NORTH BATTLEFORD - All eyes were on Northland Power Curling Centre this past weekend as women’s curling teams took advantage of their last chance to make the provincial Scotties.
It was the Viterra Scotties Last Chance event, where a total of 17 teams from across Saskatchewan competed for four remaining spots from Jan. 5-8.
It was another feather in the cap for Twin Rivers Curling Club, who have twice hosted the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling series and have hosted a number of major provincial events through CurlSask.
At city council Monday night, Councillor Len Taylor noted the local involvement on teams competing in that event. He noted Ava and Leah Beausoleil were on the team of Savanna Taylor (no relation), while Alison Ingram was on the team for Amelie Blais.
“These three are all active Twin Rivers curlers,” said Taylor. “They did not ultimately at the end of it qualify at the actual Scotties but they put on one heck of a good show.”
Winning the B event to advance was the team of Robyn Silvernagle based out of Twin Rivers Curling Club. The two-time provincial champion was back with a revamped team and defeated the Jana Tisdale team out of Regina 7-4 to advance.
Taylor pointed out the Silvernagle team has again declared Twin Rivers as their home rink and took great pride at the meeting to point out that national commentators always referred to the team as being from "North Battleford, Saskatchewan.”
The other teams that advanced out of North Battleford were Ashley Howard, Madison Kleiter and Cindy Ricci.
Prior to this weekend, eight other teams had already qualified for provincials through regular play. The four winners out of the North Battleford event now join the other eight teams at the Viterra Scotties in Estevan happening in Estevan Jan. 25-29. The winner there represents Saskatchewan in the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Taylor noted local hotels, restaurants, fuel stations and other businesses were “very grateful for the presence of all of these people from outside the Battlefords who have come and they spent money here over those four days of competition.” Twin Rivers Curling Club also thanked the City snow removal crews for ensuring the parking lots were all cleared for the event.
Taylor said they heard many times from those at the Northland Power Curling Centre “what a great facility we here in the Battlefords have. Many compliments were directed towards the ice crew that were there, all of whom are the ice makers for Twin Rivers Curling Club in North Battleford.”
On their Facebook page, Twin Rivers Curling Club posted the following: "We can't let the #viterrascottieslastchance pass by without a big THANK YOU to our knowledgeable and hard-working ice techs and crew, Wayne Cubbon Doug Flasch Brian Neabel and Wayne Payne. They all deserve an extra ration of rum!"
The curling is far from over at the Northland Power Curling Centre this year. Twin Rivers will be hosting another major event on March 16-19 for the Mixed Provincial Championships, with upwards of 24 teams participating.
