Rod MacDonald goes undefeated to repeat as Labatt Tankard champions

Rod MacDonald rink

Photo (L-R) Rod MacDonald, Kevin Champion, Mark O’Rourke, Andrew Robinson, Peter MacDonald

The Rod MacDonald rink edged out the Robert Campbell foursome by a 5-4 score in this evening’s final to repeat as  the Labatt Tankard Provincial Men’s Curling champions. MacDonald, with third Kevin Champion, second Andrew Robinson, and lead Mark O’Rourke, went 5-0 in the round robin to advance directly to the final. Campbell, playing with third Steve Burgess, second Jamie Newson, and lead Rob Doherty, finished round robin play with a 3-2 win-loss record, and had to win a tiebreaker, 8-3 over last year’s runner-up John Likely, followed by the semi-final, 9-6 over Eddie MacKenzie, to advance to the low-scoring final, which was tied at 2-all at the half. A deuce in the seventh end gave MacDonald the extra point needed for the win.

The MacDonald rink will now advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 6-14 at the Halifax Metro Centre.

Twelve teams took part in the triple-knockout Labatt Tankard Open Playdowns, with six rinks, five from the Charlottetown Curling Club, and the Tom Fetterly rink from the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club, advancing  to the round robin Final Six championship round.

End by end recap of Scotties final

Here is PEICurling.com’s end-by-end recap of today’s Scotties final.

1st end:

PEI 3rd Geri-Lynn Ramsay puts one through. Canada lies two. Ramsay’s next shot wrecks on guard. Canada 3rd Cathy Overton-Clapham’s shot picks and she wrecks, too. Erin Carmody tries for double, gets only one out, but lies shot. Jennifer Jones takes it out to lie two. Carmody tries for double again, and makes it. Jones takes out PEI rock with final stone, but another PEI rock is there, too.  They measure. Team Canada picks up the single.

End two:

Canada lies one. PEI’s Ramsay hits it out and bites the 12 foot. Jennifer Jones hits it out and rolls over to the edge of the eight foot. Erin Carmody  hits it out, and rolls to four foot. Jones hits and sticks.  Carmody hits and rolls out to blank the end.

End three:

Canada’s Cathy Overton-Clapham crashes on a guard when attempting a hit on a PEI rock. PEI’s Geri-Lynn Ramsay draws to lie two and split the house. Cathy O hits PEI rock, but it’s open. Ramsay wants to hit and roll behind guard, but there is too much brushing, and it doesn’t move. Jones attempts hit and roll, but rolls too far – back 12 foot. Carmody draws to back eight foot to lie two, and eliminate double possibility. Jones hits, but it overcurls, and shooter rolls out. Carmody draws to the button for the deuce.

End four:

Cathy Overton-Clapham hits but rolls out.
Geri-Lynn Ramsay hits and sticks to lie one.
Cathy O hits and sticks.
Erin Carmody hits and hangs rock on edge of 12 foot.
Jones tries hit and roll behind cover, and succeeds.
Carmody draws to back eight foot. Rock doesn’t curl much.
Jones takes it out to count two. Canada 3, PEI 2.

End five:

Canada’s Jill Officer jams on a hit and moves PEI rock behind cover.
Kathy O’Rourke puts one on the other side of the eight foot to split the house.
Officer hits it and rolls to the button.
O’Rourke hits it and stays there.
Cathy Overton-Clapham attempts hit and roll, but it stays there, too.
Geri-Lynn Ramsay hits it out and rolls it to the other side off the eight foot.
Cathy O hits and stays for shot.
Geri-Lynn hits it and moves it to the edge of the eight foot.
Jennifer Jones hits and moves the rock closer to the four foot.
Carmody hits and sticks. PEI lies two.
Jones attempts hit and roll to the guarded PEI stone. Looks good, but it hits the PEI rock, and rolls past it.
Carmody draws for two to lead 4-3 at the fifth end break!

