The Alberta champions are tighter than a corn broom as a winning combination in stick curling.
The 14th annual Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship is only the third time Ryan Meyer and Dennis Fitzgerald will compete together.
“Dennis and I are very compatible as far as the way we think. We hardly ever have to say anything to each other. We just kind of play the same kind of game so we just do our thing and hope for the best,” said Meyer, 71.
At the 2014 nationals in St. Albert, the Morinville tandem finished second overall as newbies to the veteran British Columbia tag-team of John Campbell and Tim Smith. A three-ender in the sixth was the difference as the Armstrong Curling Club team completed the 4-3 comeback for its second Sure-Shot Stick Trophy since 2011. Campbell and Smith also won the 2016 championship in Vernon.
“We did way better than we thought we would. We didn’t really know what to expect,” said Meyer, who hooked up with Fitzgerald at nationals for their first major stick event after testing their skills in Morinville's stick league.
“It will help give us something to draw on and something to make us feel a little bit more comfortable this time at nationals,” said Fitzgerald, 72. “You just try and stay level and not get too excited.”
The 48-team nationals start Monday in St. Albert.
“Our goal is just to play as good as we can and hopefully we’re in every game,” Meyer said. “It takes a little bit of luck to win anything of that calibre so we’re just going to go in with an open attitude and do the best we can.
“But this time we’ve got a little bit of experience now.”
Meyer and Fitzgerald joined forces again in February at provincials at Ellerslie and in the final needed an extra end to defeat the husband and wife team of Randy and Ruby Olson of St. Albert 3-2.
“The Alberta one was fairly tough. We had I think three extra-end games,” Meyer said. “Maybe we knew more what to expect in the provincials because we did nationals in 2014.
“I’m looking forward to the same kind of situation in St. Albert. We know the competition is going to be pretty tough.”
In pool D, Meyer/Fitzgerald finished 4-1 and the Olsons tied for second at 3-2 and in the head-to-head meeting it was 4-2 for the St. Albert side.
The eight-team championship round featured victories of 3-2 against Lee/Nimmo and 3-1 against the Shiptons of Barrhead for the Morinville reps while the Olsons slid past Yaremko/Jenkyns 7-1 and Jenson/Moe 6-1.
“It was a really hard-fought final couple of games that we had,” Fitzgerald said. “Hopefully those are the kind of games we can draw on for that experience since we were successful.”
The final started with a steal of one by Meyer/Fitzgerald and in five made it 2-0 before the Olsons tied it with a deuce in six.
Meyer nailed down the victory with the hammer after Randy’s last attempt.
“He tried to bury and it wasn’t buried. It was a good three quarters open so we just kind of played a controlled shot and we were lucky enough to hit and stay,” Meyer said.
Winning the Alberta championship trophy, sponsored by Milt and June McDougall of St. Albert, was a moment to cherish.
“It was very exciting," Meyer said. "Provincials was tougher than I expected but it was good. There’s a lot of good curlers out there."
Last year’s provincial champions also hailed from Morinville as Tony Van Brabant and Scott Holland sealed the deal with the last shot in the extra end of the final to slip past hometown favourites' Tom Steele and Al Schultz in St. Albert.
“Stick curling in Morinville is really thriving and really popular,” said Fitzgerald, a regular along with Meyer “every week in our league as well as in a mixed league.”
However, “We don’t get to curl together a whole lot because we’re usually on different teams for competitive reasons,” Fitzgerald said.
Despite “the wear and tear on my knees,” Fitzgerald’s love of the game continued because of the stick.
“If you’re a good curler without a stick you’ll be a good one with one. The stick actually makes everybody a better curler especially people who can’t throw hard very well any more with a normal deliver,” said the grandfather of six.
Meyer, president of the Morinville Seniors Curling League, is a big fan of the stick.
“It’s a second life for a lot of us,” said Meyer, who will welcome his ninth grandchild in June and the oldest is eight years old. “I can still slide but I got to helping a lot of people that couldn’t slide anymore and I got them to go to a stick in Morinville and I thought this isn’t right that I'm telling everybody they should be playing with a stick and I was still sliding so I switched to a stick I suppose six, seven years ago and I've just stayed with it. When you get a little older it’s easier on the body.”
