It wasn’t an unlikely upset, but an upset nonetheless in Super League curling as playoffs kicked off on Wednesday evening at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre.
In a very competitive and close game that came down to the 10th end, it was Jamey Jordison’s (Flexi Finger) rink that came out with a 12-11 win over Alan Batty’s rink.
“It was a wild one,” said Jamey Jordison. “We didn’t change our strategy. It was the same from the first end to the last end.”
Jordison’s rink opened the first end with one point and then Batty’s rink stole five in the second end. It appeared that Batty would be off and running with such a strong lead, but the team had troubles with the ice and couldn’t get much more to work on the evening. Jordison’s rink would score three in the third end and Batty would fight back, scoring one in the fourth end. Jordison would score two more in the fifth end and both teams would be tied at six heading into the sixth end. In the sixth end, Jordison stole four with the hammer to extend their lead, but Batty would battle back and score two in the seventh to close the gap. Jordison would score two in the eighth end and Batty added two in the ninth end. Heading into the final end and down two points, Batty’s rink fought hard to set up some guards, but could only score one and fell in their first match of the playoffs.
“The turning point was in the second when we gave them five,” said Jordison. “We missed on a deuce in the second so we were just driving off that miss.”
Batty’s rink was ranked in second place and Jordison was ranked seventh, but neither team backed down from any adversity throughout the game. However, Batty felt the ice did not work in their favour tonight.
“That steal of four in the sixth hurt us,” said Batty. “The was really straight tonight and that is not conducive to our game. We play a finesse game and we just weren’t allowed to play our kind of
game on the ice tonight.”
For more on this story, read a future edition of the Times-Herald.
