PEICurling.com

 By Larry Wood
Morning Roar Editor

PRINCE GEORGE, November 14 (CCA) — Two additional entries for the upcoming Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials emerged from C qualifiers Saturday morning at the CN Centre.

Kelly Scott’s pre-tournament favourites from Kelowna advanced much later than expected.  Jason Gunnlaugson’s young team from Beausejour, Manitoba wasn’t expected to advance at all.

Scott got off to a hot start, running up an early 5-1 lead on Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., in a women’s qualifier. Directing Jeanna Schraeder, Sasha Carter and Jacquie Armstrong, the 2007 world champion skip wound up with a 9-4 victory in the pre-Trials Road to the Roar, presented by Monsanto.

The Kelowna group won four of six games and lost in A and B qualifiers to Crystal Webster of Calgary and Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay.

“We’ve never done anything the easy way and this is no different,” she said. “It didn’t matter how we get there but we knew it was all or nothing today. And we’re used to playing lots of games and scrapping at the end.”

Middaugh said “our skip didn’t show up today”.

“We had an incredible draw, it couldn’t have got any better, I think we had the sweetest position and we didn’t take advantage.  You don’t realize how disappointing it is until after it’s over and you’re looking at the big picture.”

Scott said her foe’s early struggles reminded her “of the way we came out in the last two qualifiers.”

“So it felt good to be loose and positive today. We’ve been fighting for a solid three years for this so we’re thrilled. This was great, great practice for us because we know Edmonton will be tougher. We learned a lot about those rocks by playing the maximum amount of games this week.”

The 25-year-old Gunnlaugson, who plays poker when he’s not curling, which is most of the time, upended the more experienced Mike McEwen of Winnipeg, 8-7 in an extra end.

Control changed hands two or three times in this one but the more flamboyant Gunnlaugson exhibited more perseverance. In the end, he needed to erase a McEwen stone to win but was slightly inside and wound up spilling a cluster of rocks to get the job done.

“I tried to give everybody a heart attack on the last one but the big brushers saved me,” he said.

“It’s really going to be tough in Edmonton but there’s going to be less pressure on us and more pressure on everybody else. It’s going to be so much fun to be there in front of all the people. I mean, all the people here in Prince George seemed to support our team all the way through and that made it so much fun. So hopefully we can get some of that going in Edmonton.”

Gunnlaugson thinks his fan appeal has something to do with his youth.

“I think some people just wanted to see a change of the guard. We try to be fun to watch.  That’s something we want to do. If you spice the game up a little bit you can’t hurt it.  People said we were cannon fodder coming in here. But we’ve worked hard all year and we got it done.”

The final two qualifiers will emerge from finals at 5 p.m. (PT) and 6:30 pm, live on TSN.

Wayne Middaugh of Toronto faces Bob Ursel of Kelowna in men’s play while Amber Holland of Kronau, Sask., tackles Marie-France Larouche of St-Romuald, QC.

The male Middaugh reached the final Saturday morning by eliminating Jean-Michel Menard of St-Romuald, 8-7 in an extra end.

(CCA/PEICA) The Canadian Mixed Curling Championship begins today at the Burlington Golf and Country Club in Burlington, Ontario.
Twelve teams, representing the 10 provinces, plus Northern Ontario and Yukon/Northwest Territories, will contest the 47th edition of The Mixed from November 14-21.
PEI is represented by the rink of Kyle Stevenson, Donna Butler, Doug MacGregor, and Tricia Affleck from the Charlottetown Curling Club, who beat out Montague’s Larry Dewar foursome in the M&M Meatshops Provincial Mixed curling championship final on March 1st.

Photo L-R: Kyle Stevenson, Donna Butler, Heather Campbell (M&M Meat Shops), Doug MacGregor, Tricia Affleck

The teams play a round robin, concluding next Friday morning, after which the first place team advances directly to Saturday’s final, while the second and third place teams meet in a semi-final.

