PEICurling.com

 The Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside is the host for the 2009 PEI Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Suzanne Birt, who has won five of the last six provincial women’s championships, will be looking to defend at the club where she began her curling career, and won the second of her two Canadian Junior titles. She’ll be bringing a new team this year, keeping Stefanie Clark from her World Junior championship rink and from last year’s team, in the lead position. Leslie MacDougall has joined the rink at second stone, and last year’s runner-up skip, Shelly Bradley, a six-time PEI women`s winner, is playing third on the Birt rink. The other skips in the five-team field are: Birt’s former team-mate Robyn MacPhee, backed up by her sister Rebecca Jean, a five-time PEI women’s champ, at third; Kim Dolan, an eight-time winner; Donna Butler, who was front page news in Nova Scotia earlier this season with her 6-3 victory over Olympian Shannon Kleibrink at the Sobey’s Classic, and Butler’s Cornwall clubmate Karen Currie.

The five teams, three from the Charlottetown, and two from the Cornwall curling clubs, will play a round robin, beginning Thursday January 22nd at 7 pm, with all teams but one advancing to the Page playoff round, starting Sunday evening at 7. In the Page round, the first and second-place teams from the round-robin play off, as do the third and fourth-place teams. The winner of the first vs second game advances directly to the 7 pm Monday final, while the loser plays in the semi-final Monday at 2 against the winner of the third vs fourth place game for the right to advance to the championship game.

Live scoring will be available at peicurling.com/scotties

The PEI Scotties winner advances to the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts, February 21 to March 1 2009 in Victoria BC.

Charlottetown Curling Club:

Kim Dolan, Kathy O’Rourke, Nancy Cameron, Trisha Affleck
Suzanne Birt, Shelly Bradley, Leslie MacDougall, Stefanie Clark, coach Charlie Sullivan
Robyn MacPhee, Rebecca Jean MacPhee, Shelley Muzika, Tammi Lowther

Cornwall Curling Club:

Karen Currie, Valerie Acorn, Tracy MacDonald, Cyndie Cunneyworth, coach and 5th Nancy Yeo
Donna Butler, Marie Molyneaux, Melissa Andrews, Carolyn Coulson, coach Kathie Gallant

Here is the round robin draw:

Karen Currie (Cornwall) vs Kim Dolan (Charlottetown)
Donna Butler (Cornwall) vs Suzanne Birt (Charlottetown)

Kim Dolan (Charlottetown) vs Robyn MacPhee (Charlottetown)
Karen Currie (Cornwall) vs Donna Butler (Cornwall)

Karen Currie (Cornwall) vs Robyn MacPhee (Charlottetown)
Kim Dolan (Ch’town) vs Suzanne Birt (Charlottetown)

Karen Currie (Cornwall) vs Suzanne Birt (Charlottetown)
Donna Butler (Cornwall) vs Robyn MacPhee (Charlottetown)

Suzanne Birt (Charlottetown) vs Robyn MacPhee (Charlottetown)
Kim Dolan (Charlottetown) vs Donna Butler (Cornwall)

Tiebreaker, if needed

 Page playoffs 1st place vs 2nd place, 3rd place vs 4th place

Semi-Final: loser of 1st vs 2nd game vs winner of 3rd vs 4th game

Final: winner 1st vs 2nd game vs winner of Semi-Final

 Link to previous winners: http://peicurling.com/history/womens.shtml

Cannon, competing in his first Seniors, followed up his win Thursday over defending champion Ted MacFadyen of Charlottetown by doubling Silver Fox clubmate Louis Walsh by an 8-4 score.
Defending Labatt Tankard men’s champion Peter Gallant is also making his Seniors debut, and recorded a 10-6 win over Clair Sweet of O’Leary to move to 2-0.

Cannon and Gallant face off Saturday at 3.

Meanwhile, Mel Bernard of Summerside stole a deuce and a triple in the fourth and fifth ends to defeat Rupert Sweetapple from the host Cornwall club by an 8-2 score The final undefeated team is skipped by Charlottetown’s Matt Smith, who downed Summerside’s Dave MacFadyen rink 11-1, taking four points in the second and the third ends, and ending the game at half time with another triple.Bernard and Smith will meet Saturday night at 7:30. The winners of the Cannon/Gallant and Bernard/Smith games face off in the A section final, Sunday at 11:30 am.

Defending champion Ted MacFadyen is still very much alive in the event, beating Cornwall’s John DeLuca 9-4 on Friday morning. The B section final in this double-knockout competition goes Monday morning at 10. If the same team wins A and B there will be no need for a final; otherwise the final game between the two section winners goes Monday at 3 pm. The men’s and women’s Seniors champions will earn a trip to the Canadian Seniors, not far away at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside, March 21-28.