Hello, Team Brandwood friends and family!

We are so excited for the start of the 2023-2024 curling season! 

We have a busy schedule this fall as we will compete in 7 tour events leading up to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts qualification. Tour events not only allow us to earn Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) points, but this year 8 teams will directly qualify for the provincial championship based on these points. Four teams will earn spots at the provincial championship based on their CTRS totals, while the next four spots will be earned based on CTRS totals at Ontario events only. The final four spots will be earned through the Open Qualifier January 5 - 7, 2024. Twelve teams will battle it out in Dorchester, January 21 - 28, 2024 at the Ontario Scotties Tournament of Hearts for the right to represent Ontario at the nationals in Calgary, Alberta. 

This summer, we worked hard on our fitness. DTKinesiology provided our team with curling-specific programs to help improve our balance, muscular strength and endurance. At the end of August, we got on the ice together for the first time competing in the Oakville summer league! As a new foursome, it was beneficial to get a few games under our belts during the pre-season and get to know each other a little better on the ice! 

This past weekend, we played in our first event, the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard. Our first game of the event was a bright and early back-and-forth battle Friday morning against Team Jewer. We were able to force the opposition to one point when they had hammer, and generate multiple points when we had hammer which led to our first tour win of the season with a score 7-3! In our second game, we played Team Strouse from the United States. After giving up an opening deuce, we battled to tie the game after 3 ends. Unfortunately, we gave up three points in the 5th end, and could not make a comeback, losing the game 9-2. 

Photography: Mike Martin

Saturday morning we stepped on the ice against Team Peterson who are also from the United States. After giving up an opening deuce in the first end, and a steal in the second end, we stayed on the offense. However, Team Peterson continued their strong performance and did not give us many opportunities to make a comeback, resulting in an 11-0 loss. We spent the afternoon resting and playing a highly competitive game of Monopoly Deal. Keira and Brenda came out victorious, but not to worry, Chelsea and Megan will be looking for a comeback next weekend. Our final round-robin game was against Team Walsh. After a tough loss earlier in the day, we wanted to focus on simplifying our shots and playing our own game. We were proud of our bounce-back performance and to finish out pool play with a 9-1 win!

Finishing the round-robin with a 2-2 record we got off the ice patiently waiting for the results of the last few games to see if we would be in the Round of 12 playoff game. Unfortunately, we missed the next round based on our shoot-out score by only 9 centimetres. People often say that curling is a game of inches, and this weekend we happened to be on the wrong side of the inch. During our first event as a brand-new team, we learned a lot about ourselves and how best to support each other on the ice. 

With a quick turnaround this weekend, we are headed to Kitchener-Waterloo for the KW Fall Classic September 14 - 17!

Thank you for following along!

Team Brandwood