The Leader-Post from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada • 18

18 Sports The Leader-Post Regina, Saskatchewan Monday, February 2, 1981 Wankel theory bears fruit Mm 7 By Arnle Tiefenbach of The Leader-Post V' i I 'w Vj f- fir- AX SJ I 15 in WEYBURN And at what point, the portly scribe asked of the lean southern champion, did your team begin to show evidence that it might maintain its balance on the playdown trail for a considerable length of time? The southern champion, whose name was Doug Wankel and who came from Elbow, replied that it was just after winter really set in. Vou don't have to be reminded that the icy fingers and frosty breath of Old Man Winter didn't strike until much later than usual and now you know that Wankel didn't either. An odd game, this curling, but no more odd, really, than many other sports. Oh, how many tales have you heard of teams breaking from the starting gate wilh the speed of a well-bred filly, only to come up lame in the biggest race of them all? This all has to do with peaking, of course, and Doug Wankel, who is the same Doug Wankel who led the Knutson brothers to near-victory in the Brier 14 years ago, is one who believes firmly in the theory that there is a danger in peaking too early. He certainly isn't against fattening his wallet on the cash 'spiel circuit and indeed, has done so many times.

But he says one must be ever watchful that these successes in the fall don't lead to problems in the winter. His theory, which he stresses does not hold true for all teams, goes like this: A team start3 off the season shooting with precision and defeating practically all comers. It is making all of the draws and getting most of the rolls, it is scoring the two-enders coming home when in arrears by one, and it is peeling the guards with consistency when that is what is demanded. After a time, the team grows so confident that it begins to play more and more difficult shots, thinking as it does that it Is beyond missing. But as suddenly the misses start coming and the confi- dence begins to crumble.

Soon the easy shots begin to look Lome Leader of Regina and Al Lind of Admiral, they were no closer than three down coming home. Was playing at home not an advantage after all? Indeed, was it a disadvantage? There were those who thought so, especially after watching the Obsts struggle through the first two days. It was suggested that once the Obsts found themselves on their last leg in the event, they might loosen up and say to hell with the pressure and simply go out and curl. But it didn't happen. When Lind popped a two-ender on the third end to go in front 2-0, the tension and frustration of the Obst3 became apparent to all.

They began pressing, and when a shot didn't work out exactly as planned, they let their disappointment and their anger show. To their credit, they seemed to overcome this as the game wore on, and on several ends they were able to put considerable pressure on Lind. They might even have tied the game had Lind slipped six inches further on his final throw. But it didn't turn out that way and after Terry gamely tried, but failed to make a shot that could well have been impossible, a certain hush seemed to fall over the Weyburn Curling Club, if just for a moment. "I think there's something in that pressure business," said Ken Obst, who, although just 31, is the oldest member of the rink.

"You play enough games and you think it shouldn't bother you, but They'll get over the disappointment, -the Obsts will, and they'll be back to fight another day. Why, it wasn't more than five minutes after their elimination that Ken Obst correctly pointed out that most curlers don't begin to perform at peak efficiency until they reach their mid-30s. "We've got lots of years left," he said, seemingly encouraged by his own words. "Anyway, it's bar time now." And the next day, the sun rose as usual. Wankel was speaking in general terms, and at a time in southern play-downs when no team had yet been eliminated.

But just before sunset the following day, and just after the sun had set on the chances of a highly-talented young foursome from Weyburn, Ken Obst, a member of that team, was ready to proclaim Wankel's theory sound. On the eve of southern playdowns, you would have been hard pressed to find someone who did not pick Terry, Butch and Ken Obst and Rod Finney as the favorites. They were young, enthusiastic and skilled, they had been through three southern playdowns before, they had won more than $15,000 in cash 'speils and they were playing on home ice. And by late Sunday afternoon they were out. "Yeah, there could be something in that," Ken Obst said of Wankel's theory.

"We DID curl' well early in the year when we won the Molson Open, then went to Melville and won there, too. Maybe we did start playing some shots that we shouldn't have. But I don'f know. We thought we were ready for this, we felt we had a good chance. We just weren't sharp through the whole thing.

