Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Scott Chadwick is one step closer to his dream of playing in the Tim Horton’s Brier just a short drive from his hometown.
The Napanee native serves as lead for Kingston’s Scott McDonald rink, which recently qualified for the Ontario Tankard, which will take place Jan. 28-Feb. 2 in Cornwall. If the reigning Ontario champion McDonald team can defend their Tankard title, they’ll advance to the Brier, which will be held at Kingston’s Leon’s Centre, Feb. 29-March 8.
The McDonald rink secured its berth in the Tankard when Glenn Howard’s rink came up just short of the playoffs at the Canada Cup in Leduc, Alta. That gave the McDonald team just enough season points to join top ranked John Epping’s rink as the first two teams to qualify for the Tankard’s eight team field.
“The ultimate goal is to not only play in the Brier in Kingston, but we want to win the Brier,” said Chadwick. “This is a step along the way and now we need to make sure we’re ready for the Ontario Tankard.”
By clinching their spot early, the McDonald rink doesn’t have to compete in playdowns over the next couple of weeks in an attempt to clinch one of the final six spots.
“That alleviate the stress and pressure of playdowns,” Chadwick said of securing their spot early. “We just need to prepare for provincials now.”
Heading in as the defending champions is a bit different compared to last year said Chadwick.
“I think we go in as a confident team,” said Chadwick. “We know how to win it. We know we have to perform to the best of our ability. We’ve been under the pressure of that big stage. We just have to take all the lessons we learned last year and apply them to this.”
Currently ranked 14th in the world, the McDonald team will look to stay sharp as they take part in Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event, which runs Dec. 10-15 in Conception Bay South, N.L.
“We’ll gladly take a couple weeks off over the Christmas holidays,” Chadwick said of the schedule following the Grand Slam. “Then we’re hoping that we’ll get into the next Grand Slam the second week of January and that’ll lead us into the Tankard. Otherwise it’ll be a lot of focus on practice and getting the fundamentals.”
The Scott McDonald rink. Submitted photo.
Rounding out the team is Jonathan Beuk at third and Wesley Forget at second.
It’s already been an eventful season for the Kingston team. They opened the year with a silver medal at the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic in Sapporo, Japan followed by bronze at the Uiseong International Curling Cup in Uiesong, South Korea. More recently they placed first at the Challenge Casino de Charlevoix, Nov. 21-24.