The Penny Barker foursome out of the Moose Jaw Ford Curling Club took home first place honours at the eighth annual Cornerstone Credit Union women's cash bonspiel this past weekend at the Yorkton Curling Club.
Team Barker outlasted 13 other teams from around the province in the three day tournament to lay claim to the championship trophy, defeating the Shalon Fleming rink out of Regina 10-8, the Nancy Inglis rink of Regina 8-2 and the Kim Schneider rink of Kronau 6-3 before defeating the Yorkton team of Cathy Inglis, Pat Kuspira, Bev Fuches and Donna Liebrecht in the final 6-5 in a spirited extra end affair.
Final
Both the Barker and Inglis rink marched into the final of the eighth annual Cornerstone Credit Union women's cash bonspiel with undefeated records; Barker coming in at 3-0 while Inglis was 4-0.
After a blank first end Team Inglis opened the scoring in the second, scoring one to a take a 1-0 lead after two ends of play.
That lead didn't last long however, as the Barker rink out of Moose Jaw stormed right back, picking up a pair in the third end to take a 2-1 lead.
A single in the fourth end by Team Inglis once again drew the two teams even midway through the game.
The fifth end saw Team Inglis appear to take advantage of the younger Barker. However with Inglis lying two Barker, with the hammer, made a wonderful shot to clear one rock out and slide her own rock halfway into the button.
After a careful measurement it was ruled that Barker's rock was indeed the scoring one resulting in a 3-2 Barker lead after five ends.
The sixth end saw Inglis and company take a 4-3 lead by scoring two, however a rare mistake by Inglis in the seventh end in which she missed a double takeout gave Barker an opportunity to score two; an opportunity she didn't waste, drawing in close enough with her final stone to take a 5-4 lead into the final regulation end.
The two teams played careful in the eighth end, however a Barker mistake gave Inglis a chance to win the game.
Already sitting one and with the hammer, all Inglis had to do was draw to the button to score two and take the victory.
However a short shot led to the Yorkton club scoring just one point and in the process handing the hammer over to Barker for the extra end.
At times in the extra end it seemed as if Inglis had the young Barker on the ropes and, with Inglis lying three with just two Barker stones left, it appeared as if the hometown rink was closing in on a victory. That is until Barker pulled off the shot of the tournament, blasting a rock down the sheet and knocking all three Inglis stones out of the house.
A short throw by Inglis with her final stone gave Barker a great opportunity to end the game and while her final shot was a little soft it still managed to find its way into the four foot ring to make give the team out of Moose Jaw a 6-5 win.
Following the trophy presentation, skip Penny Barker told Yorkton This Week all about the shot of the tournament that eventually led to her team being crowned champions. "Well we needed to make sure that we had some type of path for my last rock, that was the main thing," offered Barker, continuing, "They were sitting really good and it just kind of happened that the rocks kind of settled for that kind of a shot.
"I thought that if I could just hit right in the middle of those two that we could spill all three of them and luckily we hit it exactly where we wanted to and I had a fairly open shot for the last one (to win) so that's great."
Barker was also quick to credit not only Inglis, but the rest of the competitors on a fine tournament. "Cathy is a fabulous player. That whole team is amazing," offered Barker. "There was a lot of strong competition here this weekend so we're really happy to come out on top."
Other curling results
Two other local curling teams were in action this past weekend. The Brendan Griffith rink, consisting of Griffith, Daniel McCoshen and Tanner and Reese Kinaschuk, took part in the 2014/15 Junior Men's Q-Spiel Two going 0-3, losing 11-1 to Team Ackerman (Moose Jaw), 10-0 to Team Dlouhy (Assiniboia) and 12-3 to Team McCreary (Saskatoon).
The Justine Zarowny rink was also in action this past weekend as they took part in the 2014/15 Junior Women's Q-Spiel Two.
Team Zarowny, consisting of Zarowny, Madison Butchko, Allison Berge and Alex Cottenie also went 0-3 in tournament play, falling to Team K. Jones (Regina) by a score of 14-2 before losing to Team Skinner (Saskatoon) 10-8 and Team J. Thompson (Maryfield) 10-4.
Next curling action
The next curling action at the Yorkton Curling Club will be the Canadian Open (Grand Slam of Curling) from Tuesday, December 9 to Sunday, December 14.
The next local tournament action will be the Senior Mixed Bonspiel (January 18-23) followed by the Yorkton Ladies Bonspiel (February 27-March 1) and the Yorkton Mixed Bonspiel (March 13 to March 14).
