The Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre will have some of the best women's teams in the province taking to the ice against each other for the Saskatchewan women's curling tour stop.

Half of the normal field will be here at Moose Jaw and the other half will be at the Saskatoon Sutherland club for a simultaneous event.

“There are some really good teams coming,” said curling centre programmer Rhonda Wenarchuk of the Moose Jaw event. “(Michelle) Englot, (Amber) Holland, Penny Barker...”

Barker’s team will be playing in her absence as she spends time with her baby, as Deanna Doig rejoins the team that also includes third Christie Gamble, second Jenna Enge and lead Danielle Sicinski.

“I think for us it’s just about getting games in and focusing on that,” Sicinski said. “Focussing on the processes of making the shots, helping each other out, making the right shots at the right times, and just being supportive. So it’s all about processes and as long as we’re doing that, the results will come.”

Also, Lorraine Arguin and her Moose Jaw Ford Curling Centre team only play one Saskatchewan Women's Curling Tour event a year, and she's hoping for some good games this weekend.

The hometown spiel is a good test for her and the team, and she's looking forward to the challenge.

“It’s going to be a really good opportunity to play some games and the nice thing about the round-robin format is that we’re guaranteed five games,” Arguin said. “So that gives us a lot of games together on a particular weekend that is really hard to get otherwise.”

The weekend will be a chance to hone their skills and get ready for the senior qualifying events. Arguin said they normally play in senior spiels, but no one can really be certain that those events will still be going on as COVID and the winter progresses.

“The senior spiels generally don’t have any more than about eight teams at a Q-spiel,” Arguin said. “So I’m thinking it should still run. But one never knows. And the provincials only has eight women’s teams as well. Hopefully, all those things still happen at the end of February.”

One side of the bracket has the Barker rink, Holland, Skylar Ackerman, Stasia Wisniewski, Jade Bloor and Elisa Soika. The other side has Englot, Michelle Schneider, Sherilee Orsted (with Moose Jaw’s Candace Newkirk at third), Arguin, Stephanie Schmidt and Kyla Thies.

Draws are Friday at 5 and 5:30, 9 and 9:30, Saturday at 10/10:30 a.m., 2:30 and 3 p.m., and 7 and 7:30 p.m. The playoffs are Sunday at 9 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. 

Only about 20 people will be allowed to be upstairs during the games. Coaches will have the first dibs on the seating upstairs.

The first draw is a staggered start at 5 and 5:30 p.m.