804.3 kilometers

That's how far it is from the front door of the Burntwood Curling Club in Thompson to the parking lot at the Sun Gro Centre in Beausejour.

For Sheri Horning - that eight hour drive just to throw and sweep rocks at the 2016 Provincial Scotties Tournament of Hearts - is so worth the trip.

Horning, whose hometown is Thompson, plays third for Jennifer Rolles and along with second Courtney Reeves and lead Carly Perras, the Burntwood foursome is thrilled to be in Beausejour.

“We're hoping to get a couple of W's this week,” Horning said after Tuesday's practice session. “We have a really good team. We've all played competitive before but it's our first year together so it's going to take some time to gel.”

This is Horning's second appearance in the Provincial Scotties.

She didn't have very far to travel for her first.

Horning played for Debbie Cripps at the 2006 championship at the C.A. Nesbitt Arena in Thompson and the home team gave their supporters a ton to cheer about as they finished the round robin with a 4-3 record and then unfortunately lost a tie-breaker.

“It was terrifying playing in front of the home crowd and scary all at the same time because it was my first Scotties,” said Horning who teaches at the Juniper Elementary School in Thompson – the same school she attended back in the day. “This is not so terrifying this time. It's a lot easier. No distractions of all the friends and family. No kids here, they're at home. That's going to be a lot easier.”

Horning says the chance to play against our province's best teams this week in Beausejour will be very beneficial.

“It's hard to get really competitive games so for us this going to be great.  It's good to play lots of really competitive teams and have the opportunity to do it because living in the North we can't get down to all the 'spiels. We can't take all the time off. It's a lot more costly because we would have to fly or drive. The extra travel makes it really hard.”

“For us it's going to be really fun,” added Horning. “We're doing really well in our cash league up there. We're beating all the men's teams and we love it.”

 


Thursday, January 21st
Draw #5 
Kristy McDonald, Granite 8 Mackenzie Zacharias, Altona 3
Shannon Birchard, St. Vital 8 Christine MacKay, Fort Rouge 3
Joelle Brown, Assiniboine Memorial 8 Terry Ursel, Neepawa 5 (EE)
Michelle Montford, Assiniboine Memorial 8 Kim Link, East St. Paul 4

Draw #6  
Cathy Overton-Clapham, Fort Rouge 6 Lisa Menard, Dauphin 3
Barb Spencer, Assiniboine Memorial 9 Janet Harvey, Granite 8 (EE)
Kerri Einarson, East St. Paul 7 Jennifer Rolles, Thompson 1
Darcy Robertson, Rossmere 10 Cheryl Reed, Brandon 6

Draw #7 
McDonald 9 Link 5
Birchard 9 Ursel 1
MacKay 7 Brown 5
Montford 10 Zacharias 3

Draw #8 
Einarson 8 Harvey 1
Overton-Clapham 9 Reed 3
Menard 7 Robertson 5
Rolles 6 Spencer 5 (EE)


Round Robin Standings
Black Group
McDonald, Birchard & Montford 4-0
Brown 3-1
MacKay 1-3
Zacharias, MacKay & Ursel 0-4

Red Group
Overton-Clapham 4-0
Robertson & Einarson 3-1
Menard & Spencer 2-2
Reed & Rolles 1-3
Harvey 0-4