End six:

Jill Officer flashes a hit due to a mis-heard call.
PEI has a couple of guards and a shot rock.
Officer removes both guards.
Geri-Lynn Ramsay puts a guard back, but it’s not perfect.
Cathy Overton-Clapham hits the stone, but the shooter rolls out, with the PEI stone biting the back twelve foot.
Geri-Lynn’s draw is heavy – back twelve.
Cathy O draws to back eight foot for shot stone.
Carmody attempts to freeze to it. Just clears guard. There is some separation between it and the Canada rock, but it’s there as shot stone.
Jennifer Jones wants to go to button. A little wide. PEI is still shot.
PEI wants a guard top four. Stone rubs guard, but keeps going to the edge of the button. PEI lies two.
Jones needs to go through a port to the button. She goes through the hole, but comes up short at the top off the four foot. They measure…

PEI STEALS TWO!

End seven:

PEI’s Geri-Lynn Ramsay bounces one in to lie four.
Cathy Overton-Clapham hits one of the two four-foot rocks a little strong, so there is room to get it out.
Geri-Lynn punches it out. PEI lies five.
Cathy O removes one, and sits for second shot behind a PEI guard.
Carmody attempts run-back of the guard onto the Team Canada stone. Shot is not perfect, but she chips out the stone.
Jones hits the PEI shot stone a little thin, and her shooter rolls out of the rings. PEI lies two – eight foot and top twelve.
PEI draws for top eight – lots of brushing, and it makes it, just short of the eight foot, but in good position.
Jones draws to four foot for a single, facing three. PEI 6, Canada 4.

End eight:

Cathy Overton-Clapham puts up a guard.
Geri-Lynn Ramsay peels it. PEI is first and third.
Cathy O draws to back four for shot.
Ramsay attempts across-rings double. Gets one only.
Jennifer Jones puts up a guard.
PEI looks at options – come-around the guard to freeze to top four, or peel the guard. Timeout.
They decide to freeze.
Heavy. Hits the shot rock, but doesn’t move it enough. Team Canada lies one.
Jennifer Jones gets by the guard, after furious brushing, to lie two, although the rock is a little deep.
Carmody, with last rock, tries to tap a top eight foot rock to the button. Makes the tapback, but it’s a little heavy and ends up slightly past the Team Canada rock.
Team Canada steals a single to narrow the gap to 6-5.

End nine:

Jill Officer crashes on guards with both her shots.
Kathy O’Rourke takes out Team Canada rock to lie three.
Cathy Overton-Clapham gets rid of two off them.
Geri-Lynn Ramsay jams and Team Canada lies one.
Cathy O draws for two.
Ramsay hits to lie one.
Jennifer Jones nose hits.
Erin Carmody also nose hits.
Jones hits and sticks.
Carmody draws – needs full eight. Brushing. Short. Team Canada picks up a steal of two to lead 7-6.

End ten:

Kathy O’Rourke fans on a hit – moves Team Canada rock only slightly.
Jill Officer puts up a guard.
O’Rourke does a run-back, but Team Canada still lies two with a guard.
Cathy Overton-Clapham attempts a centreline guard, but there is still a port there.
Geri-Lynn Ramsay comes through the port to lie one.
Cathy O makes it through the hole too, but the rock rolls away.
Geri-Lynn throws a draw, a little light. Brushing. Gets by guard, and ends up on the button!
Jennifer Jones attempts to draw to the face of Ramsay’s rock. A little short, touching four foot.
PEI, lying one, calls a timeout.
They decide on a draw to the four foot – will have to come wide, but rocks are finishing on that side.
Comes in, but just scrapes by a guard, and finishes as third shot just out of the four foot –  not enough to win.
Team Canada calls a timeout.
Team Canada calls a second timeout.
The clock starts – Team Canada still talking but have 4 and a half  minutes left.
They decide to tap up one of their rocks.
They do it – just touching the button for stone number two.
PEI decides to gamble on a risky double hit to take out the Team Canada rock off another Jones stone, and win the game, instead of an extra end.
There is also the possibility of  picking out their own rock, and losing.
Carmody is wide, and the game goes to an extra end.

