Sask curling: Martin excited to represent province at Scotties Tournament of Hearts

The fifth time was the charm for Nancy Martin.

After being a four-time runner-up at the Saskatchewan women’s curling championship, Martin was finally able to win her first provincial title at the 2025 Viterra Prairie Pinnacle on Sunday in Kindersley with a 9-7 team over Team Jolene Campbell.

“It was a good monkey to get off your back,” said Martin. “The girls played so solid all week.

“We were pretty confident going into that final if we could just get them to play a little bit more of our style of game, that we we’d have a much better chance.”

Playing third alongside skip Sherry Anderson, Martin lost in the provincial final in 2019 and 2020 before skipping her own team to the finals in 2023 against Robyn Silvernagle and in 2024 against Skylar Ackerman.

However, this year was a different story as Martin and her newly-formed Saskatoon Nutana Curling Club squad featuring third Chaelynn Stewart (Kitz), second Kadriana Lott, lead Deanna Doig and alternate Colleen Ackerman were finally able to get over the hump.

Now, Team Martin will get set to represent Saskatchewan at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts from Feb. 14-23 in Thunder Bay, Ont. The team has also retained Anderson to serve as their coach.

And while Martin’s is celebrating her first provincial championship, it will be her second career trip to the Scotties as she went in 2021 with Team Anderson after they were selected by CurlSask to represent the province following the cancellation of the women’s provincial playdowns due to the pandemic.

As for this year’s championship, the final game marked the third meeting of the event between Martin and Campbell, who won 8-3 in the round robin and 9-2 in the 1-2 page playoff game.

“They handled us pretty easily in the first two games,” said Martin. “A few of the other games we had played a little more aggressively, just kind of always getting those couple guards up and pushing the play to the centre.

“We’re kind of mixed double specialist players so we wanted to put that to our advantage and push them. When they played us the first two times, they kind of played a wide-open game, we let them blank a couple ends, and it just didn’t give us a chance to push the envelope and force them to make a harder shot.

“So, we really felt like we had to do that early.”

The strategy paid off with a steal of two in the first end before stealing single points in the third and fourth ends to take a 4-0 lead despite not having hammer yet.

Campbell battled back and ended up tying the game 7-7 in the ninth end, which gave Martin the hammer in the 10th end and a chance to win the game. However, Team Martin was not only battling Campbell in the final end but they were also playing against the clock.

After Martin threw her first of two rocks, there were only 37 seconds remaining on the shot clock for her final throw.

“We got ourselves pretty tight on time, so that was a bit of a factor,” said Martin. “I had to kind of run down to throw my first one and just kind of kept telling (Kadriana), ‘Move the broom, move of the broom,’ and then let ‘er rip.

“Ideally you’d want to have at least a minute, a minute and something on the board so that you can decide on the shot, put the broom down, pick the ice, be confident with the throw, breathe in the hack, clean your rock, all those things.”

With her first, Martin threw a hit-and-roll to sit three, forcing Campbell to make a draw to the four-foot with her last shot.

In the meantime, Martin and company were strategizing what they were going to do with their final rock.

But as it turned out, Campbell was short on her attempt and Martin didn’t have to throw her last rock.

“We were kind of talking through what we would do for our last one depending on which shot she made,” said Martin. “I was kind of getting ready to sprint down to the other end and it stopped. It was unbelievable.

“The girls made some unbelievable shots in the 10th end to get us out of big trouble. Chaelynn had two key shots that, if she doesn’t make, we’re not here.”

While the victory was something to savour, there was a little disappointment at the end.

For the first time in years at the women’s provincial championship, previously known as the Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts, the winners won’t receive necklaces to go along with their provincial championship, which was something every winning team looked forward to.

“There’s one thing that’s a little bit disappointing for the teams in that we’ve lost the provincial sponsorship from the Scotties,” said Martin. “So, they’re saying no more necklaces.

“And for those of us who don’t have one, that’s absolutely devastating. So, we’re pretty sad about that. And I know that there is a petition out there, and there’s some conversations going on, so we’re hoping that they come up with a solution.

“But it’s strange. The guys, they play for the Purple Heart, and they talk about how many Purple Hearts they have. For the girls, it’s the necklace, and how many diamonds they have … It’s just an interesting thing to lose after 40 some years of it being iconic to the sport, for us women.

“It’s a little bit disappointing but I mean, at the end of the day, we’re going to the Scotties and we’re super excited.

“It’s a dream come true for all five of us.”

tshire@postmedia.com