Four girls from the Northwest have spent the fall preparing for junior provincial playoffs and have seen their hard work pay off.
The team is playing out of the St. Walburg Curling Club, but is a truly Midwest team. The team is made up of skip Alison Ingram from Loon Lake, third Lisa Chambers from Turtleford, second Blayne Nichol from Livelong and lead Tessa Briscoe from Meadow Lake. They are coached by Norman Ingram of Loon Lake. They started their season off with a high performance camp held at the Nutana Curling Rink in Saskatoon. It was a positive experience, which ended in a skills competition. The Ingram team finished second in that event.
After returning home, they started their practices in Meadow Lake and then moved to St. Walburg when the ice was ready.
These girls find themselves at various rinks throughout the area just trying to get the ice time they need. Alison curls out of St. Walburg twice a week, Lisa curls on two nights in North Battleford and one in St. Walburg, Blayne curls in Livelong once a week and once in St. Walburg and Tessa curls in Meadow Lake three times a week. They then try to get together Sundays in St. Walburg for practice.
Junior Women Northerns were held in Shellbrook Nov. 24 and 25. Their first game Saturday saw them curling against the Tokarz rink out of Saskatoon. They lost that game 11-5, and dropped to the B event.
They then curled the Bertsch rink of Saskatoon and came out the victors 7-5.
Next, they curled the Silzer rink from Martinsville and won 8-6. They knew after that game they were going to provincials they just did not know in what position.
The team had to curl the team coming out of the A event Sunday morning. It was the same rink they had curled the first game, Tokarz. The first end saw Alison have to draw to the four foot to take one point. They continued in a hard fought game and ended up coming home tied with the hammer after Tokarz stole two in the ninth end. Alison made a take out to sit for 2 with her first shot and that was good enough to win the game 7-6 and head to provincials and the northern B event winners.
Practice will continue for the dedicated curlers and provincials will take place in Weyburn Jan. 3 to 7.