Extra end:

Kathy O’Rourke draws to Team Canada shot stone in the four foot.
Jill Officer peels centre guard.
PEI’s O’Rourke puts up long centre guard.
Officer peels it.
PEI’s Geri-Lynn Ramsay puts up another long centre-guard.
Cathy Overton-Clapham peels it.
Ramsay puts up another perfect guard.
Cathy O peels it.
Erin Carmody guards.
Jennifer Jones calls for her only extra-end timeout.
Jones decides to draw to the four foot. Lying two, but a little deep.
PEI has a chance to sit on it and get a small portion of the button to sit one and win the game.
PEI lies shot, but it didn’t come in and is not behind cover.
Jennifer Jones picks it out to win her third straight championship.

Team Canada wins the 2010 Scotties (CCA)

(CCA) Defending champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg skipped her team of Cathy Overton-Clapham, Jill Officer and Dawn Askin to a third straight Scotties Tournament Of Hearts title Sunday afternoon with an 8-7 championship-final victory over Kathy O’Rourke’s Prince Edward Island entry.

The win is the fourth in six years for the Jones team that will now represent Canada at the World women’s curling championship, March 20-28 at Swift Current, SK.

Jones compiled a 10 win, three loss record over the nine-day championship at the Essar Centre.

The match against the P.E.I. team (9-and-5), featuring 21-year-olds Erin Carmody and Geri-Lynn Ramsay throwing fourth and third rocks respectively, was the third confrontation of the contenders during the tournament.

The Islanders won 9-5 during the round-robin preliminaries, then lost 8-5 in the Page One-Two playoff prior to Sunday’s final.

The 45-year-old O’Rourke threw second rocks and called traffic for the Charlottetown aggregation while Tricia Affleck played the lead position.

It was the first-ever appearance in a Canadian women’s curling championship final for a team from P.E.I.

Team Canada beats PEI in Scotties final (Journal)

SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT.
JASON SIMMONDS
The Journal Pioneer

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones rink rallied to win the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Sunday.

Jones overcame a 6-3 deficit after six ends and stole three points in the eighth and ninth ends to end P.E.I.’s Cinderella run at the Canadian women’s curling championship with an 8-7 extra-end victory.

Click to read this story in the Journal-Pioneer.

PEI loses to Team Canada 8-7 in an extra end in Scotties final

Team Canada steals of one and two  in ends eight and nine were key in the 8-7 extra end win of Team Canada over PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke rink this afternoon in Sault Ste. Marie. The PEI rink were in control of the game until then,  but Team Canada took the lead in the ninth, when PEI fourth stone Erin Carmody was light on her final draw, giving up two.  PEI attempted a risky double to win the game in the tenth, but they were wide, and settled for a single point to force the extra end, where PEI had to bury their final rock, and grab a slice of the button to win the game. Carmody’s shot ended up counting, but did not bury, and Team Canada skip Jennifer Jones picked it out for the win. The winning Jones rink will now represent  Canada at the Ford World women’s championship, March 20-28 at Swift Current, SK, and will participate again as Team Canada for the 2011 Scotties in Charlottetown.

Reception planned for O’Rourke rink

The Kathy O’Rourke team will be arriving home on different flights late into Monday night. A  reception for them will take place at the Charlottetown Curling Club on Tuesday evening at 5 pm.  CBC Compass  will be covering the event live and everyone is welcome to attend.

PEI playing for its 1st-ever Canadian Women’s curling title, 3:30 pm on TSN (Journal)

JASON SIMMONDS
The Journal Pioneer

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. – The Kathy O’Rourke rink has an opportunity to win P.E.I.’s first-ever Canadian women’s curling championship.

