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Yukon curling teams held to three wins at masters nationals

Two Yukon curling rinks picked up lots of fond memories and a few wins at the 2016 Canadian Masters Curling Championships in Kings County, N.S., last week.
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Two Yukon curling rinks picked up lots of fond memories and a few wins at the 2016 Canadian Masters Curling Championships in Kings County, N.S., last week.

Yukon’s men’s rink, Team Stuart, notched two wins while the territory’s women’s rink, Team Johnson, earned one win at the championship for curlers 60 and over.

Skip Darol Stuart, who has competed at two Brier championships, was sliding granite at his first masters nationals.

“I enjoyed it immensely. It was a whole lot of fun,” said Stuart. “We didn’t do as well as we would have liked, but the competition was rather stiffer than I expected.”

Team Stuart (2-7) produced one win in their pool and one in the seeding round to place fourth out of six in the seeding pool and 12th overall ahead of N.W.T. and P.E.I.

The rink, which included third Gordon Zealand, second Robert Walker and lead Clarence Jack, beat N.W.T. 10-4 and P.E.I. 6-3.

They also lost in an extra end to Team Ontario, who placed second with a loss to Alberta in the final.

Stuart’s teammates have all competed at the championship before, but Jack, playing in his 15th, was far and away the team’s veteran.

“He knew everybody there,” said Stuart. “He said it would rank up there as one of the best ones he’s been to. They treat you pretty well in Nova Scotia.”

Team Johnson came away with a 1-7 record, placing fourth out of four in the women’s seeding pool.

They beat P.E.I. 8-7 in round robin play.

“We would have liked to win more games. We had a really good game against Ontario - they were one of the top teams - and it came right down to the last rock,” said skip Ellen Johnson of the 9-4 loss. “That didn’t look as close when you saw the score because we were trying to steal one in the last end, and she had to make her last shot to do it. That gave them five in that end when they made the last shot.”

Johnson, who was joined by third Ev Pasichnyk, second Val Whelan and lead Elaine Sumner, also had a close 10-9 extra-end loss to N.W.T.

Saskatchewan won the women’s final 6-3 over hosts Nova Scotia.

“We had just a fantastic time,” said Johnson. “I can’t say enough about the hospitality. Everybody just went out of their way to make it a fantastic time there.”

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com