The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company (The Dominion) has announced that the Charlottetown and Cornwall curling clubs will host The Dominion Curling Club Championship, running from November 23-28, 2010. This will be the second year for the event, set to benefit Canadian club curlers and charities when it premiers this week in Toronto, Ontario.
Funded by The Dominion, The Dominion Curling Club Championship is an annual event for men’s and women’s curling teams who have won their local club championships. The premiere Championship – taking place from November 24-29, 2009, at St. George’s Golf and Country Club – provides the first ever opportunity for winning club teams from across all of Canada’s provinces and territories to represent their club at the zone, provincial or territory level, and ultimately to rank nationally. Details can be found online at thedominioncurls.ca.
The Charlottetown Curling Club is a five-sheet club situated directly in Prince Edward Island’s capital. The Cornwall Curling Club is a four-sheet club located in nearby Cornwall, PEI. Together they offer a variety of programs for curlers of all ages. Once again in 2010, The Dominion Curling Club Championship will direct any profit generated to charities, including the Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) and developmental curling initiatives in communities across Canada.
“As our premier event approaches” says Leigh Armstrong of The Dominion, “it’s exciting to look forward to 2010 and the opportunity to work with these two exceptional clubs.”
About The Dominion
Canadian owned and operated since 1887, today The Dominion is one of the country’s largest property and casualty insurers. The Dominion takes pride in providing Canadians with confidence that the cars, homes and businesses they value are protected. A fierce advocate for consumer interests, The Dominion is committed to making sure the insurance system works best for consumers. The Dominion strongly believes consumers should have access to independent, professional advisors, who provide advocacy and choice, which is why they distribute their products exclusively through independent brokers. The Dominion’s priority is to earn and maintain the trust and loyalty of policyholders, employees and business partners. Visit thedominion.ca.
About The Dominion and Curling
Along with being the official insurer of the Canadian Curling Association, the CCA Season of Champions events and Ontario Curling Association, The Dominion is the title sponsor of over a dozen curling championships and fundraisers including The Canadian University Curling Championships, The Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship, The Dominion Ontario Stick Curling Provincials and The Dominion CPA Ontario Curling Classic, which has raised more than $800,000 for the CPA over the last 7 years. The Dominion is also proud to be title sponsor of the Amethyst Summer Curling Camp, a camp for junior curlers in Sudbury, Ontario.
Play begins Wednesday morning at the The Dominion national curling club championship, to be played at the St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto. PEI is represented by the women’s team of Vanessa Hamming, Ruth Walsh, Lindsay Moore, and Heather MacRae from the Crapaud Community Curling Club, and the men’s team of Louis Walsh, Doug Waugh, Walter Benson, and Ray Thompson from the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside.
The Dominion Curling Club Championship is Canada’s first-ever national championship for club curlers, with men’s and women’s teams from every province and territory, including separate entries from Northern and Southern Ontario. Curlers from communities as far away as Iqaluit, Nunavut and Glooscap, Nova Scotia – many of whom have never traveled outside of their home province or territory – will compete amongst the country’s very best amateur clubs.
World champion Canadian curler and Olympic hopeful Glenn Howard will be on hand November 24 at The Dominion Curling Club Championship’s opening banquet to kick-off the event.
On November 29, one men’s and one women’s team will emerge victorious, and The Dominion will declare Canada’s first-ever club champions. Toronto Mayor David Miller and celebrity curler Sherry Middaugh will congratulate winners that evening at the event’s closing banquet.
“The Dominion believes amateur sport is an exciting and vital part of Canadian life,” explains George Cooke, President and CEO of The Dominion. “We are excited to take our support of curling to the next level with The Dominion Curling Club Championship. Curlers have already started referring to our event as ‘The Dominion’, and we are overwhelmed by the curling community’s positive response.”
All profits from The Dominion Curling Club Championship will be re-directed to the Canadian Paraplegic Association and developmental curling initiatives in communities across the country.
The Heidi Hanlon rink from the host Capital Winter Club beat their clubmates the Rebecca Atkinson foursome 6-4 in this afternoon’s final to win the Fredericton Women’s Curling Classic.
PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke/Erin Carmody team went undefeated in round robin play, qualifying first for the money round, but lost out in the quarter-finals Saturday night to Atkinson, who stole the last two ends in a close 4-3 decision. PEI’s Anita Casey rink finished round robin play with a 1-3 win-loss record.
