Steve Laycock has won the Tankard a few times before, but he said it never gets any less exciting.
He put his seventh Tankard on the mantle after a 9-7 win over Colton Flasch Sunday afternoon at Affinity Place. Laycock has won four now as a skip, event hough this time he was throwing third’s stones, with Matt Dunstone throwing the final two stones of every end. It was Dunstone’s takeout that led to the single for Laycock in the end for the victory.
“This was an absolutely amazing experience and I can’t wait to play in Regina,” said Laycock moments after being handed the Tankard trophy.
As befitting the first seed when the field was announced, Laycock enjoyed some early success in the first couple of draw, easily disposing of the young Aaron Shutra rink and the veteran Jason Jacobson’s rink by 8-3 scores in the first two days.
But then some bumps on the road happened. He lost 8-7 to Brady Kendel, bumping him to the B side.
They responded by defeating defending Tankard champion Adam Casey 8-2 and 2003 champion Scott Bitz.
But in the B final Saturday morning, they lost 8-7 to the Brock Virtue rink, setting up a scenario where they had to win every match going forward. They did just that, knocking off Ryan Deis in six ends 8-1 in the C final, Scott Bitz 8-2 in eight ends in the page playoff match between the two C finalists, and then Virtue 7-3 in the Sunday morning semifinal in eight ends.
“It was a really weird week,” Laycock said. “We played amazing at times and we had a couple of blips where we just kind of ran into some hot skips. (Brady) Kendel played really good and Brock Virtue had a great game. Today, we were up and down. We had a few off ends and we got a lot of mistakes out of them as well. It was just a little bit of a sloppy final but we came out the right side of it.”
They didn’t change their game at all through the week, Laycock said.
“We were happy with how we were playing, despite the couple of losses. It felt like it was just a couple of things where a few breaks didn’t go our way and we’re just not playing quite as good,” he said. “We weren’t that far off and we didn’t have to change much. We were luck we actually had a few games where they weren’t easy teams, but it was just how they played against us. That would have been a grind if we were playing 10-11 end games all the way through.”
That set up the final, which saw Laycock grab a five-ender in the fifth to stake a 6-2 lead. Flasch’s takeout attempt of a few Laycock stones was just a bit off, leaving four stones in the rings with Laycock holding the hammer. A draw by Dunstone to the eight foot gave Laycock the huge lead just before the fifth end break.
“It’s good and bad,” Laycock said. “Obviously it’s great to have the points up on the scoreboard but I feel it kind of changed the whole psyche of the game after that. We were just trying to blow out ends and they’re playing balls to the wall, trying to come back. That’s a tough place to play from if you’re the team that’s up. They’ve got nothing to lose at that point. Say we only get two there and just kind of piece away and play a normal game, that’s actually a more comfortable position. You’re more used to that in curling. Obviously, I would never hand away extra points like that.”
With the Tankard under his belt, Laycock now moves to the Tim Hortons Brier next month in Regina, which will be a new experience for him. Although he’s played at the Brier a whopping six times, Laycock has never played it in his home province.
“You can just see other Briers when the home team makes a shot and the whole place just goes wild,” Laycock said. “Obviously the last year with Gushue, I think they propelled him right to the win, that crowd. Hopefully we’ll have a similar type of week.”
