Walker, Crocker perfect so far at trials

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This article was published 05/01/2018 (3010 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — Living more than 6,000 kilometres apart has made it somewhat difficult for engaged couple Laura Crocker and Geoff Walker to plan their dream wedding.

Scratch that, for Crocker to plan it.

“Don’t even ask Geoff about planning the wedding, he won’t know what to answer,” the 27-year-old Crocker quipped.

Walker, 32, who curls with Brad Gushue in St. John’s, and Crocker, a third on Kelsey Rocque’s Edmonton team, aren’t getting married until May when they tie the knot in Mexico after the curling season ends, but a pre-wedding honeymoon in PyeongChang, South Korea, is a possibility.

The duo completed pool play at the Canadian Olympic mixed doubles trials at Portage la Prairie’s Stride Place with an 8-0 record in Pool B after knocking off the Edmonton pair of Dana Ferguson and Brendan Bottcher 9-6 in a morning draw, and erasing a six-point deficit against Gushue and Val Sweeting to win 9-8 in an extra end in the afternoon.

Crocker and Walker jumped out to 5-1 lead after three ends against Ferguson and Walker, but the Edmontonians tied it up heading to the seventh. A single in seven gave Crocker and Walker a 7-6 lead and they secured the victory after Ferguson’s final stone in eight was heavy and resulted in a steal of two in a battle of unbeatens.

“We definitely wanted to win that game,” Crocker said. “We knew we had a spot in the playoffs locked up, but win and we got first place, which meant hammer and such in the playoffs. We wanted to make sure that we kept some intensity out there in that game and treated it just like a playoff game and any time we missed I thought we bounced back.”

What’s been the key to Crocker and Walker’s success?

“We’re making shots, we’re making a lot of really key shots,” Walker said. “I don’t think we’ve had a game where we threw everything together and played perfect. We’ve had a couple really good games and we’ve had a few where we’ve caught a few breaks and made a lot of big shots.

“Laura’s made a lot of key shots when I’ve got us in a little bit of trouble and we’re managing to score points in those situations and still control the scoreboard.”

Bottcher/Ferguson (6-1) will also be in the playoffs, but their final pool-play contest, versus Sherry Middaugh/John Epping (2-5) ended after press time.

“I can’t say we really talked a whole lot about goals to be honest,” Bottcher said. “We were just trying to come out here and play really well and certainly get through the first round was the goal. Now that that’s accomplished we need to ramp up and figure out how to get through the next round.

“The games are going to get harder, but that’s good. That’s why we are all out here. It will be some fun.”

Three teams with 4-3 records — Sweeting/Gushue, Chelsea Carey/Colin Hodgson and Kaitlyn Lawes/John Morris — in Pool B, plus Kalynn Park/Charley Thomas (3-4), were also still alive for tiebreaker spots entering Thursday’s final draw.

The top two teams in each pool, plus the next four best records, earn spots in the playoffs, with tiebreakers, if necessary, being held today.

The cumulative draw to the button from prior pool game will rank teams if there are any tiebreakers, with, for example, the bottom two teams facing off in the event of a three-way tie for two spots.

The Page playoffs will take place Saturday, with a trip to South Korea on the line in Sunday’s final at 1:30 p.m.

Jocelyn Peterman and fellow Gushue front-ender Brett Gallant will also be among the final eight teams after they too finished 8-0 and atop Pool A.

Peterman, who plays for Carey’s Calgary-based squad, and Gallant scored two in the seventh end and stole one in the eighth in a 9-6 win over Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones and Mark Nichols in the morning.

They then stole four points en route to a 7-2 triumph over Sherry Just and Tyrel Griffith (3-5) in the afternoon before downing the Winnipeg team of Jill Officer, a former Brandonite, and Reid Carruthers 8-2 in the evening.

Officer/Carruthers finished pool play with a 5-3 record and guaranteed themselves no less than a tiebreaker.

Fiveof Peterman and Gallant’s pool-play victories were among the blowout variety, so they have resorted to trying to stay focused by being loose.

“Personally I perform better when I’m a little bit loose and relaxed and sometimes Jocelyn is trying to keep me there and I’m trying to keep her more relaxed as well,” Gallant said. “We can tell a joke every now and again and try to enjoy it because that’s going to get the best out of us performance-wise as well.”

The two shared a laugh during the fifth end of their game against the Just/Griffith team, so what was the joke about?

“Panini sandwich,” Peterman said before the two shared more laughs.

Now in their third season playing mixed doubles together, Peterman and Gallant’s success in Portage isn’t unexpected. They only participated in one event prior to this week, but captured the 2016 national mixed doubles crown with a 12-8 win over Crocker and Walker in Saskatoon.

They attribute their strong play to their well-rounded game, which includes skipping during their junior days, and hope it continues over the next few days.

“I think that’s why we think we found success right away with mixed doubles is because we’d both only been skips in juniors really so we had a lot of experience putting down the broom, but a lot of recent experience sweeping and judging rocks,” Peterman said.

Jones/Nichols clinched a spot in the playoffs by scoring a pair of triples to beat the father-daughter team of Robert and Emilie Desjardins 8-4 in their final pool contest. The win propelled Jones/Nichols to 6-2 and severely damaged the tiebreaker hopes of Desjardins/Desjardins (4-4).

Not bad for a team who had only ever played one mixed doubles game together, a 9-2victory for Team North America over the Team World duo of Niklas Edin and Christina Bertrup at the 2014 Continental Cup of Curling in Las Vegas.

“Our goal at the beginning of the week was to make the playoffs, and especially since we hadn’t played mixed doubles together in a few years we wanted to work out the kinks and I think we’ve done that,” Jones said. “Now we’re in there and who knows how the brackets are set up.

“We just really wanted to get into the playoffs and take it from there.”

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