THUNDER BAY – It’s been a rocky start for Brian Adams Jr. to start the Tbaytel Major League of Curling season.
A slow start cost them in Week 1, and the team dropped a second straight last week, a substitute squad taking the Port Arthur Curling Club ice while the Adams foursome was in Sault Ste. Marie at a bonspiel eight hours to the east.
The defending champions weren’t about to let their slide hit three games.
Adams and teammates Mark Koivula, Colin Koivula and Joel Adams, on Wednesday night took an early lead with a pair in the second, then stole their way to victory with a deuce in the third, three in the fourth and one more in the fifth to put away their 8-0 win over Brandon Dubinsky.
It felt good to get into the win column, Adams said.
“We’re slow out of the gates this year,” he said.
“We had a slow start in Game 1 against (Ron) Rosengren and played from behind the whole game and couldn’t win that one. And we weren’t here last week, we had a spare team playing for us.”
Adams said their game plan called for a stronger start and they got it.
“We had a good open first end and made a nice deuce in the second and then it was off to the races,” he said.
Adams Jr. wasn’t the only team looking for win No. 1 on the season.
In fact, five teams entered play in Week 3 with nothing in the win column, including Robyn Despins’ foursome.
Like Adams Jr., they got off to a strong start against Andrew Sinclair’s rink and made easy work of their opponent, scoring three in both the first and third ends en route to a convincing 8-3 triumph that ended after six ends.
Despins, joined by Nicole Westlund-Stewart, Samantha Morris and Rebecca Carr, said they’re using the Major League season as a tune-up for next year’s provincial playdowns, aiming for a chance to dethrone Krista McCarville and earn a berth at the Scotties.
It all came together on Wednesday night.
“I think we were just making the right shots and putting pressure on them when we needed to. They missed a few things and we capitalized on it, so that’s about how the game went,” Despins said.
“It’s good. We were looking for a win after the games we had the last two weeks. We had some losses and it feels good to have a win up there.”
At the other end of the standings, four teams entered play with perfect 2-0-0-0 records, but only one team, skipped by Ron Rosengren, managed to escape with a perfect record still intact.
Rosengren scored four in the fifth to break open a 3-3 contest and went on to beat Jodi Judd 10-3, handing Judd her first loss of the 2023-24 season. Krista McCarville gave up a steal of three to Bryan Burgess in the sixth end and fell 7-2, while Trevor Bonot was long on a draw to the four foot in the eighth and gave up a steal of one to send his match with Team Al Hackner, skipped by Frank Morissette, to a shot-to-the-button tiebreaker. Bonot was long again and Morrisette hit the button to secure a 6-5 triumph.
Chris Silver picked up his second win, tying Ben Mikkelson with a single in the eight and winning the shot-to-the button tiebreaker. In other action, Brandon Warkentin edged Denis Malette 7-5 and Gary Weiss stole two in the eighth to knock off former champion Dylan Johnston 8-5.