Here is the schedule for the round robin portion of the event (all times Eastern):

Draw # 1 – Saturday, November 14 @ 6:00 p.m.
Sheet A – Saskatchewan vs. Quebec
Sheet B – Yukon/Northwest Territories vs. New Brunswick
Sheet C – Prince Edward Island vs. Newfoundland & Labrador
Sheet D – Ontario vs. Manitoba

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Draw # 2 – Sunday, November 15 @ 9:00 a.m.
Sheet A – open
Sheet B – Alberta vs. Northern Ontario
Sheet C – New Brunswick vs. Saskatchewan
Sheet D - Nova Scotia vs. Prince Edward Island

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Draw # 3 – Sunday, November 15 @ 1:30 p.m.
Sheet A – British Columbia vs. Nova Scotia
Sheet B – Quebec vs. Ontario
Sheet C – Manitoba vs. Alberta
Sheet D - Northern Ontario vs. Newfoundland & Labrador

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Draw # 4 – Sunday, November 15 @ 6:00 p.m.
Sheet A – Prince Edward Island vs. New Brunswick
Sheet B – open
Sheet C – Ontario vs. British Columbia
Sheet D - Yukon/Northwest Territories vs. Quebec

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Draw # 5 – Monday, November 16 @ 9:00 a.m.
Sheet A – Quebec vs. Newfoundland & Labrador
Sheet B – New Brunswick vs. Nova Scotia
Sheet C – Northern Ontario vs. Prince Edward Island
Sheet D - Manitoba vs. British Columbia

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Draw # 6 – Monday, November 16 @ 1:30 p.m.
Sheet A – Nova Scotia vs. Saskatchewan
Sheet B – Ontario vs. Yukon/Northwest Territories
Sheet C – Newfoundland & Labrador vs. Manitoba
Sheet D - Alberta vs. New Brunswick

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Draw # 7 – Monday, November 16 @ 6:00 p.m.
Sheet A – Yukon/Northwest Territories vs. Northern Ontario
Sheet B – British Columbia vs. Quebec
Sheet C – Saskatchewan vs. Alberta
Sheet D - Prince Edward Island vs. Ontario

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Draw # 8 – Tuesday, November 17 @ 9:00 a.m.
Sheet A - Saskatchewan vs. Ontario
Sheet B – Yukon/Northwest Territories vs. Alberta
Sheet C – Manitoba vs. Quebec
Sheet D - New Brunswick vs. Northern Ontario

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Draw # 9 – Tuesday, November 17 @ 1:30 p.m.
Sheet A - Northern Ontario vs. British Columbia
Sheet B - Quebc vs. Prince Edward Island
Sheet C – Alberta vs. Nova Scotia
Sheet D - Ontario vs. Newfoundland & Labrador

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Draw # 10 – Tuesday, November 17 @ 6:00 p.m.
Sheet A - Newfoundland & Labrador vs. New Brunswick
Sheet B – Nova Scotia vs. Manitoba
Sheet C – Prince Edward Island vs. Yukon/Northwest Territories
Sheet D - British Columbia vs. Saskatchewan

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Draw # 11 – Wednesday, November 18 @ 9:00 a.m.
Sheet A - Manitoba vs. Yukon/Northwest Territories
Sheet B – Newfoundland & Labrador  vs. British Columbia
Sheet C - Ontario vs. Northern Ontario 
Sheet D - Quebec vs. Alberta

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Draw # 12 – Wednesday, November 18 @ 1:30 p.m.
Sheet A - Alberta vs. Prince Edward Island
Sheet B – Northern Ontario vs. Saskatchewan
Sheet C - British Columbia vs. New Brunswick
Sheet D - Nova Scotia vs. Yukon/Northwest Territories

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Draw # 13 – Wednesday, November 18 @ 6:00 p.m.
Sheet A – Nova Scotia vs. Quebec
Sheet B – New Brunswick vs. Ontario
Sheet C – Saskatchewan vs. Newfoundland & Labrador
Sheet D - Prince Edward Island vs. Manitoba

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Draw # 14 – Thursday, November 19 @ 9:00 a.m.
Sheet A - Ontario vs. Alberta
Sheet B – Prince Edward Island vs. Saskatchewan
Sheet C – Yukon/Northwest Territories vs. British Columbia
Sheet D - Newfoundland & Labrador vs. Nova Scotia

