Jeremy Fraser ([email protected])
Published:Nov 16 at 10:45 p.m.
SYDNEY, N.S. — A local curling rink will look to capture a national championship next week in Miramichi, N.B.
The Sydney rink, which includes skip Kurt Roach, lead Robin Nathanson, second Travis Stone and third Mark MacNamara, will represent the province at the 2018 Travelers Curling Club Championship.
The team qualified for the national tournament by capturing the Nova Scotia Travelers Curling Club championship last March, an event hosted at the Sydney Curling Club.
“We’re hoping to qualify for the playoffs and to do that we need to finish in the top three in our division,” said MacNamara. “We’ve been looking forward to the nationals since we qualified.”
The team has plenty of experience heading into the national tournament. Three of the four members on this year’s squad participated in the 2016 Travelers tournament in Kelowna, B.C.
New to the fold this time around will be Travis Stone. Despite not being part of the team in 2016, Stone brings national experience, participating in the junior nationals in 2008.
“When you go to your first national championship, you don’t really know what to expect, but we have that experience under our belt,” said MacNamara, noting the team began preparing for the event in September.
“We’re hoping the experience from the last time will help us succeed.”
In 2016, the team was successful in securing a spot in the playoff round. The team was eliminated from the event in the quarter-final.
“With this championship, at the provincial level, you have to sit out the year following a provincial win, so we were hungry to get back into the nationals in 2018,” said MacNamara.
“We’re looking to improve on that quarter-final loss and make it a little further this year, but I guess it’s one game at a time and a crack at playoffs is all we can really hope for now.”
The Nova Scotians will open the tournament on Monday at 7:30 p.m. against Yukon, before facing Prince Edward Island at 9 a.m. and Quebec at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
The team will continue round robin play on Wednesday with games against Alberta at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. against Nunavut. The team will finish the round robin portion on Thursday at 4 p.m. against Manitoba.
The quarter-final games are scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m., followed by the semifinals at 6:30 p.m.
The bronze and gold medal games are set for Nov. 24 at 10 a.m.
Selected games from the tournament will be live-streamed at www.curling.ca/2018travelers.