Playing close to home doesn't seem to affect veteran skip Sherry Middaugh, who's leading her team through the Stroud Cash Spiel at Stroud Curling Club in Innisfil.
The Victoria Harbour-native's rink consisting of third Karri-Lee Grant, second Melissa Foster, and lead Jane Hooper-Perroud plays out of Barrie Curling Club, and gets the luxury of having friends and family close by to watch in-person.
"It's pressure, but it's a good pressure," Middaugh said after her evening draw.
Ontario's reigning senior champions began their tournament run Friday with a 5-1 loss to Toronto’s Julia Markle, followed by a dominant 9-1 defeat of Sudbury’s Krysta Burns.
Middaugh, who has seven Hearts appearances on her resume, leads the only team in the tournament—men or women—that doesn't need outside accomodations for the weekend. In fact, Middaugh says this time, the team is staying together at Grant's house near Horseshoe Valley
The locality is a luxury the 59-year-old notably had at the 2015 Ontario Women's Curling Championship in Penetanguishene, where she finished as the runner-up.
Although they don't do a lot of spieling, the six-time Ontario champion says the biggest goal of this tournament is to prep for the Canadian Senior Curling Championships, which are in Ottawa in November.
Rocks packed the house in the first end of her opener, but after Markle missed a draw to potentially lay two, Middaugh had a shot for four. However, the veteran came away with just one.
The second end was plagued by ice issues for both sides. Multiple draws were unable to clear the hog line, which ended in a blank after a Markle overshot an open draw to the button.
Tournament organizer and former Canadian mixed doubles champion Cory Heggestad says it was miraculous the ice crew at Stroud Curling Club was able to get it into playing shape. He stated Friday morning there was standing water on the ice as recently as Tuesday, and there was uncertainty about the event's viability due to the conditions.
"We struggled a bit with paths for draws," Middaugh adds. "We played it more of an open style than we're used to. We probably should have played our game."
After Markle's unforced errors, particularly on draws led to three consecutive blanks, she finally got on the board with a draw for two in the fifth instead of going for a runback that could’ve scored three.
Unfortunate for Middaugh, some late-game mistakes cost her the lead. She missed two potential double take-outs in the sixth end, which allowed Markle to steal one and further her lead.
On skip stones in the seventh, the 21-year-old was sitting two with an opportunity looming to steal three before Middaugh fended off a runback with a draw near the top of the house. Markle's subsequent draw just inside 12 feet formed a wall at the top of the house to lay three.
Middaugh's final stone overcurled on the outside, allowing Markle to steal two and force handshakes.
"They made their shots and I just struggled a little bit with release and just not having like the reps, the games in that we're used to," Middaugh said. "It's one of those that you definitely come off going, 'yeah, room for improvement.'"
Her team had only played in one event leading up to the Stroud Cash Spiel; the KW Fall Classic in Kitchener in late September. But the squad got their mojo back in their second draw of the day.
The focus in the second game for Middaugh was minimizing the mistakes from the morning draw, while also being able to capitalize on those of Burns.
After earning hammer again, she got off to a quick start with an easy three in the first end, before stealing two more in the second.
"There were so many blank ends in the first game, it was a very defensive game, and that's not us," she says. "Once we won the draw to the button, we just said let's play our game."
That game turned out to be a bit more defensive after getting out to a big early lead. Burns scored her first and only point of the game with a perfect draw to the button in the third. However, Middaugh countered with a steal of one in the fourth.
"I felt really comfortable with draw weight, and it's such a battle when you don't," Middaugh says. "When you're slugging with the ice. There, we didn't, and it was one of those to just keep putting the pressure on them.
The following end came down to another very difficult draw for Burns with Middaugh sitting two. But her stone curled much farther inside than intended, bumping one of Middaugh's stones in further for a steal of three. Burns conceded, with both teams finishing the opening day 1-1.
In this tournament, the top seed in each pool from the round robin advances directly to the semifinals, with the next three needing to play a quarterfinal game. The bottom seed in each pool will be eliminated.
"We know it's going to be a good surface tomorrow, and we played two really tough teams, but knowing that we're now 1-1, we're in the driver's seat," she but we'll probably at least have to win one tomorrow of a couple good shootouts."
OTHER RESULTS
DRAW 1
WOMEN
POOL A
Principi 11 Langford 2
POOL B
Rozon 7 Madden 2
MEN
POOL A
Inglis 8 Oryniak 2
POOL B
Schuh 10 Lamb 2
DRAW 2
WOMEN
POOL A
Deschene 7 Gebhardt 0
MEN
POOL A
Rooney 9 Ferris 8
POOL B
Mulima 10 Mayville 0
DRAW 3
WOMEN
POOL A
Mann 9 Langford 3
POOL B
Madden 5 Burns 4
MEN
POOL A
Oryniak 5 MacDougall 4
POOL B
Fournier 7 Schuh 5
DRAW 4
WOMEN
POOL A
Principi 9 Gerhardt 2
POOL B
Markle 8 Rozon 2
MEN
POOL A
Rooney 6 Inglis 2
POOL B
Lamb 5 Mulima 2
DRAW 5
WOMEN
POOL A
Mann 8 Deschene 1
MEN
POOL A
Fournier 9 Mayville 6
POOL B
Ferris 9 MacDougall 0