O’Rourke, who calls the game and throws second stones; Erin Carmody, who handles the skip stones; Geri-Lynn Ramsay, who shoots third stones, and lead Tricia Affleck will play Team Canada’s Jennifer Jones in the final of the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., AT (TSN). P.E.I.’s fifth player is Shelly Bradley and Al Ledgerwood coaches the Charlottetown Curling Club rink.

Click to read this story in the Journal-Pioneer.

Robert Campbell to play Rod MacDonald for Labatt Tankard

Eight-time PEI Tankard winner Robert Campbell, with a new team that includes 2009 New Brunswick junior champions Steve Burgess and Rob Doherty, along with Jamie Newson, beat the Eddie MacKenzie rink 9-6 in the semi-final this afternoon at the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, to advance to the 6 pm Labatt Tankard final against defending champion Rod MacDonald. Campbell’s win was aided by a four point second end, and a triple in the fourth. Playing with MacKenzie were Mike Gaudet, Tyler Harris, and Sean Clarey.

MacDonald, playing with Kevin Champion, Andrew Robinson, and Mark O’Rourke, along with fifth player Peter MacDonald, went through the round robin undefeated, while Campbell, MacKenzie, and John Likely all went 3-2. Campbell beat out last year’s runner-up Likely 8-3 in a tiebreaker on Saturday to advance to the semi-final against MacKenzie. All the teams involved in post round-robin play are from the Charlottetown Curling Club.

The 2010 PEI Tankard winning team will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 6-14 in Halifax.

“Pretty amazing” PEI looking to make “real history” in Scotties final (CCA)

By Larry Wood
Heart Chart Editor

It’s the kind of championship matchup no one could have predicted.

The defending champion versus a team featuring a 21-year-old last-rock thrower representing a province that not only never before has won the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts but never before has placed a team in the final.

“Pretty amazing right now,” said Prince Edward Island skip Kathy O’Rourke in the wake of Saturday night’s convincing 10-6 victory over home-province favourite Krista McCarville and her Thunder Bay aggregation.

Pretty amazing, indeed.

A team that, one night earlier, was afforded sufficient opportunities to defeat the defending champs but lost on account of a mediocre 60-per-cent shooting performance on last rocks, Saturday benefited from a total turnaround from 21-year-old Erin Carmody who strangled Ontario’s hopes with a scintillating 93-per-cent effort on the last shots.

“Erin was on fire,” agreed O’Rourke. “I told her last night that we’d just had a practice game and we’d come back tomorrow and she could do her thing. She said, ‘yeah, that’s what I’m going to do’, and she did it tonight.”

Question: Can this smooth-shooting young lady do it one more time and win was amounts to a rubber match against Jennifer Jones and her Team Canada charges, the winner of three of the last five Scotties who is looking for a third straight crown?

“I think we have the nerves under control and big games under our belt and I hope we feel we have a score to settle with Team Canada,” said the 45-year-old O’Rourke, who throws second rocks.

Added Carmody:

“I think we can come back against them (Team Canada). I think we were a little nervous (Friday night) and that showed but we know we can play a lot better. I got great comfort and support from my teammates — they did everything the could to pick me up — and that helped me today.”

The Islanders exploded out of the gate with a first-end deuce courtesy two perfect Carmody draw shots, then hammered three on the board for a 5-1 lead after three ends.

McCarville’s group never fully recovered, however they did scrap and claw to within two points after eight panels.

“We tried to think about one shot at a time out there,” said O’Rourke, “and when it was over we were just in a little shock.”

The Islanders defeated Jones during the round robin with a 9-5 effort on Wednesday night, then bowed 8-5 on Friday.

“Hopefully, we have some unfinished business with them, but it still feels good to get into that final and make history,” said O’Rourke. “Now we want to make real history! And to do that we have to think about making as many shots again.

“We’re playing a great team but so are a bunch of others here and we don’t look at the colour of the jackets.”
Carmody agreed.

“They’re obviously pretty good, they’re Team Canada, but I try to always focus on our team and never mind the opposition. If we can just focus on our shots, we’ll be fine.”

