Shawn Adams knows well how it feels to win a Nova Scotia men’s curling championship. He has done it three times.
But lately, all he has tasted is disappointment.
The Mayflower skip is coming off back-to-back losses in the provincial final — last year to Bridgewater’s Brian Rafuse and in 2007 to Windsor’s Mark Kehoe — and is eager for another crack at his fourth crown this week in Chester.
Adams enters the Molson Scotia Cup — known as the Tankard for the past 30 years — as the No. 1 seed.
“We went to the Brier in 2005 and did well and we’ve tried hard and focused to get back,” Adams said. “Being so close the past couple of years, it’s just made us hungrier.”
The 34-year-old Upper Tantallon native’s rink consists of third Paul Flemming, second Craig Burgess and lead Kelly Mittlestadt, the same group that won provincials in 2005. Adams won with different squads in 2000 and 2002.
In an effort to reverse his team’s fortunes, Adams decided to compete in fewer World Curling Tour events this year and spent more time practising on club surfaces.
“We wanted to focus on the environment we’ll be in for provincials,” Adams said. “Arena ice is more curly and quicker and you adjust your strategy. Curling clubs, you have to be more patient, more conservative. The past two or three years, we’ve tended to be more aggressive.”
Action starts today at 10 a.m. Glooscaps’s Trevor Archibald, Mayflower’s Mike Bardsley, Truro’s Peter Burgess and Mayflower’s Andrew Corkum round out the top five seeds. Kehoe is ninth and Rafuse is 15th, while former Brier champion Mark Dacey of Mayflower checks in at No. 6.
