Sherry Anderson. (The Canadian Press).

By Jeff D’Andrea

Sasky Sherry

P.A Sports Hall of Famer hearing weird sounds during great start to Scotties

Feb 25, 2021 | 3:15 PM

Sherry Anderson is no stranger to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. She’s now appeared in 10 of them, dating back to 1994 and has played 90 total matches at the Canadian women’s curling championships.

But even after all the experience, Anderson still experienced something completely new on Thursday morning.

During play against B.C.’s Corryn Brown in an empty Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Anderson said she could hear a toilet flush during the match all the way from the upper stands.

“I just about burst out laughing,” said Anderson, the Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame inductee who’s curling out of Saskatoon. “When you play most events, there’s people in the stands. People can talk, but you don’t hear them—unless a cellphone rings or something. But it’s just sort of a hum, it’s sort of a noise, a background noise.

“But today, I’m standing there holding a broom and ‘wooosh.’ This toilet flushes up in the top concourse, back in the top corner and it’s like, ‘okay, that is just weird.’

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That hasn’t been the only thing that’s been weird for Anderson, or the rest of the teams competing in the tournament. With all the protocols to help reduce contact, all the competitors are in the Calgary bubble.

The familiar tournament luxuries of hanging out with family and friends, exploring the host city and trying out new restaurants, or even going outside for a walk, are not available this time around.

“I think the biggest thing is we can’t go anywhere. We can’t leave the hotel, we can’t go for a walk, we can’t go out for supper somewhere. So your big outing is to go down to the restaurant for supper and that gets monotonous,” Anderson said. “It’s hard to get that disconnect from curling, because that’s all we’re allowed to do. So you watch it, you go back and curl, and then watch it on television. You don’t have any family support there—if you have a bad game—to rub your back and say ‘you got this.’ In that way, it’s quite a bit different.”

Tied for first heading into championship pool

Despite the odd atmosphere and distraction the pandemic has brought to the annual Canadian curling clash, Anderson has been able to roll with it.

She and her Saskatoon Nutana Curling Club team of Nancy Martin, Chaelynn Kitz, and Breanne Knapp officially made the Championship Pool after going 5-2 with one match remaining in regular pool play.

After their narrow 8-7 defeat over Brown on Thursday, Anderson and company are tied for the top spot in Pool B with Manitoba’s Jennifer Jones and Quebec’s Laurie St-George—both of whom Anderson has defeated. Anderson will wrap up her pool play against Newfoundland and Labrador’s Sarah Hill (2-5) in the evening draw at 7:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time.

Anderson has been largely pleased with how she and her team have played so far, other than a late 7-6 defeat to Prince Edward Island’s Suzanne Birt on Saturday to start the tournament and a 7-6 loss to New Brunswick’s Melissa Adams on Tuesday.

“We should have won the first game had I curled like any of the other games. We had that game in control, we were never down until the last rock of the 10^th end. That was a hard one to lose,” Anderson said about the match against Birt. “The other game [against N.B.], we were flat so you can’t count that one in the bag. But we could be easily 6-1 right now and that would be a little nicer heading into the championship pool with just one loss. But we still have a pretty good grasp on the top three if we keep doing what we’re doing.”

In Pool A, Kerri Einarson’s Team Canada remain the lone undefeated team at 7-0. Rachel Homan of Ontario is right behind at 6-1.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW