Defending champ Suzanne Birt, an eight time PEI women’s championship winner, and Kim Dolan, a ten time champ, have advanced to the first of three section finals in the modified triple knockout PEI Scotties, which got underway this morning at the Montague Curling Rink.
PEICurling.com photo: Suzanne Birt
Both teams had a bye in the morning round, and their qualifier games this afternoon were very close until the 9th end, when Birt, trailing by one against Lisa Jackson, scored four points, and Dolan, up one over the host club’s Tammy Dewar, took three. Birt and Dolan then ran their opposing teams out of rocks in the tenth end to win 9-6 and 7-4 respectively.
PEICurling.com photo: Kim Dolan
They now play in the “A” section final which goes Saturday at 9 am. The winner of that game advances to the Monday championship round. They have also earned byes into the “B” section semi-finals at 2 pm Saturday. The winners of those games advance to the “B” final at 7 pm Saturday. The “C” final takes place Sunday at 7 pm. If a team wins all three sections, there is no Monday championship round. If a team wins two sections, they advance to both Monday games and win the title if they take either, while their opponent would have to win both. This year’s winning team advances to the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts. February 20-28, 2016 at Revolution Place, in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
PEICurling.com photo – Lisa Jackson (right), Melissa Morrow (left), Jodi Murphy (centre)
The Lisa Jackson rink advanced to the Friday afternoon “A” semis with a 10-5 win over the Sarah Fullerton team, scoring half of her points in the fifth end.
PEICurling.com photo: Tammy Dewar
Dewar, the only rink in the event not from the Charlottetown Curling Complex, stole a deuce in the second end against seven time PEI women’s champ Shelly Bradley, and, trailing 6-5 coming home, scored a final end deuce for a 7-6 victory.
The five Future Tankard Under 21 teams play on Saturday and Sunday, playing three games each in a round robin:
Saturday January 16 at 9 am
Katelyn Shaw vs Rachel MacLean
Saturday January 16 at 2 pm
Rachel MacLean vs Emma Coffin, Lauren Ferguson vs Alexis Burris
Saturday January 16 at 7 pm
Emma Coffin vs Alexis Burris
Sunday January 17 at 10 am
Katelyn Shaw vs Lauren Ferguson, Rachel MacLean vs Alexis Burris
Saturday January 17 at 2 pm
Katelyn Shaw vs Emma Coffin, Rachel MacLean vs Lauren Ferguson
Shaw is from Charlottetown while Burris, Coffin and MacLean are from Cornwall, and the Ferguson team has players from the Western, Crapaud, and Silver Fox clubs.
Live end by end results from the Scotties and Future Scotties are available at PEICurling.com/scoreboard