The Southeast will rise again, in curling terms at least.
The Candace Chisholm rink out of Carlyle– which includes Estevan’s Kristy Johnson — was one of two qualifying teams at the Viterra Last Chance Qualifier last weekend at the Power Dodge Curling Centre.
It was the first year with the team for Johnson, who curls alongside third Lana Vey and second Natalie Bloomfield, but they’ve all had experience playing together before in different formations. That helped them defeat the Stefanie Lawton rink 10-7 Saturday afternoon to claim their spot at the provincial Scotties in Melfort Jan. 2-7, 2018.
“The chemistry is really easy,” Johnson said, fighting laryngitis. “Natalie, Candace and I have curled together probably for 12 years on and off. Then Lana and Natalie curled together for a couple of years. We just really gel. We have similar personalities and we work really well together. Lana and Candace complement each other really well in the back end.”
The Chisholm rink started out by defeating the Deana Schenher rink from Melville 7-5 Saturday and the Mandy Selzer rink from Fox Valley 6-5 Saturday morning.
Tied 7-7 after the seventh end, Chisholm lost the hammer after needing to draw to the four foot to count one. She wouldn’t need the hammer as she stole one in the eighth end, two more in the ninth and ran Lawton out of rocks in the 10th to claim the victory.
“The ice out there was great,” Chisholm said. “The Estevan curling centre did great with the ice. We started out playing here in league and they worked on the ice a tremendous amount and it’s in good condition right now.”
Going to the provincial Scotties will be part of the long road for the team.
“We didn’t do many ‘spiels this year,” Johnson said. “We only did four, which is less than what we normally do. So these extra games through the challenge ‘spiels is usually beneficial for us. Even though our chemistry works, we still have to get used to each other…. It’s exciting. There’s a lot of good teams out there. Our province is pretty wide open and anybody can win it.”
“Right from the start of the season it’s our goal to get to provincials,” said Chisholm. “We kind of went through the last chance and it could be anybody’s game out there and we’re just really proud.”
It wasn’t the end of the line for the Lawton rink, as they won 7-4 over Biggar’s Brett Barber to claim the B side crown and, quite literally, the very last spot in the provincial Scotties.
Lawton has won four provincial titles but can’t remember if she’d even won it through earning the very last spot in the field.
“I know that other teams like (Lawton’s third) Steph Schmidt and Colleen Jones, they like to qualify through their last chance and they go on to win the worlds,” Lawton said. “Sometimes it’s a motivation to come out of the last spot and you’re just ready and just keep going.”
With the hammer, Lawton scored a pair in the ninth end to take a commanding 7-4 lead and played a peel game once Barber had to go into the rings. The two teams shook hands with Lawton’s skip stones still not thrown. Lawton’s front end of lead Brooklyn Lemon and second Cristina Goertzen played nearly flawless through the week.
There was a lot of time between the A final and the B final for Lawton’s team to think about the match but whatever pressure they put on themselves wasn’t too much to handle.
“We’ve been playing well so it’s just making sure we don’t have a bad end,” said Lawton. “Some of our other games, like against Candace, we gave up four and we had a few different ends like that. We just wanted to make sure we played a strong game all the way through. That’s what we were focusing on.”
Lawton is once again on a newer team like many in the field with this being their first season together.
“Steph and Brook played together two years prior to this,” she said. “I’ve played with Steph. She joined us at the Scotties in Moose Jaw (in 2015). She went in for Sherri Singler when she hurt her ankle. Cristina is brand new to us. But it’s a great team and it’s a lot of fun.”
