Off to Oakville

Team Middaugh starts the Ontario Scotties Monday, Jan.26 with the finals on Sunday, February 1st. Results can be found on either at http://www.ontcurl.com/ or www.oakvillecurlingclub.com/hearts or better yet tune into Rogers for full event coverage. Team Middaugh will be featured Tuesday at 10 p.m. versus McCarville and again on Thursday at 2 p.m. versus Reddick.

Come on down to the Oakville Curling Club to cheer on the defending champs.

Hi to Hamiota, Manitoba

Team Middaugh would like to say hi to the grade 5 kids in the curling program in Hamiota, Manitoba. Remember to have fun, always smile and don't flick your in turn.

A Day of Discovery, well a day and a half

Sherry and Wayne, along with Julie Columbus and Danielle Loney were called upon to assist Allan Nursall of Science in the City on the Discovery Channel. Why for do you ask? Well tune in February 23-26 at 7 pm and again at 11 pm to learn about the effects of sweeping, why a curling rock curls, different ice conditions and releases.

Wild, Wild West

Sunny, beautiful Regina and that is exactly what it was this past weekend. Team Middaugh, with a bit of a spin as Kaitlyn Lawes from Winnipeg filled the big shoes of Kirsten who is relaxing at home, don't think so with a 22 month old and a new born, arrived late Thursday night to the welcoming arms of their 2008 Scotties driver Kenda Richards.

The format of five pools of six teams was great if you liked getting a guaranteed five games but not so great if you were one of the unfortunate ten teams in tie breakers for the last three spots. Thankfully Team Middaugh won their pool and avoided the Saturday night shoot out. The girls did very well with an overall 5-1 record, losing a close battle in the quarter-finals to the pesky Kleibrink squad, who went on to win the bonspiel.

Thanks to Kaitlyn Lawes who played fantastic, swept like a 20 year old energizer bunny should and was a joy to be around. I hope she enjoyed her weekend with the "mature" girls of the team, as many laughs were shared. You are number one on the speed dial if a spare situation arises again. Good luck in the rest of the season Kaitlyn as you defend your Canadian Junior Ladies title.

Thank you to the incredible organizing committee on a fantastic job. The curlers were treated to a pizza and drink night, Sunday brunch and a hospitality room downstairs all weekend. Dean Moulding did a wonderful job on the ice, not an easy feat in September. Thank you to all the handsome gentlemen who drove the team to and from the rink, great to see so many familiar faces. The committee was proactive in changing their date from late November and their efforts paid off with full entries and a very strong field. Great work.

The team would also like to thank all the supporters for cheering on the team all weekend, even the morning draws. Kim's relatives were aplenty, and even brought treats, thank you Auntie Bunnie: Uncle Gerry and Auntie Bunnie from Regina; Auntie Georgetta, Uncle Jim and Auntie Edna from Selkirk; Auntie Anne from Perth, Ontario; cousin Betty Ann from Saskatchewan. Sherry's dad, Jim and Sharon as well as the subdued Grandma McIsaac (if you knew her you would know that this is not possible), Auntie Joyce from Rosetown were also in attendance. Kaitlyn's mom, Cheryl, was on hand to take down the details of all the games so that coach Andrea would get the gist of the weekend. Thank you to Cheryl for doing all that work, much appreciated. Hope you and Kaitlyn had an uneventful flight home Tuesday morning.

See you next year Regina. Go Riders Go.

The way to go is through Espanola.

I’d be lying if I said that any member of the Middaugh team had come back down off the clouds we are flying. What a great week at Espanola. To get us kick-started, three of the team attended the Dominion of Canada General Insurance hosted CPA (Canadian Parapalegic Association) Charity event held earlier in the week at St. George’s Golf and Country Club. I am still bowled over by how much money they were able to raise (even higher than last year’s target!) of $150,000. What a great event, they treat the curlers so well and it really puts things into perspective for us as a team and connects us with our love of the sport, as well as with the people at Dominion who help make this season happen for us, and of course also allows us to help a truly special and worthwhile cause. A very special thank you goes out to Douglas Hogeboom , who was generous enough to pass on his ‘pick 6’ winnings to our team in support of our quest for reaching the Scotties. The generosity of such people is truly amazing and we were all very touched by his gesture.

Then onto the grind we went, knowing the field was one of the best at a Ontario Provincial Scotties every team was looking forward to some really good competition. Team Middaugh did our thing, got into our routines (starting with our lovely driver Evelyn who took us wherever we wanted to go!), put our head down and won our way to first place post round-robin. Then came the 1-2 game vs McCarville, and the nerves somehow settled in. In hindsight, we were in a good position even after we lost that game, as it placed our semi-final onto the same sheet as the final game, and gave us an opportunity to work out any remaining kinks. After our semi-final win vs Goring, we faced Team McCarville again. This time, an feeling of excitement and anticipation rather than nerves set in, we set out with a game plan and executed. Even though they kept it close and tied it up in the 10th, forcing an extra end, we felt confident and knew that we could bring it home in the extra. Keeping the four-foot clear allowed Sherry a nice “routine” draw to the eight foot, and wouldn’t yah know it stopped on the pin. What a ride.
We have lots to look forward to in the next few weeks before the Scotties Tournament of Hearts starts in Regina, and we wanted to take a minute to say thank you to our sponsors; M&M Meatshops, the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, as well as the product support from Balance Plus. Without them this journey would not have happened, cliché though that sounds we know how true it is. And our final thank you goes to our family and friends, who have supported us by cheering us on whether in person or via internet, we just can’t tell you how much your support means and it is also what makes this so much more special. Keep an eye on us in Regina, Team Middaugh is most definitely on a mission

Middaugh Rink Wins Sobeys

From the Chronicle Herald - Monday, December 3, 2007.

