Round-robin play is well underway at the 2012 Ontario TimBits Provincial Championships being held in Parry Sound. Here is a recap of the action for the two Elmira & District Curling Club rinks that are entered in this year’s championships, begin played at the Parry Sound Curling Club and the Bobby Orr Community Centre.
MacGregor Public School, Waterloo
The MacGregor PS foursome, consisting of lead Oskar von Wahl, second Ryan Paulley, vice Jed Currie (throwing skip stones) and skip Andrew Paulley (throwing 3rd stones) got off to a great start in Pool “M” play in their first game Thursday at the Bobby Orr Community Centre in Parry Sound with a tight 6-4 victory over Jessica Humphries’ rink from Langton Public School in Fenelon Falls.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MacGregor PS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | |
| Langton PS | * | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
Ice was superb at the Bobby Orr Community Center and the two teams played a tight, defensive game through the first four ends of play, with the MacGregor rink stealing a single in the first end and then trading singles for the next three. The fifth end, however, saw a massive 4 as the MacGregor team was able to lie three at opposite sides of the 12-foot, and left Langton’s Humphries a difficult double-and-roll to try to prevent a big score; but her last stone over-curled, missing everything and Jed Currie had to draw 8-foot for the fourth point. In the final end, the MacGregor team played it defensively and ran the Langton team out of rocks, leaving Langton’s Humphries with a last-rock draw for two to salvage a 6-4 final score.
In their second game, ice conditions at the Bobby Orr Community Centre played a huge role as during the afternoon the ice went from being excellent to extremely heavy with many rinks struggling to throw enough weight for draws, let alone takeouts. Game two had the MacGregor foursome face St. Joseph Catholic School from Gananoque.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Joseph Catholic | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| MacGregor PS | * | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
Play in this game was dominated by the ice conditions where it was difficult to make take-outs, resulting in both teams scoring 3 with hammer and three ends being stolen. Down one coming home in the sixth with hammer, a last-rock miss from the the St. Joseph skip gave Jed Currie the opportunity to draw the eight-foot for two and the win and the MacGregor foursome made no mistake, despite the challenge of seeing the ice conditions change considerably beginning in the fifth end.
So in Pool “M” MacGregor PS sits undefeated at 2-0, currently tied for first place in their pool with Hyland Heights Elementary from Shelburne and those two undefeated rinks face each other in the 9:45am draw Saturday. Pool play will be completed Saturday afternoon with the 16 pool winners starting the triple-knockout playoff round Saturday night.
St. Teresa of Avila, Elmira
St. Teresa faced those same very tough ice conditions in their first game Thursday afternoon in Pool “N”. Skipped by Veronica Bernard (throwing 3rd stones) with Natalie Bean at lead, Ryan Bauman at second, Luke DeCorte at 3rd (throwing fourth stones) and alternate Morgan Glofcheskie, the Elmira foursome faced off against a tough opponent from Arran Tara Elementary in Tara.
| Team | LSFE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Teresa | * | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Arran Tara | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
Both the weight and the swing were problematic for the St. Teresa foursome as they gave up consecutive steals of 2 in the first two ends. In the third, two nice draws by second Ryan Bauman to lie two setup a three-spot and Elmira was back in the game 4-3 after 3 ends. A pair of fortunate misses by Arran Tara in 4 gave them another two for a 6-3 lead with two ends to play. Close misses after that by fourth Luke DeCorte resulted in, again, successive steals for Arran Tara and the final score was 8-3, again the ice really dictating the flow of play.
St. Teresa is on the ice again this afternoon for their second game, prior to the opening ceremonies at 5pm with all 80 teams in attendance.