Rocky start for one of the city's top curling teams

Bouncing back from a disappointing season opener at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard earlier this month, Team Fleury bounced back with a much better effort at the first Grand Slam event of the year in Paradise, Newfoundland.

Team Fleury is more commonly known as Team Horgan, but since skip Tracy Horgan's summer wedding the team needed to a new name. Incidentally, the team's second, Jenna Enge, now Jenna Walsh, also tied the knot over the summer.

The Northern Ontario crew finished with a record of 4-3, but worked their way right through to the semi-final match, dropping a 9-7 decision to eventual champion Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.

It was a far cry from the three and out performance just a few weeks earlier that would see Fleury and company on the wrong side of one-point losses to Lauren Mann of Quebec (6-5) and the Caledon rink of Allison Flaxey (8-7 in extra ends), before falling well short in an 8-2 loss to American Jamie Sinclair.

The team did not fare much better out of the gate on the East Coast, defeated 11-7 by Alina Paetz of Switzerland, while surrendering two or more points in four of the seven ends that were contested.

With nowhere to go but up, the long-time Idylwylde Golf & Country Club curlers squeezed past EunJung Kim of Korea, scoring two in the seventh, giving up three in the eighth, but using hammer in the extra end in registering the 8-7 triumph.

Even a 9-7 loss to Tirinzoni in the first meeting between the teams showed signs of hope, as the Fleury rink pushed the Swiss ladies to extra ends. That contest appeared to provide the spark the locals needed, coming right back with a strong effort in besting Eve Muirhead of Scotland 9-5.

Through to a tie-breaking game, the Sudbury reps slipped past Chelsea Carey of Alberta (5-4) with a steal of one in the eighth and final end. Pitted against in familiar foe in quarter-final action, Fleury downed Ontarian Sherry Middaugh 6-4, earning a rematch with Tirinzoni.

The Tirinzoni championship crew overcame a 5-2 deficit against former Canadian champion Rachel Homan in the final, scoring two in the 7th and stealing two in the eighth to secure a 6-5 win, and with it, the top prize money of $23,000.

Next up for the Fleury rink is the Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic on Thanksgiving weekend, with their next Grand Slam appearance slated for Oct. 27-Nov. 1 in Truro, Nova Scotia.