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Draw # 15 – Thursday, November 19 @ 1:30 p.m.
Sheet A - British Columbia vs. Prince Edward Island
Sheet B - Manitoba vs. Northern Ontario
Sheet C – Quebec vs. Nova Scotia
Sheet D - Saskatchewan vs. Yukon/Northwest Territories

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Draw # 16 – Thursday, November 19 @ 6:00 p.m.
Sheet A - New Brunswick vs. Manitoba
Sheet B – Alberta vs. Newfoundland & Labrador
Sheet C – Nova Scotia vs. Ontario
Sheet D - Northern Ontario vs. Quebec

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Draw #17 – Friday, November 20 @ 9:00 a.m.
Sheet A - Newfoundland & Labrador vs. Yukon/Northwest Territories
Sheet B – Saskatchewan vs. Manitoba
Sheet C – Northern Ontario vs. Nova Scotia
Sheet D - British Columbia vs. Alberta

Ontario has won The Mixed twice since the championship began in 1964 in Toronto – in 1986 by skip Dave Van Dine in Kamloops and by skip John Epping at the 2006 edition in Whitehorse. Alberta leads all provinces with nine wins, while Manitoba and Saskatchewan are next with eight victories each.
This year, the host province is represented by skip Mark Bice and his Sarnia Golf and Curling Club team of Leslie Bishop, Codey Maus and Courtney Davies. Bice and Maus are former provincial junior champions.
Topping the field this year is Nova Scotia, skipped by 2004 Brier winner Mark Dacey, along with his wife, Heather Smith-Dacey, at third, second Andrew Gibson and lead Jill Mouzar. The Daceys teamed to win the 2002 Mixed in Halifax, while Gibson played lead for Dacey on the Brier-winning team and bronze medal winners at the Ford Worlds in Sweden that year. Mouzar (2004) and Smith-Dacey (1991) are also former Canadian junior champions, while Smith-Dacey won her first Mixed title as third for New Brunswick’s Grant Odishaw in 1994 in Leduc, Alberta. Mouzar also skipped Nova Scotia at the 2007 Scotties.
Other skips include former provincial junior champions Jason Montgomery of Duncan, British Columbia, Matt Blandford of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick’s Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton, who will attempt to become just the second female skip to win the Mixed. Alberta’s Shannon Kleibrink became the first to do so in 2004 in Schumacher, Ontario.
The roster also includes Quebec second William Dion, who skipped his province to victory at the 2008 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Sault Ste. Marie, then earned a bronze medal at the World Juniors in Östersund, Sweden, New Brunswick third Jérémy Mallais and Northern Ontario third Tracy Horgan, both former provincial junior champion skips, former Brier and Mixed competitor Wade Scoffin of Whitehorse, who will skip the Yukon/Northwest Territories team and Alberta’s Karen Powell, a former Scotties and Mixed participant who will skip her province but throw third stones.
Saskatchewan’s Lana Vey, the lead for Stefanie Lawton’s Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials-bound team next month in Edmonton, will play third for another former provincial junior champion, Jason Ackerman, as she replaces Amber Holland, who is skipping her team this week at the Pre-Trials Road to the Roar in Prince George.
In addition to the Canadian title, two players from the winning team will also represent Canada at the 2010 World Mixed Doubles Championship, slated for April 16-24, 2010 in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Up to the minute draw results will be available at the Canadian Curling Association’s website (www.seasonofchampions.ca/2010Mixed ).
Last year, The Mixed, which was won by Manitoba’s Sean Grassie, was held in Iqaluit, Nunavut, the first time the Territory had staged a national sport championship.
For tickets (event passes are only $35.00), please contact Helen Martin, at hmartin2@cogeco.ca or call 905-522-4613. The opening draw is at 7:00 pm Atlantic on Saturday, November 14, followed by three draws daily during the round robin at 10:00 am, 2:30 pm and 7:00 pm Atlantic. The final draw of the round robin takes place Friday, November 13 at 10:00 am, followed by any required tiebreakers and a semi-final, leading to Saturday’s 2:30 pm final.
The Burlington Golf and Country Club, located at 422 North Shore Boulevard East in Burlington, is celebrating 50 years of curling this season while hosting its first national championship.
2010 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship
November 14-21, 2009
Burlington Golf and Country Club, Burlington, Ontario
(Teams listed in order of skip, third, second and lead, unless otherwise noted)
Alberta – Sexsmith CC, Sexsmith
Graham Powell, Karen Powell (skip), Todd Maxwell, Michelle Trarback
British Columbia – Duncan CC, Duncan
Jason Montgomery, Sarah Wark, Will Duggan, Nicole Montgomery (Vice-skip)
Manitoba – Selkirk CC, Selkirk
Dave Boehmer, Kerri Flett, Kyle Einarson, Tamara Bauknecht
New Brunswick – Capital Winter Club, Fredericton
Mary Jane McGuire, Jérémy Mallais, Megan McGuire, Jared Bezanson
Newfoundland and Labrador – Re/Max Centre, St. John’s
Matthew (Matt) Blandford, Stephanie (Steph) LeDrew, Kelly Schuh, Jessica Mouland
Northern Ontario – Idylwylde Golf & Country Club, Sudbury
Jordan Chandler, Tracy Horgan, Clint Cudmore, Lindsay Miners
Nova Scotia – Mayflower CC, Halifax
Mark Dacey, Heather Smith-Dacey, Andrew Gibson, Jill Mouzar
Ontario – Sarnia Golf and Curling Club, Sarnia
Mark Bice, Leslie Bishop, Codey Maus, Courtney Davies
Prince Edward Island – Charlottetown CC, Charlottetown
Kyle Stevenson, Donna Butler, Doug MacGregor, Tricia Affleck
Quebec – Club de Curling Baie-Comeau, Baie-Comeau
Simon Hébert, Noémie Verreault, William Dion, Vicky Tremblay
Saskatchewan – Tartan CC, Regina
Jason Ackerman, Lana Vey (replaces Amber Holland), Andrew Foreman, Colleen Ackerman
Yukon/Northwest Territories – Whitehorse CC, Whitehorse, Yukon
Wade Scoffin, Helen Strong, Steve Fecteau, Rhonda Horte

