Martin runner-up at provincial women's Masters

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Yvonne Martin and her teammates gave it a great shot, but narrowly missed repeating as Nova Scotia women’s Masters curling champion.

Martin, who (playing with different teammates) won both the women’s Masters and senior women’s provincial titles last year, dropped a 7-6, extra-end decision to Margaret Cameron of Mayflower in a sudden-death final match Wednesday afternoon in Baddeck.

With Cameron unbeaten entering play Wednesday, Martin had to defeat her twice to claim her fourth provincial masters title to go with her four provincial senior titles.

Martin won Wednesday morning’s first sudden-death match 7-6, scoring the winning point in the eighth and final end, but was unable to complete the sweep in the afternoon draw despite leading 6-2 after four ends.

Cameron scored one in the fifth, stole single points in the sixth, seventh and eighth to pull into a tie, then stole the winner in the extra end in which a measurement was required to determine who had scored the winning point. “It was an unbelievable competition,” Martin said following her return home Thursday afternoon. “Every game we played went down to the last rock. We lost on a measure twice and one of the games we won was also (decided) on a measure.”

Martin said she and her team played really well, but Cameron and her teammates “played everything just about perfect. “I didn’t feel bad at all. We all had a great time, and I don’t think we could have played any better than we did.”

Forced to take the ‘long route’

Ironically, Martin and Cameron also met in the provincial final a year ago, with Cameron needing to win twice to claim the title. On that occasion, Martin won in the first draw.

Martin and her teammates Carol Romkey, Gwen Merriam and Allison Weagle were forced to take the ‘long route’ to this year’s final after dropping their opening match 8-7 to Elise Doane of Halifax.

The Martin rink then went undefeated the rest of the way until their second meeting with Cameron Wednesday.

In her second match, Martin defeated Linda Juurlink – like Martin, representing the NSCA in the competition – 9-8 in an extra end, stealing the winning point after snatching single markers in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth to erase an 8-4 Juurlink lead.

Martin’s third match was a 5-4 win over Pat MacLeod of Halifax, in which she built a 5-3 lead after seven ends and held on for the win. She defeated Doane 7-5, avenging her first-round loss, stealing one in the seventh for a 7-4 lead and then holding on.

That win improved Martin’s record to 3-1 and advanced her to the semi-final against the undefeated Cameron rink.

The provincial senior women’s curling championship will be contested Feb. 3-8 in Berwick. Despite being the defending provincial champion, Martin said Thursday she had no plans to enter a team in the senior event.