It wasn’t how two local rinks wanted their weekends to go, but despite how they finished, they had a lot of fun at the Dominion Club curling provincials.
In Rosetown, the women’s provincial took place where local rink of Elaine Osmachenko, Tina Hill, Lorraine Arguin and Rebecca Venn competed hard, but a first day loss set them back.
“The first game we didn’t do very well. We just didn’t catch onto the ice as quickly,” said Osmachenko. “But the second and third game, our team curled really good and they were really close games.”
The rink lost 5-4 in the B semifinal to Dawna Shand from Saskatoon. They opened the weekend with a 9-2 loss to Nicole Beausoleil, but bounced back with a 4-3 win over Alana Ritz.
“It was really close and it came down to the last shot,” she said of the Shand game.
The threesome of Osmachenko, Hill and Venn went to provincials last year, but picked up Arguin this year. Having been there last year helped them this year, but had hoped of a better fate.
“Our goal was to have fun and we were hoping to qualify and go from there,” said Osmachenko. “It was a lot of fun and we had a good time. The ice was great and really keen. The host committee was great and we hope to be back next year.”
Another local rink competed in the Dominion Club men’s provincials in Ituna.
The team of Ryan Wenarchuk, Greg Wells, Brian Mohns and Tim Best lost in the A qualifier to Corey Martens 8-4, which dropped them down to the B final, where they lost 6-5 to Clayton Wicks.
“It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it. We definitely thought we had a good chance of winning it,” said Wenarchuk. “It was a good weekend, we played really well together and definitely look forward to competing in it again next year.”
Wicks scored two in the sixth, seventh and eighth end to come from behind to beat Wenarchuk.
“It was a really good game,” he said, “We were up on them for quite a while, but they came back on us.”
Although they had hoped for a better ending, the rink will now turn their focus to the Super League playoffs at the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre this week. They will face off against first-ranked Ralph Courtnage.
“It has been really close with them,” Wenarchuk said. “They have beat us once and we’ve been them once.”