NEW GLASGOW — It was Quebec versus Ontario for the big loot in Sunday’s final of the $54,000 Sobey’s Curling Classic before 400 fans at John Brother MacDonald Stadium.

A hot-shooting Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., seeded No. 8 in a 32-team field, beat No. 29 Marie-France Larouche of Levis, Que., 6-4 in the championship final. The four-time Ontario women’s champion and 2003 Canada Cup winner claimed the $14,000 top prize with Larouche, the 1999 world junior bronze medallist, taking $10,000.

It marked the first Grand Slam of Curling women’s event for the Maritimes and the first of a three-year deal for the Slam event in New Glasgow.

Middaugh, a 40-year-old full-time mother, won seven straight games facing elimination after an 0-2 start. Larouche, a 27-year-old teacher, was 6-0 heading into the final.
The Ontario skip robbed Larouche’s team blind, stealing four consecutive points in the middle ends for a comfortable 6-1 lead.

Read the whole story here.

C26th ANNUAL COLONIAL SQUARE LADIES CURLING CLASSIC 2007

(by Sharon Spence of Aquadeo Beach, SK)

The Colonial Square Ladies Curling classic was held October 26 – 29th, 2007 at the Nutana Curling Club Saskatoon.

Sherry, Kirsten, Kim & Andra arrived in Saskatoon Thursday, Oct 25th at about 8:30 p.m. after a very quick turn a round in Winnipeg. They were chauffeured off to the Colonial Inn & Suites. The rooms are nice and very reasonable at $69.00 per night. Another bonus – they were fairly close to the curling rink for those early morning games.

Their first game was Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. against Martineau – a team from Lloydminster, SK., Team Middaugh won this game in 6 ends. Not quite so lucky in their next game against Team Galusha formerly Kerry Koe from the NWT. Team Galusha was very hot and our girls were just medium hot. It was a good game and it came down to the 10th end for the Galusha win. None the less we were now in the B Event.

Team Delanoy from Edmonton proved to be a very worthy opponent but was defeated by Team Middaugh and we were now waiting to see who would win between Michelle Englot and Cathy King. We would play the loser. We are now playing Cathy King at 4:30 p.m. We came on strong and out played and out shot Team King all the way. Chantel Eberle was our next challenge Sunday noon. (much better time of the day to get up and watch curling). Chantel was good but not good enough – although all of us wizards behind the glass were wondering if Sherry was playing for Team Eberle in the 7th end when she had 5 possible calls and she called the 6th shot. This certainly could have been the turning point in the game – but fortunately for us – Chantel did not take advantage of the situation. Team Middaugh was now playing at 4:30 Sunday afternoon against Team China.

Team China is a force to be reckoned with – they are technically strong in every aspect of the game. Our girls had their work cut out for them. If you watched the line scores of this game – you would wonder if anyone wanted to score. Team China’s coach was sitting next to us video taping the game. He was quite excited to be playing against Team Middaugh. He advised us that he had taped many, many games over the last two years to use as training tapes and most of them were of “Sherry & Wayne Middaugh”. We made the comment to him that we “hoped they hadn’t learned too much”. Fortunately, our girls were victorious over Team China and we had now qualified for the Championship round and were $2500 richer than when we started.

8:30 a.m. on Monday morning comes very, very early – but the winning team would play three games back to back today. Unfortunately for Team Middaugh they came up against Team King again and this time Team King was out for blood. The score was 5-0 after the first 3 ends for Team King and it never stopped. Team King went on to play the final game against Team Lawton, only to loose but still went home with $5,000 while Team Lawton walked away with $9,000. Congratulations to Stephanie & Team.

It is always a tough time for Sherry (and team) when she comes to Saskatoon as there are so many friends, relatives and acquaintances waiting for their turn to welcome her back and say hi. Thanks to Team Middaugh for the time we got to spend with you. It was a fun weekend and a lot of good curling (especially from the “wizards behind the glass”).

The Pinball Queen unleashes the “Double Wick”

Sports fan, this one was a doosy (for lack of a better term). Picture this, the semi-finals 10th end of a whirlwind match, Team Middaugh having just battled back against supposed disaster (down five and taking a three, stealing one, and laying two shots buried for the potential steal and win) and we can be secure only in the knowledge that we had done all we could. The rest was up to fate and Eve Belisle, who for now on will remain in our somewhat still astounded minds as the Pinball Queen.

After careful deliberation we came to the conclusion that the only shot to leave Eve was the draw through a somewhat negative port with the swing. The ice was most definitely getting sludgy and the port to the four-foot was almost un-navigateable, so we decided to block off what we considered the much-easier angle tap to the four-foot with backing. It is hard to know if this decision was actually our undoing, as there would be very few who would make a call otherwise. We made our choice and executed, took away the raise and left her what we thought was the considerably more unlikely draw.

At the hogline, we knew it was hot. Through the rings hot. Not slowing down for nothin’ hot. Next thing we know, Eve’s last rock starts to move. We hear a soft “Ping” off the corner guard, “Ping” off the backside of a rock sitting center-line, full twelve….and there it goes, rrrroooooollllllling into the four foot. Never did we think that the double wick would be our downfall. The double wick. This is something we must now consider as a crutial blindspot in our examination of Belisle’s arsenal.

The double wick. A deadly weapon against any team, something to bring out when your opposition least expects it. We now know better. We have seen its devastation and know it is almost impossible to guard against it. Beware the double wick, my friends. You too could be in a battle against another Pinball Queen and not even know it.