The Suzanne Birt rink grabbed the eighth and final qualifying spot in the quarter-final round of the $100,000 Sun Life Financial Invitational Curling Classic, which wraps up on Monday in Brantford Ontario. The team, which includes third Shelly Bradley, second Leslie MacDougall, and lead Stefanie Richard, are playing US Olympian Debbie McCormick in a game which got underway at 8 pm Atlantic. Former world women’s champion McCormick went undefeated to qualify first in the triple-knockout event. Birt had to win two other games on Sunday to advance to the evening quarter-final, beating Kristy Russell of Orangeville 7-4 in the morning, and Brette Richards of Winnipeg 6-0 in the afternoon.
In other quarter-finals, Joanne Rizzo of Ontario is playing Heather Strong of Newfoundland/Labrador, Shannon Kleibrink of Alberta is taking on Robyn Silvernagle of Saskatchewan, and Amber Holland of Saskatchewan is facing Crystal Webster of Alberta.
In the men’s section, Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg is playing Mike McEwen, also from the ‘Peg, Jean-Michel Ménard of Quebec is facing Brad Gushue of Newfoundland/Labrador, Toronto’s Wayne Middaugh is taking on Brantford’s Terry Corbin, and Peter Corner of Brampton is playing Quebec’s Martin Ferland.
Semi-finals go at 10 am Atlantic on Monday, with the men’s at women’s finals following at 1:30 pm At.
After Sunday play at the PEI Canada Games Curling Pre-Trials at Summerside’s Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club, all but one of the qualifiers for the Trials, December 11-14 in Charlottetown, have been determined.
In the six team round robin Junior Men’s section, three teams finished with identical 3-2 win-loss records and grabbed the first three qualifying spots. These teams are the Tony Nabuurs rink from Montague, Cornwall’s Jeff Taylor foursome, and the Matthew MacLean team from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary. In Sunday’s final round robin draw, Taylor and his team beat their Cornwall clubmates, skipped by 11 year old Tyler Smith, by a 6-2 score. MacLean defeated Alex Matters of Charlottetown 5-2, stealing a deuce in the final end.
Nabuurs was already qualified going into Sunday play, with a 3-1 record, and lost his Sunday contest 7-5 to the Shawn Pitre
team from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton. This resulted in three teams having identical 2-3 round robin
records, forcing two tiebreaker rounds, as PEI Curling Association rules dictate that no team may be eliminated solely on
win-loss records. The Matters and Pitre rinks squared off in the first tiebreaker on Sunday afternoon, with Matters
eliminating Pitre with an 8-3 win. Matters now plays Cornwall’s Smith in the second tiebreaker, Monday at 2 pm, with the
winner advancing to the Trials in Charlottetown.
All four qualifiers have been determined in the eight team triple-knockout junior women’s section. The Amanda MacLean rink
from O’Leary’s Maple Leaf Club went undefeated in the competition, grabbing the first qualifying spot for the Trials by
doubling the Jenny McLean foursome from the host Silver Fox club by a 6-3 score on Saturday. McLean went on to win the
second qualifier, 7-5 over Leah Deveau of Montague, on Sunday morning. Going into her final shot, McLean was
facing two Deveau counters, one of which was touching the button. She made a clutch draw to the button, aided greatly by
her sweepers, outcounting the opposing rock by a small margin to pick up the win.
The final two qualifiers were decided in the 2 pm draw on Sunday, with Cornwall’s Veronica Smith rink beating the Kim
Dunbar foursome from Charlottetown by a 7-2 score. The final qualifying spot went to Montague’s Deveau, who came back from her earlier loss to McLean with a decisive 9-3 victory over Emily Keen of Charlottetown.
The eventual winners of the Trials in Charlottetown next month will advance to the Canada Games, February 11-27, 2011 in Halifax, at the Mayflower Curling Club.
Here are the Qualifying Teams (skip to lead, coach-Club). Photos will follow later.
Junior Women’s:
#1 Amanda MacLean, Kassinda Bulger, Emily Gray, Aleya Quilty, coaches Glen MacLean/Shelley Gray-Maple Leaf Curling Club (O’Leary)
#2 Jenny McLean, Meaghan MacDonald, Rachael Gardiner, Lauren MacFadyen, coach Don Vickerson-Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club (Summerside)
#3 Veronica Smith, Katie Fullerton, Sabrina Smith, Chloe McCloskey, coaches Sarah Fullerton/Paul Smith-Cornwall Curling Club
#4 Leah Deveau, Sarah MacPhee, Jessica Chapman, Carolyn Rose, coach Carolyn MacPhee-Montague Curling Club
Junior Men’s:
#1 Tony Nabuurs, Kyle Hughes, Taylor McInnis, Chandler Matheson, coach Arny Nabuurs-Montague Curling Club
#2 Jeff Taylor, Alex Sutherland, Alex Jenkins, Jonathan Schut, coach AJ Campbell-Cornwall Curling Club
#3 Matthew MacLean, Marshall Smallman, Kevin Gallant, Alan MacLean, coach Glen MacLean Maple Leaf Curling Club (O’Leary)
#4 To be determined in a tiebreaker Monday at 2 pm between the following teams:
Tyler Smith, Parker O’Connor, Noah O’Connor, Tyson Smith, coach Kevin Smith-Cornwall Curling Club
Alex Matters, Chris Gallant, Andrew Cameron, Kyle Holland, coach Derrick Cameron-Charlottetown Curling Club
PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke/Erin Carmody team went undefeated in round robin play, qualifying first for the money round, but lost out in the quarter-finals Saturday night at the Fredericton Women’s Classic at the Capital Winter Club. The Rebecca Atkinson foursome from Fredericton, with former Suzanne Birt teammate Carol Webb at second, stole the last two ends in a close 4-3 decision.
