Canadian Seniors Curling Championship

Locally curling has taken the lower mainland by storm with numerous clubs up and running with various bonspils on the slate over the holidays.

Korte defeated Ontario’s Mike Harris 8-4 in the men’s Gold medal match, Holland fell 7-5 to Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh.

Korte and his Saskatoon Nutana foursome of third Darrell McKee, second Kory Kohuch, lead Rory Golanowski and alternate Arlen Hall capped off an impressive run at the Canadian Seniors Curling Championship played in Ottawa. 

They surprised all on-comers pulling out an 8-4 victory over Ontario’s Mike Harris team, shocking many at the event in the Gold medal game Saturday December 6th in an afternoon event.

Curling isn’t Canada’s game and given the growth of the sport we have to give credit to the 18th century Scottish immigrants who spent their free time curling  in their homeland.

It’s reported that Canada’s first ever recorded curling match  was played in 1807 in Montreal.

The match on that day consisted of twenty merchants who were of Scottish descent who formed the first ever organized curling club simply named the Montreal Curling Club.

At the time those competing used stones made out of iron which were somewhat of similar shape to a tea kettle.

These stones varied for both men  and women with the men’s stones weigh roughly 60 to 80 pounds with the Women using stones ranging from 40 to 48 pounds. 

As we should expect records were not kept either in Scotland, Canada or anywhere but In Canada, they were the ones that many curlers welcomed to use. 

In the early 1820s, Scottish immigrants continued to form clubs around the country especially in major cities  such as Quebec City, Halifax and Kingston. 

Curling clubs grew with various vendors turning to sell custom and locally made granite stones that saw “The Canadian Curler’s Manual” put together by the secretary James Bicket of the Toronto Curling Club who was the club’s secretary.^] was published, making it Canada’s first book on curling.

Curling Canada sent out the following press release

While the sport grew this past week saw Korte, who finished the round robin with a 9-1 record — only losing his final round robin game after clinching a playoff spot — before taking a 6-3 win over BC’s Neil Dangerfield in the semifinal.

Saskatoon’s Amber Holland had a rough week coming close for a title win but fell 7-5 to Ontario’s Sherry Middaugh in the Women’s Gold medal final after grabbing a 7-3 win over BC’s Shiella Cowan in her semifinal.

For Korte and crew, it’s their second national title after also claiming the Canadian championship in 2019.

“I don’t want to tear up here, but it’s a long haul,” Korte said on curling.ca. “The last win was, I think, six years ago. It’s great to have a chance to go to worlds, because we never got the gold last time we won. We believed in ourselves and in our team. We just trusted that we could do it.”

Before he could play for gold, Korte had Dangerfield to deal with, and he didn’t leave much to chance in that contest, scoring a pair in the second end and three more in the fourth for a 5-1 lead. 

The teams then exchanged points the next three ends before Dangerfield ran out of rocks in the eighth.

Korte also got off to a great start in the championship final, scoring two in the first, forcing Harris to one in the second and picking up another in the third for a quick 3-1 lead. 

Then came the pivotal fourth end, where Korte would steal three to go up by five and take complete control of the game.

Harris didn’t go quietly, scoring two in the fifth and stealing another in the sixth to get back within a pair, but Korte would pick up his second deuce in the seventh end before running Harris out of rocks in the final frame.

Holland and her Saskatoon Sutherland rink of third Jill Shumay, second Sherri Singler and lead Trenna Derdall had a good start to the day in the semifinal, stealing a pair in the first end and another in the second for a 3-0 lead. 

Cowan scored single points the next two ends, but Holland did the same in the fifth and sixth to take a 5-2 lead into the last two ends. 

A force in the seventh gave Holland complete control coming home, and she’d add a deuce in the eighth to finish things off.

The gold medal final saw Middaugh get off to a fast start, scoring four in the second end to take a quick 4-1 lead. 

Holland didn’t waste any time getting back into it, though, putting up a deuce in the third and stealing one in the fourth to tie things up. 

The teams then exchanged singles in the fifth and sixth before Middaugh scored a pivotal pair in the seventh to go up 7-5. 

Holland would be unable to reply in the eighth, and Middaugh had her 7-5 win and the Canadian championship.

Korte and Middaugh will now represent Canada at the World Senior Curling Championship beginning Apr. 25 in Geneva, Switzerland.