GEORGE MYRER The Chronicle Herald
Published: January 14, 2018 – 8:04pm
Last Updated: January 15, 2018 – 9:38am
Jamie Murphy’s win at the Deloitte Tankard on Sunday was one for the history books.
Murphy beat Mayflower’s Mark Dacey 9-5 to capture his fifth provincial men’s curling title. Murphy joins Dacey and Gerry Glintz as the only five-time winners. Glintz, also of the Halifax Curling Club, won his titles between 1944 and 1955.
When asked about the historical significance of the win, Murphy preferred to talk about the play of his teammates, lead Philip Crowell, second Scott Saccary and third Paul Flemming
“To be honest we were just trying to play the competition we were against this week and my guys played well all week and they made my life pretty easy and we were able to come away with a win,” said Murphy.
Murphy led 2-1 after three ends, but broke the game open with three points in both the fourth and fifth ends.
“We had a big fourth end and we were able to go up 5-1 and at that point the board was a little more in our favour,” said Murphy. “Then Mark (Dacey) got a bad break, he tried a really tough shot in the fifth end and ended up giving us three that made it 8-1.”
Dacey managed to claw back two points in each of the sixth and eighth ends but shook hands down 9-5 prior to the ninth.
Dacey advanced to the final by beating Stuart Thompson of the host Dartmouth Curling Club 11-5 in the semifinal on Saturday.
The Murphy rink has been busy this season. They were awarded a berth in a pre-trial Olympic event in November, meaning they had to take a different approach to their training. They trained to peak twice and the extra work paid off with Sunday’s win.
“It’s always a hard week, there are good teams here,” said Murphy. “It’s an exhausting week, but we put a lot of work in this year leading up to the pre-trials and it paid itself forward today.”
The win earns the Murphy rink another shot at the Tim Horton’s Brier, being held in Regina, March 3-11.
“We’re really happy, because we play all year for a chance to get to the Brier,” said Murphy. “The Brier is an amazing event and is something that everybody wants to get to and we have been fortunate to get there the last three years and with the new format we are looking to getting to Saskatchewan and seeing what we can do.”
