TRURO - Her goal is to win the provincial senior women's curling championship.
The problem for Colleen Pinkney is the other three teams in the field want the same.
"Everyone is there to win and they're very capable," the Truro skip said.
Pinkney, accompanied by Wendy Currie, Shelley MacNutt and Susan Creelman, will be gunning for her second provincial senior crown in four years as action kicks off today at Halifax Curling Club. Play will continue until Sunday's 9 a.m. final. The top three teams after the round-robin will move on to the playoff round while the top team gets a bye to the final.
Pinkney opens Friday at 2 p.m. against Glooscap's Jocelyn Nix before meeting Mayflower's Colleen Jones at 7 p.m.
The last time she won in 2009, Pinkney went on to take the national title in Charlottetown, and in 2010 brought home a world title from Chelyabinsk, Russia.
That team is largely still intact, the only change coming with MacNutt throwing second stones in place of Karen Hennigar, who is now coaching the foursome.
Pinkney said their season has been focused on this week.
"We've worked hard on our game and we feel like we're curling well at this time," Pinkney said. "Everyone's healthy and fit and it's our ultimate goal."
Pinkney is fresh off a semifinal appearance at last weekend's Nova Scotia Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Pinkney just missed a takeout with her final shot that allowed Mayflower's Mary Mattatall to steal one and seal a 7-5 win, earning a date with eventual champion Heather Smith-Dacey in the final.
Pinkney acknowledged the better-than-expected run at the Scotties has given the team an extra shot of confidence, but added that doesn't mean much this week.
"Because you curl well in one event doesn't mean you will in another," she said. "You don't see it work that way. Some people who came into that event with higher expectations than us didn't do as well as us and it wasn't because of a lack of effort.
"It's a game of inches," she added. "Hopefully we'll be on the right side of those inches and win this provincial."
On paper, it may look a little more likely with just four teams in the field. But all of those teams, skipped by Jones and Mattatall and Glooscap's Jocelyn Nix, have all won the event before and know what it will take to do so again.
"The teams are full of experience at every position," Pinkney said. "There won't be any runaway games and it's going to come down to the wire as to who will win."
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