Skip to content

Bottcher cruises to win at Red Deer Curling Classic

Team DeJong victorious on women’s side
9467255_web1_171121-RDA-RD-curling-classic-web
Janias DeJong (middle) throws a stone during the Red Deer Curling Classic Final with Amy Janko (left) and Bobbi Sauder (right) on Monday at the Pidherney Curling Centre. (Photo By BYRON HACKETT/Advocate Staff)

The Brendan Bottcher rink shook hands early for the third time Monday in the Red Deer Curling Classic at the Pidherney Curling Centre.

It was indicative of how the week went for the crew, undefeated all the way to the final, before closing out a tidy 6-2 win in the seventh end over the Ted Appelman side to capture the title.

Bottcher opened the game with one in the first, and finished with a peel to score two in the seventh to end it and collect the $39,000 cheque.

“It went well for us, we played a couple shorter games today and I think we had an advantage over them, they had a few longer ones,” Bottcher said. “It just felt like we had a little more energy and we got off to an early lead, we didn’t really give them much chance.”

Monday marked the second career win in Red Deer for Bottcher and the skip said he always enjoys coming to town and hopes they can make it an annual trip.

“It was nice for us after coming back from P.E.I to settle in and play really well. I felt like we built through the week and we had our best day (Monday),” Bottcher said.

“it’s a great event, the ice is good, they got lots of teams out and we’ll probably keep coming back.”

The month of November has been a good one for Bottcher, a team on the rise that is peaking at just the right time. They notched a win at the pre-Olympic qualifier last weekend in P.E.I, and will have a week off before heading to Ottawa for Roar of the Rings, the Olympic trial event for Canada.

“We leave on the 30th of November, this was the last event we’re playing leading up to that. It was nice to come out with some confidence and play well,” Bottcher said.

On the women’s side, it was a surprise victory for the Delia DeJong rink. They topped the Japanese team of Satsuki Fujisawa with a wild 4-2 win.

In the seventh end with Japanese team laying a collection of stones inside the house and holding hammer, Janais DeJong, who throws skip stones for her side just had to do some damage control with her last rock.

“We had a hail-mary there for sure,” DeJong said. “We were already trying to see how many points we could rack up in the eighth end to try and go to an extra. We were assuming she was going to make a good shot and get three or four. Thought we could maybe weld one on there, hope for if she tried to blast it, just a nose or something and give up two.”

Fujisawa missed a tricky takeout, giving the DeJong side one and a 4-2 lead heading into the eighth end.

“Little bit of relief, we’ll take it,” DeJong said. “We got unlucky in a few games earlier, maybe it’s just making up for it a little bit.”

It was the first bonspiel together for the DeJong team that curls out of Grande Prairie and they collected a $30,000 purse with the win.

Janais, whose mom Delia is the skip for her side but can’t sweep, said all week long through the ups-and-downs the team just stayed positive and tried to have fun. Considering they lost 14-3 in the fifth draw to Stefanie Lawton and 6-1 in the fourth, the positivity was much needed.

“We came together as a team, this was our first time actually playing together, all four us. We had a lot of fun, just tried to keep it fun and light out there and I guess it worked,” DeJong said.

The Fujisawa rink will be the Japanese representative for the country at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang and only lost once all week before the final. They also won silver at the 2016 World Curling Championships in Swift Current, Sask., the first team from Japan to compete in a world final.



Email sports tips to Byron Hackett

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter



Byron Hackett

About the Author: Byron Hackett

Byron has been the sports reporter at the advocate since December of 2016. He likes to spend his time in cold hockey arenas accompanied by luke warm, watered down coffee.
Read more