No pressure.
At the end of round robin play, Team Manitoba skipped by Jennifer Jones had clinched the top spot going undefeated with an 11-0 record (which hasn't happened since 1985 which it was accomplished by Linda Moore, now of announcing fame, although they only had a 10-0 record since Team Canada didn't automatically get the chance to come back). Team Ontario, out of OUR curling club, skipped by Rachel Homan parked themselves firmly in second, with their only loss being to Jones and the Manitoba rink. In third, Team Canada from last year skipped by Heather Nedohin, and fourth, BC skipped by Kelly Scott.
The National Curling Association uses the Page Playoff system. Once the ranks are established, the quarter finals are played. The first and second ranked teams play each other, as well as the third and fourth ranked teams.
The winner of the 1-2 game gets a by into the finals. The loser plays in the semi-finals against the winner of the 3-4 game. The semi-final winner goes on to the finals.
Complicated enough? It makes a lot of sense once you get used to it.
Team Canada beat BC in the 3-4 game on Saturday afternoon. Or so we heard later. We'd been taping the game to watch it once Andre got home from curling that morning. We hit the fifth end break and I looked at the clock. 4:15 pm. The 1-2 game is on at 7. Kingston is only 2 hours away, and neither of us has to work in the morning. Then I opened my big mouth.
"You know, if we leave now, we could make the 1-2 game."
And so we drove to Kingston. Again.
I still haven't been able to figure out how we managed to pull this off, but we got there, parked, collected tickets, and found our seats with 15 minutes to spare.
Oh, yeah. And we had ice level seats. At the home end (which means that when it comes down to that critical shot in the last end for the win or loss, we are in the front row).
Knitting and curling watching (and associated beer drinking) go together like peanut butter and chocolate. The rumble of the rock as it's being thrown gives the cue to look up to see the shot. On TV the announcers just talk, so all I have to do is listen. Until Russ starts putting arrows everywhere. Then I'm liable to drop stitches if I don't pause for a minute.
When we went on Monday I had packed a very special project to bring with me. Socks for our friend Kyle. He is one of the people that taught André and I how to curl 4 years ago. He and André have curled the Ottawa Valley Curling Association Men's Speil the last few years together. He skips and André throws second. The first year they curled together one of the rinks was particularly chilly and Kyle eyed the socks I was knitting for myself. Apparently he'd like a pair to keep him warm while curling.
It's a good thing I like him, the man has size 11 feet.
So what better project to take to the Scotties, then socks for the man that taught us the game.
Look! Homan and Jones! And a giant green sock in progress. At the page 1-2 game in Kingston.
Homan went on to with that game, leaving Jones to battle Nedohin for the chance to play the finals. Pardon the fuzzy cell phone picture, but they came right near where we were, and the crowd crushed in. Remember, they are Team Ontario, we are playing in Ontario, and Kingston is close to Ottawa, so lots of local fans. Oh, and Ontario hasn't won the Scotties since 1996. And now they are guaranteed at least a silver.
Jones and Manitoba beat Nedohin and Canada in a very exciting Sunday morning game, meaning that at 7pm last night there would be a Jones/Homan rematch. They were 1-1 against each other.
And Homan and the rink out of the Ottawa Curling Club won the 2013 Scotties! The coming home party at the club is going to be epic. And there will be a Scotties banner in our club. Unreal.
In the mean time, I continue to slave away on the giant green sock. There's no curling on TV for now, but the Brier, Men's Nationals, starts on Sunday, so there will be time enough soon. It's in Edmonton this year, which is a wee bit more than a day trip from home, so no unannounced trips to see the men play. Oh well, there's always next year.
Although then it's in Kamloops, BC.
I guess there's always 2015.
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