Nordin rink improves over last year

By Ken Johnston
Editor

The hopes and dreams of reaching Canada’s pinnacle men’s curling event, The Brier, will remain that for at least another year for long time local curler Tim Nordin.
He and his younger teammates, Mitch Seguin, Adam Bolen and Travis Showalter, travelled to Thunder Bay to compete in the Northern Ontario Provincial Playdowns for the second year in a row.
Their very first game saw them lose 11-1 to the team that eventually won it all; Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie. Jacobs drew first blood with 3 in the first end. Nordin responded with 1 in the second. From there it was all Jacobs, pegging 1, 1, 4 and 2 respectively to force a handshake after six ends.
Nordin then faced the Jeff Currie rink of Port Arthur. This was a much closer game. Nordin took the lead 2-0 after two ends. Currie and Nordin would then each pick up 1 in each of the next two ends to give Nordin the lead 3-1 after four ends. Currie tied it with 2 in the fifth and the sixth was blanked.
Currie scored 1 in the seventh but Nordin tied it back up in the eighth 4-4. Nordin then regained the lead in the ninth 5-4.
Currie tied it in the tenth and ended up winning it 6-5 in an extra end.
In their third game, Nordin was down 1-0 after three ends. He then scored 2 to take the lead it the fourth. The fifth was blanked and then in the next two ends, his opponent, Bryan Burgess of Fort William, scored 1 and 2 respectively to lead 5-2. Nordin fired back with two in the eighth but Burgess took 3 in the ninth to force a 7-4 handshake.
Nordin would then notch two victories in a row when he faced Dustin Montpellier of North Bay and then Robbie Gordon of Sudbury.
Against Montpellier, Nordin laid a four ender in the fourth to lead 4-2. After a blanked fifth Nordin scored 1 in each of the next two ends to lead 6-2. Montpellier picked up one in the eighth but then shook hands.
It was closer against Gordon with both teams battling back and forth. Gordon scored 1 in the first and then Nordin scored one in each of the next three ends to lead 3-1. Then the fifth was blanked and Gordon and Nordin would each score one in the next two ends to leave Nordin up 4-2. Gordon then scored two in the eighth as did Nordin in the ninth to lead 6-4. Gordon scored one in the tenth to hand Nordin his second straight win 6-5.
Wednesday morning Nordin would then square off against the team the ended up coming in second overall, Joe Scharf of Fort William. Scharf was up 4-1 after five ends. Nordin then scored 2 and 1 in the next two ends to tie it at 4-4. Scharf then scored 3 to take the lead 7-4. Nordin picked up two in the ninth but it was not enough. Scharf scored 1 in the tenth to secure an 8-6 win.
Later that day Nordin lost 7-1 to David MacInness of Englehart.
Thursday he lost 8-4 to Mike Assad of Fort William.
Later that day he had a close one with John Salo of Geraldton. It was tied 3-3 after four ends. Then Nordin pulled ahead scoring two more points in the sixth and seventh ends to lead 5-3. After two blank ends Salo resigned giving Nordin his third win of the event!
On Friday Nordin lost his two final games to Mike Pozihun of Port Arthur (9-2) and Mike Jakubo of Copper Cliff (8-1).
With several close games and one more victory than last year, Nordin’s rink gained some more valuable experience. Perhaps next year they will be able to win it all!
Congratulations to Nordin for representing us all well and better luck next year men!