By Larry Wood
Morning Roar Editor

PRINCE GEORGE, November 13 (CCA) — Pat Simmons of Davidson, SK., rebounded from an A qualifier defeat to advance to the Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials in Edmonton next month with 7-5 B–qualifier decision over Mike McEwen of Winnipeg Friday night at the CN Centre.

In an exceptionally well-curled encounter, the turning point finally arrived in the eighth end when McEwen, tossing an in-turn draw past a guard for a deuce, watched his rock grind to a halt short of the target.

McEwen trailed by a point at the time and was angling for a one -point lead. Instead, the score was tied and Simmons cracked a killing deuce in the ninth frame and denied McEwen a way back in playing the 10th.

“We were solid tonight and they made us earn every bit of it,” said Simmons afterward. “We just hung in there. We’ve been good at that this season. We’ve been so mentally tough. We’ve always bounced back.

“We’re thrilled. We just can’t wait for Edmonton and it’s nice when you can look back and say you played well enough to earn it. In Edmonton, obviously we’re going to have to play the same way. So we might as well start now.”

Simmons’ entry includes third Gerry Adam, second Jeff Sharp and lead Steve Laycock. And the win leads to the first Olympic Trials for each of them.

McEwen said he thought his last rock in the eighth end picked.

“There’s a very good chance, I think, that if that hadn’t picked in the eighth, we’d have won the game,” said McEwen. “It definitely picked up something. It suddenly just lost all its weight. I don’t think there were many mistakes on either side. If Pat missed anything it was a really tough one.

“If we play well tomorrow we should still squeak into Edmonton. If you’d have told us at the start of the week we’d be in two qualifying finals, we’d have taken it.”

The McEwen team faces Jason Gunnlaugson in an all-Winnipeg C1 qualifier this morning at 10 a.m. PT, live on TSN.

In C2, Jean-Michel Menard of St-Romuald faces Wayne Middaugh of Toronto in a semi-final on the same 10 a.m. draw, with the winner going against Bob Ursel of Kelowna at 5 p.m. for the last men’s qualifying berth, also live on TSN.

Gunnlaugson advanced Friday night by stealing a point in the ninth end and two in the 10th for a 9-7 duke when veteran Kerry Burtnyk’s last-rock draw for the win was burned by a sweeper. Television replay people reported recordings showed the rock was struck by Burtnyk’s second player Richard Daneault’s brush. Estimates on whether the rock would have reached the four-foot ring were divided.

