A straight pathway between point A and point B might not always be best.
In curling vernacular, many are the playdowns that offer a direct route through the “A” qualifying berth to a final, minimizing the number of games played.
“Do I like the format?” pondered NOCA (Northern Ontario Curling Association) mixed champion Charlie Robert. “I guess when you win, it’s good.”
For the 12-team event that was hosted last week at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club, it was indeed good for Team Robert, the YNCU (Your Neighbourhood Credit Union) Curling Centre rink in Sault Ste Marie that also features Alissa Begin (vice), Chris Glibota (second) and Megan St Amand (lead).
The Robert quartet doubled Olivier Bonin-Ducharme (NCUCC) 4-2 on Thursday morning and made it a two-win day with a 6-3 triumph over Sandy MacEwan (NCUCC).
A 7-2 victory Friday night versus Zack Warkentin (Fort William CC) propelled the second year team directly to a Sunday afternoon final, where they again got the better of the MacEwan foursome, 8-4.
“When you don’t win, it’s an awful format,” noted Robert, speaking from experience. Less than a month earlier, the 53 year-old who will be making his third appearance at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in November also breezed through the “A” draw at the NOCA Senior Men’s playdowns, only to lose to Al Harnden in the final after sitting idle for nearly 48 hours.
“I would like to see a Page playoff,” Robert continued. “I just think an extra game under your belt is always beneficial going into the final.” (Team MacEwan was playing game six on Sunday afternoon).
Either way, the hurdle has been cleared for the squad that came together two years ago when Robert returned to the mixed game after devoting some time in pursuit of the Canadian Police Curling Championships.
While he and Begin are marking their third trip together to the nationals, this will be the first appearance for St Amand and Glibota on a team that gathers elements from both the Sault Ste Marie and Thunder Bay curling communities.
Where some of the teams last week were playing as a foursome for the very first time this year, Team Robert competed weekly in the major curling league in the Soo this winter, having captured the league title just a week before the Mixed Provincials began.
“With this being our second year together, there is more familiarity with our releases, figuring out how to call the ice for everybody,” said Robert. “It’s good for the sweepers too. They kind of know how the thrower is letting the rock go. Knowing the releases and the delivery of the stones works in our favour.”
As for facing a field that would see a 50% representation of local rinks (Bella Lehtimaki Croisier, Faith Hebert, David Daoust and Mike Assad along with MacEwan and Bonin-Ducharme), Robert was pleased that the execution of strategies drawn up and discussed in advance worked to near perfection in their four game run.
“We had a good game plan going in to each game,” said Robert. “We stuck to our game. We don’t necessarily play defensive; we play a little of both, defense and offense. We like to manage ends, having the hammer in the correct ends, scoring in the correct ends.”
“I thought we did a good job of that last week.”
As has been the case for some time now, the Robert rink will have to sit tight before tackling the remaining provincial champions with nationals set for the week of November 2nd to November 8th in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan.
Thankfully, the Henderson Metal Fall Classic brings an elite field of curlers together in mid-October in Sault Ste Marie – to the benefit of the entire curling community in the Lock City.
“We’ll have a good six weeks of curling ice before going to nationals, which is good for us here,” said Robert.
