Nordin rink has good experience at Northerns

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Even though they did not win their way to brier, the Tim Nordin rink had a solid showing at the Dominion Northern Ontario Men’s Curling Playdowns last week in Sudbury.
Skip Tim Nordin, who curls out of Rainy River Curling Club, Third-Mitch Seguin of Pinewood, Second-Mike Badiuk of Devlin and Lead-Travis Showalter of Nestor Falls finished 2-9, but had several close games losing their first game by one in an extra end.
“I could tell the guys were nervous before the first game... I was a bit but once we played Phillips and nearly beat him we all settled down and thought, maybe we will do alright. He (Phillips) has been to the brier at least once before!” said Nordin.
Nordin’s rink then lost their next three games 4-8 to Salo, 4-7 to Pozihun and 5-8 to Scharf. “While some of these losses look bad they really weren’t. We were just on the wrong side of the inch. 90% of the time we were just short of scoring.”
On Wednesday the team broke through handily defeating Assad 8-2. In the 6th end Nordin made an angle raise take out to count two and then stole two in the seventh resulting in handshakes from the opposition.
Building on that win they won their next game that night 6-5 over Gordon.
Thursday they had two close ones, again games of inches. “Had we been on the other side of the inches all week, I’d say our record could have been easily 7-4. They lost 7-9 to Lappalainen and 6-9 to Belec.
Friday they lost to the eventual champion 5-4 in another close one. “He beat us with the hammer.”
Nordin’s team lost their final two games 5-8 to Dumontelle and 2-8 to Burgess.
“There was very tough competition there with many of those guys having been to the brier before,” said Nordin Tuesday. Having been there twice before, Nordin said it was a great experience again and felt that the competition was tougher. “The game has gotten harder since I went last. The game is played differently and you have to make your shots!”
Nordin had nothing but praise for his younger teammates. “Once they settled down they played very solid curling.”
Prior to going to the playdowns, Nordin said he felt his team was a dark horse going in. And while none of the other teams said anything to them, members of the audience did. “We had people that had been watching all week come up and tell us we were a pretty solid team and that luck just wasn’t there (when it came to inches). They also said we were very enjoyable to watch!”
The team also had strong support from the district. “They had emails set up there and we received so many encouraging messages,” said Nordin. “There was also strong financial support from the district. It was overwhelming. This district is such a great place to live. People get so behind you when you do something.”
Would he do it again? “For sure! It was so great and now that those young guys had a taste I know they want more!”