to play a hit game, which we’re all relatively consistent at,” Mortensen said. “We figured we could beat anybody out there with an open game and hopefully make a draw once in a while if we have to.”
In the low-scoring affair Merryweather was held to one point in the fourth end and a steal of one in five to gain a 2-2 tie.
“We were trying for offence but it didn’t work out that well. We needed to get more guards in play,” Merryweather said. “Annette has a good team and they were hitting everything so we were trying to freeze on to things.”
After blanking the sixth end Mortensen was unsuccessful shooting for three in seven and settled for the only deuce in the game to break the tie.
“If you stay consistent and positive and just grind out each end you’re going to get your deuce,” Mortensen said. “Three would’ve been wonderful that end but I guess I was a little excited in the hack to throw that last one.”
In the eighth end the teams shook hands with two rocks to go after Mortensen removed the shot stone to sit three and Merryweather’s draw nicked a guard.
“I just needed to make that freeze and then we would’ve had a chance for two,” Merryweather said.
Mortensen was concerned Merryweather would finesse her way back into contention in the last end.
“She played a very strong game against us. She’s got a team that consistently can draw in there and I was worried about her playing freezes, which she was just about very successful with in seven to prevent us from a deuce,” said Mortensen.
She opened the final with a steal of one behind a wall of granite in front of the rings.
Merryweather blanked the next end and in three gave up a steal of one before rebounding to even the score.
“It was very close right to the very end. It was good opposition,” said Merryweather.
Her veteran line-up of third Jeanine Murch, second Helen Coverdale and lead Rica Caron was thrown together on the eve of the bonspiel. The St. Albert-based squad marched into the final with three straight wins, including a semifinal victory over Diana Backer.
“We’re happy just to make the final so it worked out pretty well,” Merryweather said. “They’re good curlers and if we did curl together a lot it probably would’ve been a better game for us today.”
Mortensen advanced to the final with wins against the Lindquist rink, Kathy Tennant and in the semifinals Dawna Schuman.
“We actually played the exact same type of game today as we did against Kathy. We got a deuce in seven [to break the tie] but coming home in eight we managed to give her a deuce to tie it up and then in nine we got the win,” said Mortensen.
The longtime St. Albert curler recruited Sharon Monk to play second with regular rinkmates Bean Nicol at third and Germsheid at lead.
“Having Sharon on board gave us a really, really strong front end,” said Mortensen.
Her rink pocketed $400 for winning the final and Merryweather collected $200 as the runner-up in the 18-team draw.
“We had a blast. The spiel was awesome. The club always does a good job and the ladies who helped out were fabulous,” Mortensen said.
In the B final the Kathy Piper rink skipped by Christina Haggith prevailed against the Kamitomo rink and Vera Neveu outlasted Betty Fenton in the C final.
