The Humboldt Curling Club was busy with provincial qualifiers again this weekend. After the men came through last weekend it was the ladies turn from Jan. 15-17.
The club hosted the Viterra Last Chance Provincial Qualifying Bonspiel, which as the name suggests was the ladies’ last chance at clinching a berth at the provincial championships in Prince Albert.
This was the first time that Curl Sask. has held the last chance bonspiel.
Tournament liaison and Curl Sask. representative Marg Mayotte said that she couldn’t have been happier with how the weekend went.
“The curling has been really good and the competitors are really good so it’s been a really good competition,” she said.
The Tournament had a triple-knockout format, meaning you could lose twice and still have a chance at qualifying but once you lost a third time you were out.
There were four spots at provincials up for grabs this weekend. The draw was broken down into an “A” event, a “B” event and a “C” event. Each loss dropped you down an event from A to B to C.
“A” Event
Team Moore, curling out of Regina, went a perfect 3-0 en route to grabbing the first qualifying spot.
Team Moore skip, Kristie Moore was really pleased to be able to get the qualification out of the way very early in the weekend. Moore said it has been a struggle this season for her team with various injuries and different distractions so she was real pleased that her team was able to come through on the weekend and find their groove.
“The ice was a bit tricky today but we were patient with it and we didn’t get frustrated. I am really proud of the girls for that definitely,” she said.
“B” EventTeam Dutton, curling out of Swift Current opened their tournament with a win, followed by a loss, which dropped them down to the B event. From there her rink went a perfect 4-0 and grabbed the second available qualifying spot.
The B final wasn’t easy for Dutton’s rink though as they trailed 6-4 through seven ends and were faced with giving up a steal of one, before an incredible shot by skip Kelsey Dutton grabbed her team three points in the end. The team never looked back scoring a steal of one in the ninth end for an 8-6 win.
Despite what looked like an incredibly difficult shot Dutton said it was quite natural for her.
“All you had to do was put the broom down and through and the girls swept it all the way down so it worked out,” she said.
Team Dutton also had a local connection as third and vice-skip Kaitlyn Bowman is originally from Humboldt.
“C” Event
After falling to Team Dutton in the B final, Team Selzer, curling out of Balgonie, was given an automatic berth into one of the two C finals.
Team Selzer was determined to not let a second chance at qualifying for provincials slip away as they jumped out to a 4-1 lead through three ends in the C final. From there the route was on as Team Selzer scored three times in each of the sixth and eighth ends to score a 10-3 conceded win after the eighth end.
Team Selzer skip Mandy Selzer said that her team didn’t make it easy on themselves after losing the B final but was happy to qualify for provincials nonetheless.
“We never really seem to take the easy route we like to play every draw and battle right to the end,” she said with a laugh.
“This last game was a bit easier than the last one so a breath of fresh air, we finally made it to provincials,” she said.
In the other C final threes were wild with the teams combining to score three points in four different ends. In the end it was Team Inglis, curling out of Regina, who came away with an 11-7 nine end conceded victory after scoring three for the second time in three ends.
Team Inglis took the long route to get to provincials having also lost the A final to Team Moore earlier in the tournament. Despite the long route skip Nancy Inglis was still pleased with her teams performance over the whole weekend.
“We were really steady, we really stayed in every game, stuck in there, got some big ends when we had to. The last half of the game is when we really started to pick it up and it worked for us,” she said.
Tournament liaison Mayotte said that she has been to Humboldt numerous times for different events and said that Humboldt is always a “fabulous” host. She said that they would be more than willing to return for future tournaments assuming the host committee wants them back.
“It is a fair bit of work to host one of these events so it’s basically up to whether they feel like they have the time and energy to do something like this,” she said.