Ursel reached the C2 final by eliminating Ted Appelman of Edmonton 6-5.

In a late-draw women’s C2 semi-final, Ottawa’s Rachel Homan watched her last draw to the four-foot in the 10th end die in front of the rings with Marie-France Larouche of St-Romuald, Quebec sitting three counters, enough for a 9-7 heist.

Larouche moves against Amber Holland of Kronau, SK, in the C2 qualifier tonight at 6:30. Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater tackles Kelly Scott of Kelowna in the C1 qualifier at 11:30 a.m. Both games will also be shown live on TSN.

By Larry Wood
Morning Roar Editor

PRINCE GEORGE, November 13 (CCA) — Two strikes, two swings, two misses and it’s down to a full count for Kelly Scott of Kelowna, the 2007 world champion who’s at bat in the Olympic curling pre-trails here.

Scott missed her second straight chance to qualify for the Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials at Edmonton next month when she surrendered 6-3 to a hot-shooting Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay in the B final on Friday afternoon at the CN Centre.

McCarville and her team of Tara George, Kari MacLean and Lorraine Lang will be the sixth team in the eight-team starting gate at Edmonton’s Rexall Place while Scott faces Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont., in a last-gasp qualifier at 11:30 am. (PT) Saturday.

For defending Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue, meanwhile, the Olympic pre-trials of which he’d been a severe critic for some time, turned into an unmitigated disaster on Friday.

Gushue lost his third straight game (7-5) and exited the scene when he “ran into a buzz-saw” in the person of 2006 Brier champion Jean-Michel Menard.

“We made some mistakes in that fourth end and Jean-Michel’s guys made everything,” said Gushue who fell behind 5-2 at that point and never fully recovered.

“They just kept making great shots to take everything away. It’s one of those games, if you play that well you win 100 per cent of the games you play but . . . they just played better.

“I guess we came in here with targets on our backs. We played four tough teams. I guess maybe in four years time the target will be a little smaller and we’ll be able to get through this.”

McCarville, who celebrated her 27th birthday on Tuesday, gave Scott few chances in their final. “We never had any bad shots and we kept them on their toes,” said the new mother, who’s sleeping at the hotel with a new baby in the room between assignments.

“It’s amazing,” said McCarville. “She’s the best baby, sleeping eight hours a night. I don’t know if she knows mommy’s curling but she’s giving me a lot of rest.”

The final was a tight-fit until McCarville cracked a tiebreaking seventh-end deuce, held her opponent to one in the eighth and the pounded another killer pair on the board in the ninth.

“Every year, we never curled our best at the Scotties and I went home and wondered why,” said McCarville. “We’ve played with more confidence here and I’m thinking we’re starting to believe that we deserve to be here. We’re starting to believe that we’re good enough and we can curl just like the Joneses and those top four teams.

“The very first game here I struggled a little bit and I thought about it and I said to myself, ‘this is how you felt at the Scotties and you don’t want to feel this way’. And Rick (coach Lang) gave me a little pep talk and told me, ‘you can shoot and have the confidence,’ and from that second game on I’ve felt really good with the ice and with my shooting. I had to believe that I am good enough to be here and good enough to skip my team and the team is good enough.”

Scott admitted her team could get nothing going in a second straight qualifying final.

“I guess we’re going for max TV time,” she said. “It’s frustrating. Neither of those teams (Webster, McCarville) gave us much to work with. They had the kind of consistency that wins you games and we were forced to play catch-up. We just couldn’t seem to get our offence going.”

In a C1 qualifying match, Sherry Middaugh sidelined Heather Rankin of Calgary 7-4 while Amber Holland of Kronau, SK., slammed Cathy King of Edmonton with the exit door — 10-4.

Said Menard of his key knockout blow, “We played a very good game and were able to control a very high offensive team like Brad Gushue’s by positioning our rocks properly around the corner guards every end.

“I feel sorry for Brad because he’s put in a lot of effort the past few years. But we weren’t interested in going out of here, either.”

Menard plays Wayne Middaugh of Toronto in a C semi-final Saturday morning.