PEICurling.com

The Provincial Masters Curling Championship, for curlers age 60 and over, begins Monday January 26 at 9 am at the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary, with the nine men’s teams playing a double-knockout format, and the four women’s rinks playing a round robin with a two-game championship. Jeanne Duffenais from Summerside will be looking for her sixth consecutive title in the women’s division, while Cornwall’s Bob MacWilliams rink are the defending men’s champions, after beating Lou Nowlan in last year’s final. Nowlan, who had won the previous five years, is recovering from a fall at his home Silver Fox club earlier this season, and will decide over the weekend if he is ready to compete. If not, Earle Proud will step in to skip the Nowlan rink. The women’s final is Wednesday at 1 pm, while the men’s title will be decided either at the same time, in the event that the winner of that B division final also won the A event earlier, or Thursday at 1 pm, if there are different winners. The winners and runners-up from both men’s and women’s divisions will advance to the Maritime Masters Championships, March 1-5, 2009 at the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax.

Live results from the PEI Masters will be available at peicurling.com/masters.

Here are the opening men’s draws:

Monday, January 26nd, 9 AM

Arthur Pendergast (Western) vs Lou Nowlan (Silver Fox)
Sterling Stratton (Cornwall) vs Leslie Hardy (Western)

Monday, January 26th, 11:30 am

Alfred Morrison (Ch`town/Cornwall) vs John Holmes (Silver Fox)
Bob Maynard (Silver Fox) vs Bob MacWilliams (Cornwall)

Monday, January 26th, 3 PM

Louis Walsh (Silver Fox) vs winner of 9am Pendergast/Nowlan game

Here is the women’s round robin draw:

Monday, January 26nd, 9 AM

Diane MacKay (Cornwall) vs Myrna Sanderson (Cornwall)

Wanda Collings (Western) vs Jeanne Duffenais (Silver Fox)

Monday, January 26th, 3 PM

Diane MacKay (Cornwall) vs Wanda Collings (Western)

Myrna Sanderson (Cornwall) vs Jeanne Duffenais (Silver Fox)

Tuesday, January 27th, 9 AM

Myrna Sanderson (Cornwall) vs Wanda Collings (Western)

Diane MacKay (Cornwall) vs Jeanne Duffenais (Silver Fox)

Tuesday, January 27th, 3 pm

Semi-final: 2nd place vs 3rd place finishers from round robin

Wednesday, January 28th, 1 pm

Women’s Final: Winner of Semifinal vs 1st place finisher from round robin

Men (skip to lead, club)

Alfred Morrison, Tom Dunn, John Baird, Neil Smith Ch’town/Cornwall curling clubs

Sterling Stratton, Ron Giggey, Edgar Coffin, George Younker, Cornwall Curling Club

Lou Nowlan*, Doug Currie, Wayne Gardiner, Raymond Thomson, Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club (Summerside)

Leslie Hardy, Walter Callaghan, Johnny Ellsworth, Eddie Bernard, Western Community Curling Club (Alberton)

Arthur Pendergast, Robert Gaudet, Eldon Hardy, Arthur Doucette, Western Community Curling Club (Alberton)

Bob MacWilliams, Roy Coffin, Vern Chowan, Geoff Scutt Cornwall Curling Club

Louis Walsh, Don Duffenais, Clayton Coulson, Charles Curry, Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club (Summerside)

Bob Maynard, Harry Williams, Bruce Montgomery, Spike Martin, Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club (Summerside)

John Holmes, Steve Bent, Des Arsenault, George Power, Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club (Summerside)

*Earle Proude may replace Lou Nowlan for this event

Women (skip to lead, club)

Diane MacKay, Margie Jardine, Marilyn Diamond, Eileen Blanchard, Cornwall Curling Club

Myrna Sanderson, Shirley Lank, Jean Anderson, Patricia McCardle, Cornwall Curling Club

Wanda Collings, Frances Ellsworth, Shirley Murphy, Audrey Thompson, Western Community Curling Club (Alberton)

Jeanne Duffenais, Marg Nowlan, Georgie Coulson, Pat Barrett, Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club (Summerside)

After two days of play at the 2009 Scotties Tournament of Hearts provincial women’s curling championship at the Silver Fox, defending champion and Summerside native Suzanne Birt, now playing out of the Charlottetown Curling Club, is now the only undefeated rink in the five-team field.

This afternoon, she handed clubmate Kim Dolan her first loss, by a narrow 9-8 margin, to move to a 2 and 0 win-loss record, while Dolan, who has not yet had a bye, is 2-1.  Dolan was leading the game 3-0 after two ends, when Birt grabbed the lead with a four-pointer, and stole singles in the next two ends for a 6-3 lead after five ends of play. Dolan opened the second half with a triple to tie things up, but Birt scored a deuce in the next end, with the teams trading singles through the final end, giving Birt the one-point victory. In other 3 pm game, Robyn MacPhee of Charlottetown downed Karen Currie of Cornwall by a 13-3 score, taking six points in the fifth end en route to the win.

In the morning draw, Currie lost 10-3 to clubmate Donna Butler, while Dolan beat MacPhee 9-3.

Butler and MacPhee are both 1-1, while Currie is 0-3.

Round robin play wraps up on Saturday with Currie facing Birt and Butler meeting MacPhee in the 1 pm draw, while Birt takes on MacPhee and  Dolan plays Butler at 6 pm.

If tiebreakers are needed, they’ll go Sunday at 2 pm. The Page playoffs with the first vs second place teams squaring off, and the third place rink meeting the fourth place, take place Sunday evening at 7. The semi-final, between the loser of the first vs second game, and the winner of the third vs fourth place, goes Monday at 2, with the semi-final winner playing the winner of the 1st vs 2nd place game, in the 7 pm final.

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

JASON SIMMONDS
The Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE — Defending champion Suzanne Birt, and Kim Dolan of the Charlottetown Curling Club won the opening games at the 2009 P.E.I. Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Thursday night.
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