I can't pick out just one game, it was the whole thing." Perhaps most remarkable Is the fact that the Obsts won only two games and even those weren't back-to-back. In their three losses, to Nick Fellner and f-inm Rinks on hold 'til bitter end mmmxwmwmmmmmnwM, Crystal Brunas and Anita Ford couldn't find the right strategy 'ft Brunas' bubble bursts By Nick Mfliokas L-P Sports Writer PRINCE ALBERT Amazing how fortune can change from one day to the next. The way things had gone for Crystal Brunas the first two days of the women's provincial curling championship, the thought of having to beat her not once but twice on the final day was enough to rattle even the most confident of skips. It wasn't enough to rattle Sue Altman. She responded to the challenge in spectacular fashion.

Altman guided her Wadena-based rink to the provincial title with two decisive victories over Brunas and her foursome from Gray at the' Prince Albert Golf and Country Club on Sunday. Altman opened with a 10-3 triumph in the afternoon, thpn wrapped up a berth in the up-coming national championship with a 6-3 win a few hours later. The second of those two victories not only sent Altman, Gloria Leach. Delores Syrota and Joan Sweatman packing for a trip to St. John's, Nfld.

It also marked the end of a stunning turnabout. For Altman and company it was, in Sweatman's words, "a dream come true." For Brunas, Anita Ford, Randi Kelly and Nelda MacDonald, it was an exercise in frustration, one which left them wondering how in the world they could possibly have lost the magic touch overnight. 4m 4 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Fl Milioks Ron Brucker captained his crew to a southern berth By Arnle Tiefenbach L-P Sports Writer WEYBURN In a southern men's curling championship that will long be remembered for an inordinate number of spectacular game-winning shots, it was fitting that each of the four rinks which ultimately survived had to wait, watch, worry and wonder until the final rock of the final end. The winners Doug Wankel of Elbow, Peter Shykitka of Estevan, Ron Brucker of Regina and Bob Ellert of As-siniboia may well have earned trips to Estevan for this weekend's provincial final, but they'll all have to spend the next few days digging into some home-cooked meals in order to regain the strength they lost during an eventful weekend in Weyburn. It was Wankel and trusty sidekicks Gary Peardon, Murray Trapp and Lome Smith who took the most direct route through the 16-rink southerns.

They won four games in a row, including a 7-5 decision over Shykitka in the final on Saturday night and thus assured themselves a berth in the provincial championship for the second straight year. Shykitka recovered from his loss to Wankel in time to defeat Ellert 5-4 in a B-event final, and Ellert, in turn, rebounded from his loss to nudge Al Lind of Admiral 7-8 in one of the finals Sunday night. Brucker and his companions from the Callie gained their berth via a heart-stopping 5-4 win over Nick Fellner of the Tartan. Early in the A-side final, it appeared as if Wankel, rather than Shykitka, would have to regroup and fight it out with the mob located further down in the draw. Shykitka swiped a deuce to go in front 3-1 when his counterpart couldn't find the button, and the advantage appeared to be a lage one at the time.

Wankel, however, came right back with a deuce on the fourth end, thanks largely to a friendly piece of chaff that sent Shykitka's final stone of the end off course. Two ends later, Wankel connected on a nifty hit-and-roll to set up a three-endep and Shykitka was never able to recover. The Estevan foursome rounded out by Jim Packet, Jack Messham and Howard Harder battled gamely on, but the 6-4 deficit proved to be too great an obstacle. In arrears by two coming home, Shykitka saw his chances dim when Pearson made a raise takeout. Moments later, Wankel blew out the candle entirely by killing the lone enemy stone in the rings.

"We had to go after them in the fourth end, and we got an awfully good break when Pete's rock picked something up," said Wankel. "We got a break on the sixth end, too. With 10-feet less weight (on a come-around hit) Pete would have! taken the whole end away from us." 1 For his part, Shykitka felt that his weight wasn't the problem on his ill-fated quiet hit in the sixth, Indeed, he wondered if he even played the right shot. "I had the weight, but it just stayed out there," Shykitka said. "I'm thinking now that maybe I should have drawn." And Shykitka seemed somewhat disgruntled that he and his men were unable to make their two-point lead stand up, but as it turned out, they weren't able to do so in the final against Ellert, either.

