Saville Centre – Dean Darwent proved last week’s victory over Doug McLennan wasn’t a fluke in Wednesday’s rematch at the 50th annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions.
In the mixed final, Darwent skipped his Avonair rink to a 7-4 win in seven ends after making the playoff round when McLennan’s last rock in the A qualifier misfired.
“There weren’t too many differences between the two games,” Darwent said. “This was also a very close game and hard fought. We were just on the right side of the inch.”
In the first tilt, McLennan was down one in the eighth and last end with the hammer.
“I had a fairly easy double to win and I jammed it,” said the St. Albert skip. “We should’ve won that one.”
The final was also tighter than a drum.
“It was a pretty good game. We were dead even,” McLennan said. “In a game where you’ve got two teams that are pretty equal, it’s a little bad luck that’s going to be the difference and that’s what happened to us tonight, a little bad luck.
“But there is no shame in losing to those guys. That’s a pretty good team.”
Darwent had McLennan on the ropes with two in seven to lead by three.
“It was a grind, a really close match. The deuce in the seventh end is really what broke it open and from there we were able to cruise to victory,” said Darwent of the rink’s first city championship. “This is new territory and uncharted waters for us.”
Very few rocks were in play in seven when it came time for skip rocks.
“My first one curled too much and rolled off. If it rolls anywhere he is going to hit it. I think that one picked. The second one just went on me,” McLennan said. “If you get two sort of bad breaks in the same end, it’s an absolute simpleton deuce for them.”
McLennan waited for the end to unfold before attempting to steal.
“We weren’t necessarily trying to steal but when the opportunity availed itself, I thought what the hell,” he said. “We could’ve easily let him blank that end and try and steal one (in eight) and force the extra end.”
Darwent was happy to escape the end with two points.
“I gave him a bit of an opportunity when I came a little bit deep on my draw but I’m not sure what happened after that. His curled a little bit more than I expected, touched the guard and that’s how the deuce came to be,” said the winning skip at the 2013 Solo Liquor Mixed Bonspiel in St. Albert.
Darwent, third Heather Steele, second Kevin Tym and lead Cindy Laporte took advantage of the opportunities presented to them in the final.
“A couple of times I felt like mucking it up and going on the offence, but we were relatively patient. We waited for our opportunities and then capitalized,” Darwent said.
McLennan’s rink of third Alison Howes, second Colin Jenkyns and lead Lauren Jenkyns got off to a rocky start as Darwent stole two in the first end.
“I threw heavy against those two little biters, but we got the deuce back in the next end,” McLennan said.
Knotted at three apiece after four ends, Darwent regained the lead with a deuce in five and the next end dodged a bullet as McLennan settled for one instead of two with his last shot.
“I was very unhappy with that. We had thrown a couple there before and they curled something like four feet and that one tracked and rubbed something with button weight,” said McLennan.
The third rocker for Wade White’s bronze-medal winning rink at the 2013 Canadian Seniors Curling Championships seemed to lose his shooting touch down the stretch.
“I don’t know why I had a couple cut on me late in the game. It seemed like I was throwing them okay but they just took off,” McLennan said.
The 2010 champions were competing in their sixth cities in seven years.
After losing the A qualifier, the President’s Cup playoff winners at the St. Albert Curling Club advanced to the final with victories against Ellerslie in Monday’s B qualifier and Lancaster Park in Tuesday’s semifinal.
Karen Stephen, skip of the President’s Cup finalists in the St. Albert women’s playoffs, filled in for Lauren Jenkyns, the third for Christina Monk’s rink at cities, when there were scheduling conflicts involving the mixed and women’s teams.
“We had a good tournament,” McLennan said of the team’s 4-2 record in the 12-team draw. “Ally played outstanding over the entire tournament, as did Colin, Lauren and Karen. They are the premier players in our club. I'm extremely fortunate they want to play with me.”
