Team Flasch Take Home Provincial Mixed Championship

What a weekend it was up at the Meadow Lake Curling Club for this years Tim Hortons Mixed Provincial Championship.This years event and seems to be every year at the mixed provincial proves that the depth and skill amongst all the teams that competed seems to be one of a kind. Many competitive men’s and women’s players combined forces this past weekend to give the Meadow Lake community and surrounding area a great weekend of curling to take in.

This yearsevent consisted of a triple knockout format, leading into a page playoff system on championship Sunday!

Left to right: Colton Flasch (Skip), Brett Barber (Third), Jayden Shwaga (Second), Robyn Despins (Lead)

Brett Barber (Third)

As things started to wind down leading into the playoffs, it was the Jason Ackerman rink out of Regina who met up with the Colton Flasch rink out of Prince Albert in that 1vs1 page playoff game. The teams traded deuces and single points throughout this one leading to a tied game at 4-4 heading into the 8th and final end. But Ackerman pulls out the steal of one to earn him a direct spot into the championship final.

Meanwhile in the 2vs2 page playoff game, it was the young guns fresh out of juniors in the Brayden Stewart rink out of Oxbow who battled with Shawn Joyce out of the Saskatoon Nutana Curling Club. Where it was Joyce clinching on to a 4-3 lead after six ends of play, taking the eventual final over Stewart 5-3. The semi final game between Joyce and Flasch lead to a tie game at 3-3 heading into the 6th, where we saw Flasch having the hammer and scoring the deciding factor in this one with a score of three, taking the final 7-4 setting up a rematch against Ackerman.

Late Sunday afternoon saw Flasch and Ackerman battle for the right to represent Saskatchewan at the 2017 Canadian Mixed Championships. Back and forth mutliple point ends were given by each team, with Ackerman opening this one up scoring three in the first end holding onto a 5-4 lead heading into the break. Flasch scored a big score of four in the 7th end to force Ackerman to get a deuce in the final end to knot this one up at 8-8 setting up an extra end thriller to decide a champion. And it was the Flasch team of Colton Flasch, Brett Barber, Jayden Shwaga and Robyn Despins scoring that single point they needed to claim the title. Congratulations to all mixed teams, volunteers, and organizers in another successful championship event.

Team Flasch will now represent Saskatchewan in November at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championships, which will take place in Swan River, Manitoba.

School children taking in some of the action Friday afternoon