Heading into the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, not much was known about the new British Columbia team lead by skip Sarah Wark of Chilliwack, British Columbia. However, she has got off to a solid start to begin the tournament with three straight wins over the first five draws and an opportunity to participate in the championship pool starting Thursday.
On Saturday, Wark’s team scored a marvelous four points in the 10th end to come from behind to beat Nova Scotia 7-6. The victory was an excellent example of never giving up in the sport of curling.
Wark then delivered an impressive 7-5 upset win over Manitoba’s Tracy Fleury on Sunday. The fact that Wark beat Fleury, raised eyebrows for a couple of reasons. The first was because Wark is a rookie skip at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, while Fleury is making her fourth appearance at the Canadian National Women’s Curling Championship. The second reason is because Fleury, and her new Manitoba team had an extremely successful 2018 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Penticton, British Columbia. Fleury skipped Northern Ontario to a record of eight wins and three losses before losing 6-2 to Nova Scotia in the 3-4 page playoff game. Meanwhile, Fleury’s new team of second Selena Kaatz, third Liz Fyfe and lead Kristin MacCuish played for Team Wildcard last year under skip Kerri Einarson of Manitoba. They went through the Championship standings in first place with a record of nine wins and two losses, and then reached the final before losing to Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones 8-6.
Wark then beat Nunavut handily 10-1. On Monday and Tuesday, Team British Columbia played Alberta and Northern Ontario tight, but lost in two close games by scores of 9-8 and 8-7 respectively. Then after their narrow 7-6 win over Quebec on Tuesday, Team B.C. guaranteed themselves a spot in at least in the Pool A tiebreaker game on Thursday.
