Format and Qualification for 2017 Provincial Scotties is Changing

CURLSASK is pleased to announce a new format and qualification for the Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Melville will play host to the 2017 Viterra Scotties Tournament of Hearts. The championship will feature a 9-team round robin. At the completion of the round robin the top four teams will advance to the page playoff system.

Each year, CURLSASK conducts a player survey; an overwhelming majority of player responses indicated a strong desire to eliminate pool play and move to a longer round robin format for the provincial championship.

The CURLSASK competition committee reviewed a number of proposals before making the recommendation to the CURLSASK board to adopt the new format. After many hours of research and debate the CURLSASK competition committee determined this format would declare the best representative for Saskatchewan at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts to be played in St. Catharines, ON.

The competition committee strongly felt this format will best prepare Team Saskatchewan for the National Scotties, as they will be required to play all of the best teams in the province in order to become the provincial champion.

A longer round robin has a number of benefits, including the preparation of our championship team, equality when it comes to qualifying records for playoffs and adequate time for tiebreaking games.

The nine teams will be determined as follows:

Pre Qualifiers:

3 – Top Ranked CTRS as of December 5th, 2016

1 – Saskatchewan Women’s Curling Tour Champion

1 – Saskatchewan Women’s Curling Tour Runner Up *(Conditional as this team must be in the top 65 team on CTRS to be awarded the berth)

Berth Spiels

2- Viterra Challenge – December 9 – 11 Kindersley SK

2 or 3* – Viterra Last Chance January 13 – 15, Regina Highland

The provincial championships will be held in Melville, SK January 24-29, 2017. For more information contact the CURLSASK office.

(Ashley Howard/CURLSASK)