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Silvana Tirinzoni in action at the 2016 Humpty's Champions Cup. (Anil Mungal)

Tirinzoni tops Flaxey to win Stu Sells Oakville Tankard

OAKVILLE, Ont. — Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni always seems to find a way to kick off the curling season in high gear.

Team Tirinzoni claimed their second Stu Sells Oakville Tankard title in three years with an 8-5 win over Allison Flaxey’s crew from Caledon, Ont., during Sunday’s final.

It was a short summer for the Swiss rink — featuring Tirinzoni, third Manuela Siegrist, second Esther Neuenschwander and lead Marlene Albrecht — and the skip credits the victory to her team’s hard work preparing for the season.

“We have been practising for two months now so I guess we get a bit of an advantage to teams who haven’t practised as much,” Tirinzoni said. “The ice is great every year, it just seems to be our tournament.”

The victory also comes just two days shy of the one-year anniversary of Tirinzoni’s first career Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling championship win at the inaugural Tour Challenge in Paradise, N.L., during the “fog bowl” final against Ottawa’s Rachel Homan.

“To think back I still get goose bumps. It’s such a great moment,” Tirinzoni said. “I hope we can win one more this year. That would be amazing.”

The Stu Sells Oakville final didn’t start out as planned for Tirinzoni. Opening with the hammer and looking to score big early, a couple misses forced her to settle for just a single. The second end also went sideways as it looked like Tirinzoni had frozen solid on top of Flaxey’s stone for shot rock, but Flaxey managed to kick it out with her last and count three for the lead.

That didn’t deter Team Tirinzoni, however.

“I think it’s the strengths of our team that we never give up,” Tirinzoni said. “Of course you never want to give up a three-ender, but once that happens we just know we have to fight back and just getting a deuce and then you’re back in the game. Never give up believing, that’s what we’re doing.”

It all went to plan after there as Tirinzoni went to work taking control of the game scoring two in the third end to tie it. Flaxey was forced to a single in four to retake the lead 4-3.

Tirinzoni pulled ahead for good with another deuce in the fifth then made it a two-point lead stealing one in the sixth as Flaxey came up just light on her draw.

A quarry of rocks filled the house in the seventh end with Tirinzoni sitting four counters plus a guard on top. Flaxey managed to draw to the button for shot with her first skip stone, but was unable to promote one of her own guards in for two with her second, settling for another single.

Flaxey drew to the back of the four-foot circle with her last in eight and Tirinzoni punched it out, counting two, to ice the game.

It was Tirinzoni’s third consecutive victory of the day after topping Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg 6-2 in the quarterfinals and defeating American Nina Roth 5-3 during the semis. Tirinzoni made a detour qualifying for the playoffs through the B-side of the triple knockout preliminary round while Flaxey took the long road through the C-bracket.

Team Flaxey features skip Flaxey, third Clancy Grandy, second Lynn Kreviazuk, and lead Morgan Court.