PEI’s Anita Casey rink finished round robin play with a 1-3 win-loss record.
The semi-final round gets underway at 10 this morning, with the final at 2:30 pm.
PEI’s Suzanne Birt rink, with third Shelly Bradley, second Leslie MacDougall, and lead Stefanie Clark, are still in the hunt for a qualifying spot at the Sun Life Financial Invitational Curling Classic in Brantford Ontario. To advance to the money round, they will have to win their game against Kristy Russell of Orangeville Ontario at 10 Atlantic this morning, along with their next game at 4:30 pm AT.
On Saturday night, the Birt rink beat Wisconsin’s Erika Brown rink 8-6, scoring three points in the final end. Team Birt recorded a 6-4 win over the Julie Hastings team from Toronto Ont. on Saturday morning. The event wraps up on Monday.
Already qualified on the men’s side are Jeff Stoughton and Wayne Middaugh, with Debbie McCormick and Shannon Kleibrink advancing to the women’s money round.
BURLINGTON, November 21, 2009 (CCA)… Nova Scotia, skipped by Mark Dacey of Halifax, won the 2010 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship Saturday at the Burlington Golf and Country Club, defeating Ontario, 7-5 in the final.
The 47th edition of The Mixed was a well-curled affair, as evidenced by team shooting percentages. Nova Scotia fired 86%, while Ontario, skipped by Mark Bice of Sarnia, came in at 78%. The lead changed hands on four occasions, with a deuce in the eighth end by Dacey proving the difference.
It’s the second Mixed title for Dacey, who also won in 2002 in front of his home club fans at the Mayflower Curling Club. But it’s the third Mixed title for his wife, Heather Smith-Dacey, who plays third. She also won the championship in 1994 when playing third for New Brunswick skip Grant Odishaw, as well as in 2002 with Dacey.
For second Andrew Gibson, who teamed with Dacey to win the 2004 Nokia Brier in Saskatoon and a bronze medal at the 2004 Ford Worlds in Gävle, Sweden, it was his first Mixed title. It was also the first for lead Jill Mouzar, a former Canadian junior champion and 2004 world junior silver medallist, who shot a game-high 95%.
Nova Scotia led 5-4 at the fifth end break, but a couple of subsequent triples kept the contest close. First, Dacey made a cross-house triple in the sixth end to hold Ontario to an eventual single. Then, in the seventh, Bice returned the favour, wiping out three Nova Scotia counters and forcing Dacey to blank the end.
After Nova Scotia took two in the eighth, Ontario blanked the ninth but in the 10th end, down 7-5, Bice, staring at one Nova Scotia counter, was heavy with his first draw and thus neither skip had to throw his last stone.
“I’ll never catch up to her,” said an excited Dacey, about his wife’s third Mixed title. “It was a very well curled game. In the sixth, Mark (Bice) had a three-ender going, so I threw a bullet at one of his stones, doubled them out and rolled over to remove the other one. Then, in the seventh, we had a three going and he made a triple to save the end for them. My hat’s off to them. There always has to be a winner and loser, but they curled extremely well and should be proud.”
It was the seventh Mixed title for Nova Scotia since the championship began in 1964 in Toronto, but the first since 2003, when skip Paul Flemming directed his Mayflower Curling Club team to victory in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
Nova Scotia’s Mayflower Curling Club team was favoured to win this 2010 Canadian Mixed, and, spurred on by an 8-7 extra end win over Ontario on Thursday evening, claimed first place and a bye to today’s final by winning its final round robin game on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, Ontario, which had led throughout the week, was relegated to the semi-final Friday night, when it throttled British Columbia, 12-3 to advance to a rematch with Nova Scotia.
In addition to the Canadian title, two players from the winning team will represent Canada at the 2010 World Mixed Doubles Championship in Chelyabinsk, Russia, April 16-24. Dacey confirmed shortly after the game that he and Heather Smith-Dacey will be Canada’s representatives.
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