January 7, 2007: Team Webster Qualifies for Provincials

Team Webster captured the Peace District Championship on the weekend.   The team defeated Karen Powell in the semi's and Renee Sonnenberg in the A Event Final.  The Team will now play in the 2007 Alberta Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Grande Prairie, January 24-28.

More good news:  skip Crystal Webster and husband Paul are expecting in June.  Click on the photo at left for more info.

 

December 18, 2006: Team Webster Qualifies for Playoff Round

Team Webster qualified out of the A Event at the Canada Cup in Ottawa.  They lost a one-point game to Cheryl Bernard in the quarterfinals.  The weekend moved the team up to 8th on the Canadian Team Ranking System and, most importantly, they earned a spot in the 2007 Straus Canada Cup.  The $4 700 also will help to combat expenses.
 

November 1, 2006:  Team Webster Invited to Canada Cup Qualifier in Ottawa

Team Webster qualified for playoffs out of the C event in Meyers Norris Penny Charity Classic in Medicine Hat, but ended up losing in the quarterfinals to Kelley Law in an extra end. 
The team has been invited to the Canada Cup qualifier in Ottawa in December which is exciting! Click here for more information http://www.curling.ca/fan_central/canadacupqualifier/women/2006/about.asp. 
Team Webster is also currently sitting in 7th spot on the CTRS standings.

 

October 10, 2006:  Team Webster Finishes Second in Trail Appliances Autumn Gold Classic

After qualifying A in the Autumn Gold, Team Webster knocked off Heather Rankin and then Shannon Kleibrink en route to the final that they lost to Kelly Scott, earning $11 000.

 

June 30, 2006:  A New Curling Team Is Formed

Desiree Robertson and Stephanie Jordan had curled with the same team in Grande Prairie for 8 years all through Junior,  They were very successful: runners-up in the Alberta Provincial Juniors in 2002 and 2004, and Alberta Champions in 2003 and 2005.  They were Karcher Canadian Junior Runners-up in 2005 in their last year of Juniors.  The team then broke up when second Jennifer Perry had a baby and third Cary Anne Sallows had two years of Junior eligibility left.  Skip Desiree Robertson took last year off while attending college in Calgary and Stephanie played with Karen Powell's team in the Grande Prairie area.  Desiree and Steph decided that they wanted to put a team together and so they looked around in Calgary where Desiree was attending school.

In the meantime, Crystal Rumberg - soon to be Webster - had just finished off a year that culminated in winning the gold medal at the Kariuzawa International in Japan.  Crystal had started the year as the third for skip Bonwen Saunders.  The Saunders team decided to shake things up part way through the year and Crystal and Bronwen switched positions and Crystal ended the season as skip.  Bronwen's lead Tara Runquist and second Erika Hildebrand both decided to take a year off and Bronwen had the opportunity to replace Glenys Bakker on Shannon Kleibrink's Bronze Medal Olympic team, so Crystal was also looking to form a new team.

Crystal gave Desiree a call after hearing about them through Bronwen.  They needed a fourth player and decided that it should be someone from the south so that Crystal had someone to throw rocks with.  Crystal recruited Sam Preston and  a new team was formed.

When asked how she thought things would work out with the team spread across the province, Desiree replied:

"I don't think the distance will affect the team that much because we are going to be around each other quite a bit during the curling season and we are planning to do quite a bit of traveling back and forth for team get-togethers. Of coarse it is always nice to be able to practice together all the time but I feel that the whole team is really on the same page with everything from the way we play the game to how much effort we want to put in, so therefore, I think the distance thing wont be too bad. I think we have four very well balanced women that play their positions very well so I am very excited to see how everything turns out.  I am also excited to be putting this new team together because through out my whole curling career I have always been with the same four ladies so it will be quite the learning experience to play with two people that I have never played with.

Also throughout my whole curling career, I never played another position besides skip, so it will be interesting to watch the game from a different perspective."