In the House: McDougall carries Manitoba hopes

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This article was published 31/03/2011 (5483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Joyce McDougall hopes to master the field when the Canadian Masters Curling Championships open today at Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club.

The Brandon Curling Club skip, backed up by Linda Van Daele, Cheryl Orr and Karen Dunbar will represent Manitoba in the 10-team women’s draw. The top two squads in each of the five-team pools qualify for a Page playoff.

"We didn’t play well in the senior women’s part of the season, but we’ve played together more since then," McDougall said.

McDougall’s race for Canada’s over-60 women’s title will have a few challenges.

Ontario’s Joyce Potter, who lost the senior women’s national title game to New Brunswick’s Heidi Hanlon last week, brings the same lineup to Winnipeg and is the early front-runner.

McDougall’s first opponent, Saskatchewan’s Nancy Kerr, boasts two members of Marj Mitchell‘s 1980 world women’s championship team (Kerr and Wendy Leach).

While the competition is expected to be tough, McDougall’s lineup does bring strength to the hacks. Both McDougall and Van Daele have skipped their own provincial senior women’s champions. In 2001, McDougall and Van Daele teamed up to win the provincial senior women’s title and lost the national final to Ontario’s Anne Dunn in Calgary.

Having two skips as a back end doesn’t always work, but their familiarity with each other’s abilities made both successful this year.

"We didn’t curl together for a few years as we had our own teams, but I think it will be fine," McDougall said. "I didn’t have a third for my own team this year and Linda gave me a call and we decided to curl both masters and senior women’s."

Dunbar won a pair of Manitoba women’s titles (1975 and 1976) as Joan Mogk‘s lead. Orr was Jean Garbolinsky‘s second when they won the 2008 provincial senior women’s championship.

Earlier this season, McDougall’s squad played in the Stream ‘N’ Wood Curlettes, where they placed second to Brandon’s Lois Fowler.

While representing Manitoba normally brings high expectations, doing so while playing in Winnipeg places a brighter spotlight on the McDougall four.

"There are advantages to that, like not having to get on a plane," said McDougall, a Wawanesa resident. "When you get to masters, you don’t get a lot of money from Curl Manitoba or the CCA. You have to pay your own way for hotels. Driving in from Wawanesa is a little cheaper."

McDougall said the advantage of having plenty of support in the Assiniboine Memorial’s club room is a bonus.

"We’re really going to try for a playoff spot, that’s for sure," McDougall said. "That would be our expectation, then we’ll take it from there."

On the men’s side, two-time provincial masters champion John Usackis of Lac du Bonnet leads the Manitoba team while Neil Schmidt of Winnipeg’s St. Vital club skips a second Manitoba foursome.

The men’s draw is split up into two six-team pools, with the top two teams in each qualifying for a Page playoff.

Minnedosa’s Ray Orr, Dennis Peckover, Brian Manns and John Mendrikis are the last Manitoba squad to win the Canadian masters men’s title, doing so in 2009. Doug Armour of Souris also won a national crown for Manitoba in 2005. No Manitoba masters women’s team has won a national title.

The championship will end on Tuesday.