Not that it mattered in the end, mind you. Ellert, considered a distinct dark horse when the competition began Friday, overcame an early 3-1 deficit with a deuce in the sixth and a theft of one in The Brunas rink rode into the A-B final on the crest of two very Impressive victories, the first a 5-4 win over Vera Pezer of Saskatoon during the opening round on Friday, the second a 10-2 thrashing of the Altman quartet in the A final on Saturday. Their hitting game had been deadly accurate, their draw game near flawless. Rocks had been burying perfectly, hit-and-rolls had been devastatingly precise. Jump shots were being delivered with consistency.

But all of that changed on Sunday. Mysteriously, the opposite of all those things settled in. As Brunas put it, "Everything Just switched around. Nothing clicked. We didn't get the rolls, we couldn't bury, we just didn't curl well at all They had the bad game on Saturday, we had the bad game, two bad games, today.

But they did deserve to win. They curled very well." Said Ford: "We didn't quite come up with the same game we played the past two days. I don't know why, but we just weren't sharp." Aggressive curling paved the way for victory for Altman'in both of Sunday's games. In the first, she led 4-1 after four ends on the sixth. In the second, she counted a deuce on the first, stole one on the second, then went to the hitting game, allowing Brunas nothing more than an exchange of singles the rest of the way.

"We knew hwe had to get off to a good start," Altman said, "she likes to get an early jump, so we wanted to get there before her. After that game on Saturday, we knew we had to fight back all the way. We weren't discouraged. We knew our turn would come. It couldn't go against us all the time." Altman's efforts were rewarded with an individual award as well.

She was named recipient of the championship's Most Valuable Curler trophy, primarily, on the strength of her percentage over the course of the competition. Despite the off day on Saturday, Altman curled a very respectable 78'f Her third, Leach, was les3 than one per cent off Altman's pace-setting mark. Said Leach: "I'm delighted with the whole thing. It's just wonderful, it really is. I knew we had the potential, but I also knew we were lacking experience, so I wasn't sure just how it would turn out We needed a little boost after Saturday's game, but we were confident.

We knew we had to work hard for it and we set our minds to the task ahead. We, took them one game at a time. We weren't thinking about victory until it was up on the board." Pezer, a four-time Canadian champion who indicated she will think seriously about calling it quits, wa3 the first eliminated. She dropped a 12-7 decision to Jackie O'Handley of Estevan in the semi-final on Saturday afternoon. O'Handley gave up a five-ender en route to an 8-1 defeat at the hands of the Altman rink in the final Saturday night.

"Chalk it up to experience," O'Handley said. "I certainly learned a lot this weekend. Hopefully, we'll be back." PRINCE ALBERT The cab driver, a former student of hers, he said, was unable to get out to the rink. But he was following her progress on local radio broadcasts, and he wished her all the luck in the world. A group of advid admirers, some 25 in number, made the trip north from Gray to offer their moral and vocal support.

Friends and relatives from this city crammed their way into the Prince Albert Golf and Country Club for every draw, some as early a3 two hours before game time to ensure that they would have a front row seat. For the three days it took to decide the women's provincial curling championship, Crystal Brunas had lhi3 town in the palm of her hand. They had come to watch the top four rinks in Saskatchewan battle for the right to wear this province's colors in the national finals in St. John's, later this month. But there was more to it than that.

Much more. They had come to greet Crystal Brunas. To help her celebrate a homecoming. Perhaps, maybe even to give her a send-off as well. The last year that Brunas curled out of Prince Albert before moving back to Gray after 15 winters here, 1977.

she won the provincial championship, the first for this city since Marg Olson had the trick twice back in the 1950s. A sentimental favorite right from the opening draw, Brunas set off to write the story the spectators hoped would fell the tale of a second sojourn to the national finals. Unfortunately, it was not to be. For there wa3 someone ehe here in Prince Albert thi3 weekend who was intent on writing a story of her ow n. A Cinderella story.

