The kings and queens of St. Albert curling are marching towards another club championship.
The Craig King foursome, winners of an unprecedented five straight men's playoff crowns, are targeting their eighth championship in the rink's stellar 19-year history.
"It's still fun to win," said King, who curls with his son, Jamie, the last rock thrower, along with Ralph Killips, Brian Pfeifer and super-sub Elson Keown. "We're all very competitive even though we're old. We realize this isn't the Brier, we're not at that calibre, but everybody wants to win it."
Jamie, 37, is the only curler who isn't 60-plus years old, on the team that boasts three grandfathers.
"Once you get up a little more in age the knees ache a bit so you've got to take advantage of every opportunity when you can, so it's exciting that we're still playing pretty good together," Craig said.
In Sunday's opening draw in the President's Cup playdowns, the Thursday division leaders grinded out a tough 6-4 decision against Greg Albert.
"It was a real back and forth game. They made a lot of good shots and we needed Jamie to bail us out many times," Craig said.
Women's playoffs
Two sheets over from King's men, the 2010 Tournament of Champions winning rink skipped by Kathy Piper defeated Jeanie Murch 9-5 in the women's President's Cup lid-lifter.
"This wasn't our best game but we pulled it off," said Piper.
Her line-up of Nicole Bellamy and Laurie Schreiner added Alison Howes to the mix this season in their quest for a fifth straight club championship.
"It was a good addition. It's just taken me a little bit of time to know how she plays," Piper said of her new second, who throws third rocks for Doug McLennan's four-time defending mixed club champions and last year's Tournament of Champions winners.
The top rinks in the club playoffs qualify for the April 4 to 7 Tournament of Champions at the Crestwood.
"I don't think there is pressure on us to do it again but obviously that's what we're all aiming for and that's why we're here in the playoffs," Piper said. "We've had a great season so far. We've played pretty good and we want to continue our winning ways."
Piper was the lead rocker when skip Christina Monk piloted the rink to three consecutive club titles and the 2009 Tournament of Champions final.
"We would love to go back to cities and represent St. Albert again. It would be a lot of fun," said Piper.
Her first-place Wednesday league rink was 11-3 going into the playdowns and in their only bonspiel appearance went undefeated in Morinville.
"The first part of the season we were very successful," Piper said. "Lately it's been a little rough going. We got into that rut when we finished off the season in first place. I think once we knew that the pressure was off, we just let our guard down and ended up losing a couple of games.
"Today we came out really focused and tried to bring ourselves back out of that slump."
It was 6-0 in a blink of an eye, when Piper scored three in the first end and stole three in two.
"That was a result of us trying to keep that whole front end open and just put pressure on them basically," Piper said.
Murch got on the board with one in three and stole two in four. It was 7-3 after five when Murch and Piper traded deuces with the hammer. In the eighth and final end, Piper ran the first-place Tuesday league rink out of rocks.
"We basically wanted to keep the weight down and don't overthrow the rocks and we were pretty successful at that," Piper said.
The six-team double-knockout event wraps up this weekend. Piper's next game is Saturday's A semifinal against Cathy Lane at the 11:30 a.m. Lane, ranked second in the Wednesday standings at 10-3-1, recently defeated Piper.
The final is 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Win or lose, Piper's girls will represent the club at the March 25 to 27 Dominion northern bonspiel at the Ottewell.
"We're looking forward to giving that another shot. We had such a great run there last year and we didn't place anywhere but we've got the game to do it," said Piper, who was eliminated in the C semifinals at last year's Dominion playdowns in Sherwood Park.
Men's playoffs
King's crew are also back on the ice Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the A semifinal against a very experienced Don Johnston rink skipped by Wilf Gunderson. The other semifinal features Darrell Skarban, led by a strong front end, and Warren Sadoway, the underdog in the eight-team double-knockout format.
The final is also scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
"The competition out there is very good. There are lots of good teams that want to beat us," said Craig.
He noted how firefighter Gary Hoekstra lit up his rink recently for its only loss in league play after 11 wins and two ties.
"Gary kicked our butts pretty good so that brought us back to reality," Craig said. "Even with the two ties we were a little fortunate to tie them."
Albert was no slouch either as the second-best A1 division rink at 12-4 in the Monday league. Twice he tied the score with last rock and just missed scoring the equalizer in eight on a slippery draw while facing a shot rock that was well guarded.
"The ice was good. It's very keen but it's a little tricky. There is a couple of spots where it curled a lot a harder, like his last shot," Craig said.
The shot of the night was Jamie's delicate draw to backing with his last rock in six.
"He came around and froze right on top of one of theirs on the button. They couldn't get him out so that was a steal of one and that gave us a two point lead," Craig said.
Last season Jamie switched spots with his dad to work on his sweeping skills as the fifth man for the 2010 Brier and world champion Kevin Koe rink. Jamie played a big role in last year's two-game victory over Dale Briske in the club finals but missed the Tournament of Champions because of worlds in Italy and his St. Albert teammates suffered two straight losses without their marquee player.
"We have a secret weapon and it's called Jamie King. He is a big even-upper for us old guys," said his proud father. "It's fun for all of us to play with him because he is such a good player."
