Local men fail to draw into provincials

Joey Payeur
Fort Frances Times

It’s a good thing Christmas was last month, because Scott Henderson won’t be on the gift-giving list of any Rainy River District curlers any time soon.
The skip from the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay sent two of three local-area teams packing on his way to clinching the final provincial qualifying berth at the North Western Ontario Curling Association men’s playdowns in Kenora this past weekend.
Henderson ended the championship dreams of Raymond Roy by downing the Fort Frances skip 6-4 to eliminate Roy from contention during Saturday afternoon’s double-knockout round.
Then after nipping fellow Fort William curler Ron Rosengren 8-7, Henderson scored one in the 10th end to edge the Lorne Jackson rink from Fort Frances 4-3 in Sunday afternoon’s last-chance final.
Henderson will join Kenora’s Murray Affleck and another Fort William colleague in Bryan Burgess at the provincial men’s championship Feb. 3-9 at the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay.
Jackson and his rink of third Don Debenedet, second Derek Jackson, and lead Wayne Beacham survived two must-win games in a row before finally succumbing to Henderson.
The team began the event with a 9-6 win over Ken Blackwood of Terrace Bay Thursday afternoon before surprising former Brier champion Al “The Iceman” Hackner 7-5, stealing single points in the ninth and 10th ends to pull out the win.
The road turned rocky after that for Jackson, who fell 11-6 Friday afternoon to Rosengren before trading bullets in a shootout with Roy that turned into the tournament’s highest-scoring game.
After falling behind 8-2 after the fifth end, Jackson stormed back to tie the game 10-10 by scoring three in the sixth, four in the seventh, and two in the 10th end.
But Roy made his last-rock advantage count, nabbing a single point in the extra end to secure the victory.
The loss left Jackson in a rematch against Hackner Saturday morning, with the loser heading home for the weekend.
In what was a back-and-forth affair through seven ends, Jackson trailed 6-5 but managed to blank the next two ends before chilling Hackner by picking up four in the 10th to cap a 9-6 win.
Burgess doubled Jackson 8-4 in the double-knockout phase to once again push the local side to the brink. But showing a flair for the dramatic, Jackson used single points in the 10th end to eliminate Jeff Zechner of Nipigon and Bruce Melville of the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay by identical 6-5 scores.
A defensive struggle with Henderson saw the Thunder Bay skip score two in the third for the game’s only multiple-point end to take a 2-1 lead.
After two blank ends, the teams traded singles from the sixth through the eighth to make it 3-2 for Henderson, who held the hammer.
Blanking the ninth put Henderson in the driver’s seat in the 10th, as he came through for the single point to end Jackson’s run at a spot in the provincials for the second straight year.
Roy’s team of third Tim Nordin of Rainy River, second Bill Carroll, and lead John Commine was sharp early with an 8-6 win over Kenora’s Wayne Warkentin in their opener Thursday.
Henderson rallied from a 4-1 deficit after three ends to beat Roy 11-9 later Thursday, clinching the win with three in the ninth.
A tight battle with Red Lake’s Michael Procyk Friday afternoon ended with Roy scoring once in an extra end to take a 6-5 decision before his successful slugfest versus Jackson earned him a place in Saturday’s final eight.
But Melvile rung up a five-point effort in the fourth end on his way to a 10-5 doubling of Roy, who then took on Henderson for a second time to stay alive in the competition.
Another close affair between the two rinks came down to Henderson grabbing a pair in the ninth before running Roy out of rocks in the 10th.
Stratton’s Craig Armstrong, along with third Bryan Bonot, second Terry Lee both of Stratton, and lead Mark Loney of Emo, were not as fortunate as their district counterparts.
The squad dropped a 10-4 decision to Melville in their opener Thursday, then used single-point steals in the fourth, fifth and sixth ends to beat Zechner 7-2 that ended after eight.
Burgess turned the tables on Armstrong, stealing a single in the seventh and three in the eighth to win 10-8 Friday morning, thereby pitting Armstrong against Hackner for the right to continue in the event.
The Thunder Bay skip busted open a 2-2 game with four in the fourth, then salted the game away with a steal of two in the eighth to eliminate Armstrong by a 10-7 count.