Sue Altman authored just such a fairy tale, leading a team of relative unknowns from Wadena from dark-horse status to a provincial championship. Wilh only a bonspiel behind them before playdowns, they won their district, surprised the critics by taking the A event in the northern finals and finally on Sunday, solidified their credentials by beating the crowd-pleasers twice to win the silver trays, the red hearts and the trip to Newfoundland. The final chapter of the story of the 1981 women's provincial championship came to a conclusion as a happy ending for Altman and her supporting cast they were thrust Into the spotlight and showered wilh congratulations for, their victory, one greatly deserved but the same chapter also provided, a happy ending for Brunas. She may not have been able to win the red heart, but she did claim the hearts of those to whom these past three days were all the more special for the opportunity to welcome Crystal Brunas back home. That In Itself should provide many warm memories.

the eighth. Alas, the comeback was for naught as Shykitka blanked the ninth and collared two points coming home to win 5-4. An excellent freeze by Shykitka's third, Packet, set up the timely count and the boss finished it off by wicking out a stone Ellert had hoped would save the day. Ellert, whose rink included Don Bushell, Ken Berner and Bill naturally was deflated after the loss, but not so much so that he couldn't get pumped up for his evening tussle with Lind, the young man with the usually reliable draw weight. Twice Lind's weight failed him in the final and it proved costly.

He was long on a freeze attempt in the third end, and Ellert made off with a big three, and he was short in the eighth end, and Ellert pounced for a deuce. Still it took overtime to finally decide the issue. Ellert appeared to have the game all wrapped up in the 11th until Lind came through with a sensational raise-hit-roll-tap-roll to be laying two in the vicinity of the four-foot. Undaunted, Ellert took wide ice and made a perfect tap to secure the winning single. "After Al made that shot of his, I was wondering why I'd put my first one where I did," said Ellert, who had thrown a guard.

"No, he made a hell of a shot." Ellert could have avoided the tension of overtime had he found the eight-foot coming home. Everyone in the building, including Ellert and his sweepers, thought he had the weight, but the stone ground to a halt in the 12-foot and Lind had a vital steal. "We figured we were coming out (of the south) this year," said the obviously disappointed Lind. "We'd been curling so well. I just wasn't consistent with my draw weight tonight, though.

We were fortunate just to get the chance to play an extra end." The other final also required an extra end, and Brucker won it on the strength of a clutch draw to the button on his first throw. Fellner, who also came within a win of qualifying for the provincial final last year, seemed poised for the steal after he drew the back of the button, but Brucker's subsequent shot was one Fellner couldn't duplicate. "All that I was really trying to do on my first one was enlarge the house a little," said Brucker, who got off without having to use the hammer when Fellner's final fling died in the eight-foot. "I just made sure I had at least enough weight to get there. I thought even if I just bumped Nick's off the button and rolled out, at least I'd have some kind of shot to play with my second one." What aided Brucker and backers Dale Beare, Jerry Frass and Ron Iversen immensely early in the game were one-point thefts on the fourth and sixth ends.

While Fellner did manage to eliminate the two-point deficit, he never was able to gain control. "We needed just a little more ice on my first shot in the extra end," said Fellner. "With a little more ice, we wouldn't have had to sweep it to get it past the guard and we would have stopped on the front of the button instead of the back." Fellner's errors were just small ones, but on this weekend, even small errors made for much grief. North picks troops Charlie Hall of Southey, Larry McGrath of Dodsland, and Saskatoon's Cam Huffman and Greg Balderston will represent the north at the provincial curling championships next Friday through Sunday in Estevan. All four rinks earned their berths were one points victories at the northern men's playdowns on the weekend In Humboldt.

Hall earned his berth Saturday with a 4-3 victory over Max Hall of Meadow Lake in the A final. McGrath took the final Sunday with a 7-6 win over Orlo Co-verett of Melfort. In the finals Sunday, Huffman edged Max Hall 4-3 and Balderston slipped past Coverett 6-5 in an extra end..