ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Sarah Hill and her rink based out the Re/Max Centre (St. John’s Curling Club) will represent Newfoundland and Labrador at the Canadian women’s curling championship in late February.
Hill, Beth Hamilton, Lauren Barron and Adrienne Mercer earned their place at the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts Feb.19-28 in Calgary by defeating the Mackenzie Mitchell rink, also out of St. John’s, in the weekend provincial women’s championship, which concluded Saturday night at the Re/MaxCentre.
The Mitchell and Hill rinks the only ones entered in this year’s competition, in large part because they were the only teams that could commit travelling to Calgary and following Newfoundland and Labrador's travel restrictions requiring a two-week quarantine on return. As a result, this year's provincial Scotties final was a best-of-five series.
Mitchell, who won the N.L. junior women’s title last year, took the opener 7-5, but Hill rattled off three straight wins — by scores of 8-4, 10-4 and 7-6 (the latter in an extra end) — to claim her first provincial women’s championship.
Playdowns like N.L.'s were rare this year
Unlike Newfoundland and Labrador, most provinces have decided their representatives for the 2021 Scotties nation women’s and Brier national men’s curling championships without the benefit of provincial playdowns, instead making their choices through a selection/acclimation process.
But at least the men's and women's nationals are going ahead. The 2021 Canadian junior, under-18, mixed, club, university/college and wheelchair championships have all been cancelled.
Besides the Scotties and Brier (March 6-14), the only other 2021 national championship still on the roster is the mixed doubles March 18-28 in Calgary, where all three events will be held consecutively in a "bubble" setting.
Mackenzie Mitchell and Greg Smith — who skipped his men’s team to the N.L. Tankard title Sunday — will make up Newfoundland and Labrador’s mixed doubles entry.
There is Canadian women’s championship experience on the team, however; Hamilton has been at three national Scotties, including the last two as part of Erica Curtis’s (2020) and Kelli Sharpe’s (2019) provincial representatives.
As well, Hill has national experience as a former two-time Newfoundland and Labrador junior champion and was part of the 2016 provincial mixed doubles champions skipped by Adam Boland
The Scotties national championship had originally been scheduled for Thunder Bay, Ont., but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it and other Curling Canada events remaining on the 2020–21 curling schedule were relocated to a central bubble at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, where competitions will be held without spectators.
