It was quite a homecoming of sorts for former Moose Javian Ros Stewart and her rink.
After taking the long route by losing her first game in the Moose Jaw Women’s Sask Tour Spiel to Sherrilee Orsted, the Stewart rink got some revenge on Sunday afternoon, defeating Orsted’s rink 6-2 to claim the top prize and crucial Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) points.
The Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre had a busy weekend with 16 teams in the Women’s Tour Spiel with some local and very talented curlers vying for top spot. Stewart and her Saskatoon team finished with a 6-2 record and won $2,600 for first place.
“It is always nice playing at home in front of family. They get to come out and support us and watch. It is always a good time,” Stewart stated. “We stuck with it. We got a few breaks here and there and had a couple really close games. We are happy that we could win for our family and team.”
Orsted’s rink headed into the championship game with a 4-0 record and with the advantage with less games played and a good chance at defeating Stewart once again.
“We qualified from the A event, which is the easy route. We normally have to qualify from the C event and that’s a hard route to go,” said Orsted. “We had two games Friday night and we knew that if we won those two games, we were in the drivers seat because we would have a good shot.”
Orsted came out of the gate strong, scoring a point in the first end, but Stewart powered back with a point in the second and third ends, respectively. Orsted tied it back up with a point in the fourth end, but Stewart cashed in another point in the fifth end. The seventh end changed the game as both rinks clogged the house with rocks, but it was Stewart that scored three big points.
“It was a close game up until that point. We weren’t on the top of our game pretty much the whole game, but we kept it close,” stated Orsted. “With the second coming up short, that was hard to get out of there and they are very good at placing their guards exactly where they want them. It was a tough end for us.”
Stewart explained their point of view: “We knew we had to hold them to one…that was the goal. We had to junk it up a bit to hold them to one to get the hammer back in eight. So that was our goal and Patty (Herskiorn) made two pistols and things just started getting set up really good and she got into a bit of trouble.”
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
