Round robin play wrapped up Friday night at the Labatt Tankard Final Eight Provincial Men’s Curling Championships at the Montague Curling Club.

Charlottetown’s John Likely rink, which includes third Phil Gorveatt, second Mark Butler, and lead Mike Dillon, with 5th player Robert Campbell, finished atop the standings with a 6-1 win-loss record, while Ted MacFadyen and Rod MacDonald of Charlottetown both finished at 5-2. Because MacFadyen edged MacDonald 8-7 in their round robin encounter, he will finish in second place, advancing to the 1st vs 2nd place Page game against Likely. Other members of the MacFadyen rink are Craig Mackie, David Murphy, and Mike Coady, while Kevin Champion, Andrew Robinson, and Mark O’Rourke, with 5th Peter MacDonald, and coach Pat Aylward round out the MacDonald squad.  Champion and O’Rourke were on last year’s winning team, skipped by Peter Gallant, who bowed out of the Tankard this year to coach his son Brett to a Canadian Junior Championship.

Likely, MacFadyen and MacDonald are all Tankard veterans, with two-time winner Likely winning his first at second stone in 1985, and MacFadyen, a five time winner, and six-time Senior champ, skipping his first Tankard winner in 1980. MacDonald has five Tankards to his credit, winning his first in 1978 as third for his brother Peter.

Three teams, skipped by Bill Hope and Jamie Newson of Charlottetown, and Mel Bernard of the Silver Fox, finished with 3-4 win-loss records, and will play off in tiebreaker rounds Saturday at 9 am and 2 pm, with the winner advancing to the 3rd vs 4th place game against MacDonald.

Mike Gaudet and his Charlottetown rink ended play with a 2-5 record, while Clair Sweet of the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary went 1-6.

The Page playoffs between Likely and MacFadyen, and MacDonald and the tiebreaker winner will take place at 7 pm Saturday, with the winner of the Likely/MacFadyen game advancing directly to the 3 pm Sunday final, and the loser facing the winner of the 3rd vs 4th place game in the semi-final Sunday morning at 10, with that winner playing in the final.

The Labatt Tankard champion will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 7-15 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary.

In Friday play, Likely coasted to 6-2 and 5-1 wins over Clair Sweet and Jamie Newson, respectively, with both games wrapping up early.

MacFadyen lost to Newson 6-3 in the afternoon draw, but beat Sweet 7-2 in the evening draw, taking a triple in the second end and stealing a pair of deuces in three and four to end the game after 5 ends.

MacDonald edged Bill Hope 8-7 in the afternoon, and doubled Mike Gaudet 6-3 in the nightcap, following a second end pair with a single in the third and a triple in the fourth end.

In other games, Mel Bernard edged Gaudet 8-7, but lost his final game 8-4 to Hope.

The sport of Stick Curling is growing by leaps and bounds on Prince Edward Island, with seventeen  teams signed up for the third annual Provincial Stick Curling Championship, sponsored by Ferguson Funeral Homes, which will be played February 16-18 at the Cornwall Curling Club. Stick curling differs from the traditional sport in that there are two, not four, curlers per team, who deliver their rocks with specially designed delivery sticks, rather than from a “hack” on the ice. This lets curlers lacking  the flexibility for a traditional delivery style remain in the game. In stick curling, the two team members deliver from opposite ends. Sweeping is allowed only from the hog line to the back of the house at the playing end. Two curlers, one from each team, alternately deliver 6 stones each per end, while their teammate skips that end.  The roles are then reversed, and the partners deliver the stones back. All games are six ends.  For more information on stick curling, including complete rules of play, visit www.stickcurling.ca.

This event was won the first two years by Cornwall’s Ernie Stavert and Sterling Stratton, who will have home ice advantage this time out, but will have to adapt their curling style to a new rule introduced this year, which is adding more excitement to the sport. With this new rule, which extends the “free guard zone” from the hogline to the backline of the house, no stone may be removed from play until the fourth stone of each end.
Stavert says that the new rule is a big improvement to the game, since there are many more rocks in play, resulting in higher scores and more interesting ends.

The seventeen teams have been divided into two pools, and will play a round robin format, beginning 9 am Monday with the second place team from each pool meeting the third place team in the other pool in the quarter-final round, Wednesday at 12:10 pm. The quarter-final winners meet the first place teams in the semi-final round at 1:30, with the two semi-final winners squaring off in the 3:10 pm final.

