Sherwood Park – The second city banner since 2010 was extra special for Doug McLennan’s mixed rink.
“There is a lot of good mixed teams here so to win it the second time is pretty sweet,” said McLennan after Sunday’s last-rock thriller at the 52nd annual Edmonton and area Tournament of Champions.
“When you leave here with the banner you know it’s a pretty good season.”
The 6-5 decision against the cagey Don Bridgewater of the Crestwood marked the third consecutive appearance in the city final for the winners of four-straight President’s Cups and eight in nine years in the St. Albert Curling Club playoffs.
“We’ve got a pretty good mixed team. We’re in the hunt here all the time,” said McLennan of his talented lineup of third Allison Howes, second Colin Jenkyns (the team’s skip in the St. Albert playoffs this year and 2013 with McLennan curling at the Canadian senior championships) and alternate Nicole Bellamy, filling in for lead Lauren Jenkyns, who was skipping her St. Albert team in the women’s final on the next sheet.
The first city championship was also decided on McLennan’s last shot, a hit and stick for two to defeat Nevin deMilliano of the Saville Centre 7-5.
“We hadn’t won it before so that was kind of sweet too. This time we were one down coming home with hammer. We should (pull out a) tie from this pocket or a win from this other pocket so I’m pretty happy about the whole thing,” said McLennan, who got skunked 7-0 in six ends in last year’s final by Les Rogers of the Saville Centre with alternate Darcy Corcoran the winning skip.
In the eighth end against Bridgewater, McLennan was laying one with hammer while mulling over two options on opposite sides of the centre line that was covered with rocks to score the winning deuce.
“There was no risk either way; with an extra (end) you get to live another day, I guess,” he said. “But to win it on last rock is kind of the way you want to do it.”
McLennan initially was going to rearrange the rocks on the right side of the rings but after a chat with Jenkyns while surveying the situation from the hack he hustled back to the house for discussions with Howes before deciding on attacking the rocks on the left side of the centre line.
“I could see (Bridgewater’s) whole rock and I needed to get the inside edge to be able to double him out, past the back one, but I had seen one on that other side before that tracked pretty good so I thought what the hell I’ll give it a go and at least we’ll go extra if we miss,” McLennan said of his bid to knock around some stones to count two. “The way the rock was going I thought we would be pretty close. The line was good. I would’ve enjoyed it if they had to sweep it more. It’s kind of like waiting for a needle in the dentist's chair but it was fun.”
The table was set for a potential steal by Bridgewater in seven.
“We had guards up early, which was good, we just couldn’t capitalize on them,” he said. “There were a few misses on our part to get us in to some trouble.”
The final started with a steal of one by McLennan and Bridgewater answered with a draw for two. McLennan blanked the third end and in four settled for a nose hit for one to knot it at two.
“Donnie made a really nice cross house double to keep us to one,” McLennan said.
In five, Bridgewater regained the lead and in six McLennan drew to his shot rock to make it 4-3.
Bridgewater was gunning for a deuce in seven and was successful, despite a peach by Howes on her second delivery for second shot.
“On seven, we were just trying to force him to take a point. I said if we have a chance to steal we’ll steal but Donnie makes a pistol and gets two but I can live with two because we had hammer on glass coming home,” McLennan said.
He opened the six-day, 12-team tournament at the Glen Allen Curling Club with a high-scoring result against Bridgewater.
“It would’ve been very close had we not given up a big end in three. It took us a while to battle back but we did to within one point,” Bridgewater said. “Everytime we play these guys it’s always a battle. Overall both games were very similar. There were misses on both sides but that’s mixed curling.”
In the sixth end of the final, Bridgewater’s third, Crystal Peterson, popped her knee during a delivery and after a lengthy stoppage in play Tracy Wallbank entered the game to curl with Kevin Gunderson, who was playing in place of Ron Ostrosky, and Paula Knight.
“The two girls that actually finished the game are the two girls I have won five previous city championships with and this is our eighth trip to the finals as a foursome, which is not bad,” said Bridgewater, who finished 4-2 at cities.
McLennan’s 4-1 record included splitting a pair against Dave Douglas of the Thistle and a win over Rob Bucholz of the Derrick.
“We lost on Friday (in the Q1 qualifier) to the Thistle in an extra end when he stole eight and nine but we beat them soundly (in Saturday’s semifinal),” McLennan said. “I didn’t really play well in the first two games but kind of got it together (Saturday against the Derrick in the Q3 qualifier and the Thistle). I got the weight right and that sort of stuff.
“The guys hung in there and picked me up when I was struggling and it worked out good. It was a team effort.”