Carmody had an open hit for three in the second end against Canada on Friday night and miscued. Everyone agreed a shot there would have changed the game completely.

“If that happens again I might line up a little better and take an extra breath in the hack,” she said with a cheerful laugh.

The McCarville team was slow to get its act together but, trailing 7-2 in the sixth, managed a deuce and coerced another in the eighth to cut the lead to two points. But stationing rocks in the correct places was a tough act all night long.

“It’s disappointing but we’ll learn from it,” said the 27-year-old Lakehead skip.

“They play so well. They just never let us back into it. I was confused on a couple of shots that proved costly.

“We’re a young team. We’ll have a lot more shots at this, I’m sure. Every setback at this level teaches you something.”
Today’s final match goes at 3:30 p.m. AT.

The winner of the Scotties title will represent Canada at the Ford World women’s championship, March 20-28 at Swift Current, SK.

PEI in Scotties final Sunday afternoon (Guardian – CP photo)

Click the link to read story and  Canadian Press photo in The Guardian.

Team Prince Edward Island skip Kathy O’Rourke, right, who throws second, and  Erin Carmody, left, who throws fourth, laugh while playing against Team Ontario during semifinal action at the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010. The Island team won 10-6 and for the first time ever Prince Edward Island is in the finals of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. They will be playing defending champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg in the final in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Sunday afternoon. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denett

Game story for tonight’s PEI win over Ontario in Scotties semi-final

Game story:

End one: PEI’s Erin Carmody draws to the button for the deuce.

End two:  Ontario’s Krista McCarville forced to take a single point.

End three: PEI attempts to remove an Ontario rock for a possible four, but settles for a triple, as they lead 5-1 after 3 ends.

End four: McCarville misses double for 3, settles for one. 5-2 PEI.

End five: McCarville put her last shot, an up-weight hit, between two PEI rocks and through the  rings, and Erin Carmody did a difficult angle raise to the four foot to count two, and lead 7-2 at half-time.

End six: Ontario’s Krista McCarville does runback double. Removes both PEI rocks, but rolls out. Erin Carmody draws to top eight. Already lying one in 12 foot outcounting an Ontario 12-footer, but the double is there.
McCarville takes out both PEI rocks and sticks to count two.

End seven: Carmody draws for one. PEI leads 8-4.

End eight: Curling at 89%, PEI’s Carmody makes double to remove two Ontario four-footers. Ontario’s McCarville puts one back, Carmody takes it out and rolls to 12 foot with another on eight foot. McCarville takes them both out for two. 8-6 after 8 ends.

End nine: PEI’s Carmody makes double. Ontario’s McCarville puts last stone to back eight, but is still shot and behind a guard outside the house. Carmody draws to button for a single point

End ten: PEI lies one in eight foot. McCarville has two stones between it and a guard outside the rings. Carmody puts up a guard just outside the rings. McCarville needs a big hit off that guard on to two Ontario stones to remove the PEI rock and count three for the tie. She hits the guard and moves the stones, but didn’t have enough weight to pull it off. Final score: 10-6 for PEI. PEI, looking for their first ever Canadian women’s championship, advances to 3:30 pm Sunday final against Team Canada.

PEI advances to Scotties final against Team Canada

PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke rink beat the Krista McCarville rink from Ontario by a 10-6 score in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts semi-final this evening in Sault Ste. Marie. This puts them in the 3:30 pm Atlantic final Sunday against Jennifer Jones and Team Canada, who are seeking their third consecutive Scotties. No PEI team has ever won a  Canadian women’s curling championship. The Island rink  includes skip Kathy O’Rourke, who throws second stones, Erin Carmody, who throws fourth, third Geri-Lynn Ramsay, and lead Tricia Affleck, with coach Al Ledgerwood.

The winner of the Scotties title will represent Canada at the Ford World women’s championship, March 20-28 at Swift Current, SK.