In the overall scheme of things, the Royal City Curling Club’s Gibson rink was in no hurry to claim its spot at the 2016 Scotties B.C. women’s curling championships.
At last week’s first playdowns, the team thought soaking up as much top-notch competition as possible would be beneficial to their overall goal.
Unfortunately, they achieved their goal in a hurry by winning the A Event, beating Diane Gushulak’s RCC squad 7-5 to clinch their spot at the provincial tournament as early as possible.
“It’s not something we’re going to complain about,” Gibson said of the win, which saw the fivesome – including Lindsay Hudyma, third Rebecca Turley, second Michelle Dunn and fifth Kirsten Fox – claim the first berth at the Kelowna-hosted playdowns.
It certainly wasn’t easy, however. In the A final, Gibson’s side trailed most of the game, and were down 5-3 after eight ends before creating their own pebble magic. They scored two in the top ninth and a pair in the 10th to square the circle.
“It was nice to get it done before everyone else and a bit of a slog,” said Gibson, who throws lead rock, of the comeback. “We weren’t focusing on getting the A spot, what mattered most was getting a spot.”
In the first match of the weekend, they trailed Victoria’s Wark rink 3-2 after five ends before pulling away to win 6-4. Later in the day, they doubled up Karla Thompson’s Kamloops team 8-4 to advance to the A final. That’s when things got icy.
“We didn’t start very strong and it took us a while to figure out the ice,” said Gibson. “At a break we talked about it with our coach (Jay Batch) and just got a handle on it. We’re getting used to playing from behind.”
Gushulak, whose foursome includes third Grace MacInnes, second Jessie Sanderson and lead Sandra Comadina, held leads of 3-1 and 4-2 before Gibson cut that to 4-3 in the top of the seventh. But Gushulak restored the two-point margin with a point to end the eighth.
Scoring twice in the ninth gave Gibson confidence coming home.
She felt the rink gained a lot of confidence coming out of the Colonial Square Ladies Classic last month in Saskatoon, where even though they fell short with a 3-3 record, the team played well.
“It was probably our hardest event and the competition was very strong,” she said.
Two years ago the foursome won the B.C. Dominion Cup Challenge and advanced to the provincials, but last year couldn’t repeat that run.
“We made it hard on ourselves, but I think it put a little fire in us for this year,” said Gibson.
And while qualifying for the Coquitlam-hosted 2016 Scotties B.C., Jan. 19 to 24, was on their list of things to do, it was just another step to their end goal – the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Grande Prairie.
“That’s our goal. It’s a huge challenge to get to and while we haven’t been there before, we’re completely focused on it,” said Gibson.
The Gushulak rink had two opportunities to lock up a berth, but both times was edged out. In the B Event, the Karla Thompson team from Kamloops eked out a 6-5 win, while in the C Event Nanaimo’s Van Osch rink won 7-5.
