It’s hurry hard or go home for St. Albert curler Doug McLennan.
The third rocker on the Team Alberta rink skipped by Glen Hansen of Hinton was shooting for a spot in the medal finals with two games to go in pool play at the Canadian seniors (50-plus) championships at the Thistle Curling Club.
“I’m raring to go,” McLennan told the Gazette on Tuesday morning. “I hope to be in it.”
Alberta, with George Parsons and Don Bartlett at front-end, was tied for second in pool A with Quebec (Ted Butler of Buckingham Curling Club) and Saskatchewan (Glen Despins of Callie Curling Club in Regina) at 3-1 and Nova Scotia (Wayne Sangster of Truro Curling Club) was on top at 4-1 after Monday’s results.
The top four rinks in the A and B pools advance to the championship round to determine Saturday’s 9:30 a.m. semifinal pairings and the gold and bronze finals at 2:30 p.m.
The 2015 champion will advance to worlds next year at a location to be determined. This year’s worlds are in Sochi, Russia.
Alberta played the 2-3 Northwest Territories (Glen Hudy of Yellowknife Curling Centre) and Nova Scotia on Tuesday but the scores were unavailable at press time.
“The Territories are scrappy so they’re beatable and that would set up a real good one against Nova Scotia,” McLennan said. “We win one of these games and we’re in without having to worry about any tiebreakers. If we win both games we’ll finish first in our pool and that would be pretty big.”
Visit www.thistlecurling.ab.ca for the schedule and results.
Alberta’s first game was a quick 9-4 decision against 0-4 Northern Ontario (Al Hackner of Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay) on Saturday that ended with a steal of three in six.
Sunday morning Quebec counted four with the hammer in seven to win 9-5 and Alberta bounced back to double Saskatchewan 4-2, thanks to a steal of two in seven to make it 4-1.
Monday a five spot in two against 0-4 Yukon (Walter Wallingham of Whitehorse Curling Club) set the stage for a 10-2 rout in six ends.
“We were really solid against Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan. The Yukon is just not there yet but they gave us a run so it was a bit of a time game and you just had to be patient,” McLennan said. “Quebec, well that one was a little sloppy. That was an 8 a.m. game and sometimes an 8 a.m. game in a competition where you haven’t visited with the boys in a while can be a little rough.”
Alberta was also 4-0 in the draw to the button for hammer.
“We’ve managed to get the hammer every time so we’ve been really good there and that helps in an eight end game getting the brick,” said McLennan.
He gave the ice conditions two thumbs up after a sketchy practice session.
“The ice has been very predictable and really fun to play on. If you eliminate that luck factor a little bit the better teams are going to win on this ice.”
McLennan, 57, and Parsons are curling at their second seniors nationals in three years after returning home with bronze medals from the 2013 championship in Summerside, P.E.I. McLennan was third on the Alberta rink with skip Wade White, second Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert and Parsons at lead that finished 9-3 overall.
“I think this field is better when I look at the different pools,” said McLennan, noting that Wayne Tallon of New Brunswick, the 2013 national senior champion and last year’s world gold medallist, was 3-1 in pool B after Monday’s draw. “In ’13 we started off at 2-2 and then we went on a run of seven wins in a row (to clinch second place in the round robin at 9-2) and a lot of those were kind of let’s not say lucky but we had the upper hand in terms of luck. The ice was terrible too.”
After day three Alberta had emerged as a medal contender.
“Donnie is throwing lead and he is the brain, Georgy is the brawn and Glen is making everything. All I’ve got to do pretty much is do what Danny said a couple of years ago; I’m just one of the best guys who stands at the other end and yells. It works well for me. I’m good with it,” McLennan said.
A strong cheering section has faithfully watched every shot in every end of every game for the home province.
“When I went the first time in ’13 you’re just kind of in awe of everything a little bit. Obviously you’re excited all the time but with this one here being at home it’s fun because of lot of friends and family come out to watch. They’re rooting you on and it gives you a nice warm feeling. The experience is almost better than it was in P.E.I.,” said McLennan, who guided his Thursday mixed team to seven President’s Cups in eight years in the St. Albert playoffs and won the 2010 Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions.
