Fordyce pushing for second national title

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This article was published 18/11/2017 (3124 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last time Stacey Fordyce and her Brandon club foursome reached the women’s Travelers Curling Club Championship, they brought a national title back to the Wheat City.

Four years later, they are looking to duplicate the feat.

Fordyce, third Christy Erickson, second Stacey Irwin and lead Pam Gouldie captured the provincial Travelers title in Winnipeg last March, defeating Shannon Gillis 5-2 in the final to earn their way to Kingston, Ont.

It was the fifth straight year the 32-year-old skip and her squad played for the Manitoba crown, but after dropping three previous finals the team seized the opportunity to return to nationals.

“We had such a challenging year last year,” Fordyce said. “It was a victory just to keep going to the next weekend, getting through clubs was a battle and then to get through regionals we were just excited to be playing in provincials, and obviously we wanted to do this. But we are just so excited to be there and we are not putting a ton of pressure on us.”

Their experience, which includes going 6-0 in pool play at the 2013 event — then known as the Dominion Curling Club Championship — in Thunder Bay, Ont., before knocking off Ontario 8-5 in the semifinals and Saskatchewan 6-4 in the Canadian final, is something Fordyce hopes to draw upon when this year’s edition gets underway Monday.

“I think with the experience of having been there will definitely help us and help keep our nerves under control,” Erickson said. “Obviously we are still going to be nervous because we want to do Manitoba proud.”

Fordyce, Irwin and Gouldie also represented Manitoba at the 2010 event where they went 5-1 in pool play but lost 6-5 to Saskatchewan in the semis.

“We have no idea what the teams we’re coming up against are going to be like,” Fordyce said. “We know we are right up there with them having success in our last couple times having been there.

“I do think the experience helps, especially having played some of the bigger games. It’s a completely different experience and it’s been four years so it feels brand new to us.”

Nonetheless, she admitted it’s difficult winning a provincial championship, going through an off-season and getting back into the mindset of preparing for nationals eight months later, and so early in the curling season.

“It seems like a long time ago since we won it, and really we haven’t gone in any bonspiels,” Fordyce said. “It’s just been our league so we’ve had a month of league games under our belt. We put together a practice game last Sunday but we keep reminding ourselves that the other teams are in the same boat and we’ve been curling well.

“It is tough finishing off on a high like that in March and having to wait eight months.”

Erickson agreed with her skip.

“It’s pretty early in the curling season for us to be going to nationals since we haven’t had many games under our belt,” the 36-year-old said. “We have to just stay focused and take advantage of our practice times and get used to the ice and hopefully we can come out with some wins.”

Manitoba opens with a game against Newfoundland and Labrador’s Wendy Dunne, and will also face Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Yukon.

The only other past champion in the field, Nanette Dupont of Lethbridge, Alta., is in the other pool. She won in 2010.

Pool play ends Thursday with tiebreakers, if necessary, quarter-finals and semifinals taking place Friday. The top three teams in each pool make the playoffs, with the first-place teams earning byes to the semis.

The medal games will be played a week from today.

The key for the Brandon foursome, which is gunning for Manitoba’s fourth Travelers title in the ninth year of the event — Tracy Andries of Winnipeg beat Alberta 8-5 in last year’s final — is two-fold.

“Just getting our communication back on the ice is big,” Fordyce said. “We’ve had a couple of games where we went even all here … so it’s just getting back into the whole swing of things.

“The more fun we have the better we curl.”

“We’d love to win it again so I mean it’s definitely a goal,” she continued. “Anytime you get to wear the buffalo on your back it’s an honour and it’s not something we take lightly.”

EXTRA ENDS: The annual fundraising challenge to benefit youth curling across Canada through the Curling Canada Foundation returns to the Travelers. The team that raises the most money will earn a cash grant of $5,000 for improvements to its home club, while the second highest fundraising club will receive $3,000. Additionally, there will be two random draws for $1,000 prizes for club improvements. You can find more information at www.curling.ca/2017travelers/fundraising.

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