Results will be available at peicurling.com/stick

The first and second place teams will earn the right to compete in the 5th Annual Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, April 3-5 in Winnipeg.

Team Rosters
Pool A
Edwin Walker, Clifford Picketts- Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club 
Basil Higginbotham, Brent Mutch-Montague Curling Club
Mary Plamondon, Ruth Stavert- Cornwall Curling Club
Eileen Blanchard, Karen Fisher-Cornwall Curl Club
Ernie Stavert, Sterling Stratton-Cornwall Curling Club
Gord MacDonald, Floyd Stewart-Montague Curling Club
Roy Coffin, Paul Arsenault-Cornwall Curling Club
Barry MacDonald, Malcolm Patterson-Montague Curling Club

Pool B
Philip Curley, Sterling Higginbotham – Montague Curling Club
Joey Ellsworth, Glenn Betts-Maple Leaf Curling Club
Kimball Blanchard, Vince Fisher- Cornwall Curling Club
Johnny Ellsworth, Frances Ellsworth- Western Community Curling Club
Howard Kerwin, Billy Power- Montague Curling Club
Don Graham, Gordon Hermann-Cornwall Curling Club
Walter Callaghan, John Vincent-Western Community Curling Club
Rick Hardy, Bill Glydon-Western Community Curling Club

Here is the round robin draw:
Monday, Feb. 16
9 am: E Walker vs B Higginbotham, M Plamondon vs E Blanchard, V Chowan vs E Stavert, G MacDonald vs R Coffin

10:20 am: P Curley vs Joey Ellsworth, K Blanchard vs Johnny Ellsworth, W Callaghan vs R Hardy

11:30 am: E Blanchard vs G MacDonald, E Stavert vs B MacDonald, E Walker vs R Coffin, B Higginbotham vs V Chowan

1 pm: D Graham vs R Hardy, H Kerwin vs W Callaghan, Joey Ellsworth vs Johnny Ellsworth, P Curley vs K Blanchard

2:10 pm: R Coffin vs B MacDonald, E Walker vs V Chowan, E Stavert vs B Higginbotham, M Plamondon vs G MacDonald
 
3:20 pm: H Kerwin vs Johnny Ellsworth, P Curley vs R Hardy, W Callaghan vs K Blanchard, Joey Ellsworth vs D Graham

4:30 pm B Higginbotham vs G MacDonald, E Blanchard vs B MacDonald, R Coffin vs M Plamondon, E Walker vs E Stavert

Tuesday, Feb. 17

9 am: M Plamondon vs V Chowan, E Stavert vs R Coffin, G MacDonald vs B MacDonald, B Higginbotham vs E Blanchard

10:20 am: K Blanchard vs D Graham, W Callaghan vs Joey Ellsworth, P Curley vs H Kerwin, R Hardy vs Johnny Ellsworth
 
11:30 am: B Higginbotham vs R Coffin, G MacDonald vs E Walker, E Blanchard vs V Chowan, M Plamondon vs B MacDonald
 
1 pm: W Callaghan vs P Curley, Johnnny Ellsworth vs D Graham, K Blanchard vs R Hardy, H Kerwin vs Joey Ellsworth
 
2:10 pm: E Stavert vs M Plamondon, V Chowan vs R Coffin, B Higginbotham vs B MacDonald, E Blanchard vs E Walker
 
3:20 pm: Joey Ellsworth vs K Blanchard, R Hardy vs H Kerwin, Johnny Ellsworth vs P Curley, D Graham vs W Callaghan

4:30 pm: E Blanchard vs R Coffin, E Stavert vs G MacDonald, M Plamondon vs E Walker, B MacDonald V Chowan              
 

Wednesday, Feb. 18

9 am: B MacDonald vs E Walker, B Higginbotham vs M Plamondon, V Chowan vs G MacDonald, E Stavert vs E Blanchard

10:20 am: Johnny Ellsworth vs W Callaghan, D Graham vs P Curley, Rick Hardy vs Joey Ellsworth, K Blanchard vs H Kerwin
 
12:10 pm: Quarter-Finals
1:40 pm: Semi-finals
3:10 pm Final and Consolation final