Representing Barrie Curling Club, the team of skip Sherry Middaugh, third/vice-skip Karri-Lee Grant, second Melissa Foster, lead Jane Hooper Perroud, and coach Wayne Middaugh completed an undefeated run to claim the 2025 Canadian Senior Curling Championship.
The Ontario champions finished the tournament with a 7-5 victory over Saskatchewan's Amber Holland in Saturday's final at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club in Ottawa.
Coached by her husband, Wayne, a three-time men's world champion, it's the second medal for the Saskatchewan-born Middaugh at the tournament, following a runner-up performance in 2019.
Her team got to the final by way of a magnificent round robin and championship pool performance to earn the top playoff seed, followed by a 5-3 win over Nova Scotia's Andrea Saulnier in the semifinal Saturday morning.
“Relieved,” Middaugh said to Curling Canada after the final. “If you’re going to lose one, you want to lose one early. We just felt like we were playing well — not perfect in every way — but we supported each other. If someone made a half shot, we picked each other up. Amber’s team played really well. We had a barn burner of a game against them in the round robin, so we knew it was going to be tough.”
In the final, Holland stole one in the first end, but Middaugh stormed back in the second by making a hit for four. Saskatchewan responded with two in the third and another steal of one in the fourth, tying the game at the break.
After the teams traded singles to keep the game tied entering the seventh, Middaugh secured a deuce in the seventh before running Holland out of stones in the eighth and final end.
“It was nice that we could play a little bit of offence in the eighth end and make them waste a few shots. We just had to keep coming at them. It was a very good game,” Middaugh said.
Ontario's women won all 12 games on their way to the title, including an earlier 6-5 win over Saskatchewan to close out championship pool play.
Ontario's win gives the province its 12th national senior title on the women's side, which is more than any other province or territory.
Despite making seven Tournament of Hearts appearances in her career and medalling thrice, this win earns Middaugh and most of her teammates their first chance to Canada at an international event. The team's lead, Hooper Perroud, won gold as lead at the 1996 World Women’s Curling Championship, playing alongside skip Marilyn Bodogh.
Both teams will represent Canada at the 2026 World Senior Curling Championships in Genevawhich begin April 25 and end May 2. Canada's women's team in May, led by 1998 Olympic champion Atina Ford-Johnston, were runners up to Scotland at the event in Fredericton
On the men's side, Ontario skip Mike Harris wasn't as fortunate, losing to Saskatchewan's Bruce Korte 8-4 in the final. It was the second time the 1998 Olympian lost to Korte in the tournament after a 9-5 round robin defeat.
Korte aims to earn Canada's seventh straight world men's senior championship. Both Canadian men and women have each earned a world-leading 15 World Seniors titles.
