2019 Everest Canadian Seniors Ch’ships start Friday in Chilliwack B.C. (Curling Canada)

A star-studded field of Canadian and World champions, as well as an Olympic medallist, will open play Friday at the 2019 Everest Canadian Senior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships at the brand new Chilliwack Curling and Community Centre in Chilliwack, B.C.Fourteen men’s and 14 women’s teams (representing the 10 provinces plus Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon) will compete, and have been seeded into two pools per gender, based on last year’s results, and will first play a round robin within their pool through Monday.

The top four in each pool then advance to the Championship Pool for games against teams from the other pool, while the remaining teams go to the Seeding Pool. At the conclusion of the Championship Pool on Wednesday, the semifinals will be held Thursday, March 28, at 8:30 a.m. (all times Pacific), pairing 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3. The winners then advance to their respective gold-medal final later in the day while the losers will play for bronze. The men’s bronze- and gold-medal games are at 12:30 p.m., followed by the women’s medal games at 3:30 p.m.

Shelley MacFadyen from the PEI Women’s team skipped by Kim Aylward is flanked by two members of the defending men’s championship team from Ontario — Summerside PEI native Morgan Currie (left) and Souris native Ian MacAulay – Facebook photo.

Both defending champions — Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane (Russell; also the 2016 champion) and Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson (Saskatoon; also won in 2017 and is going for a three-peat in Chilliwack) — are in the field. 

But they’ll be pushed hard by a field that includes an Olympic medallist (Alberta’s Glenys Bakker of Calgary, who played second for Shannon Kleibrink’s Canadian bronze-medal women’s team in 2006 at Torino, Italy), a two-time world men’s champ (Northern Ontario’s Al Hackner [Thunder Bay] in 1982 and 1985), three Tim Hortons Brier champions (Hackner, and Quebec men’s skip François Roberge and second Maxime Elmaleh [Etchemin/Kenogami/Lacolle], who were members of Jean-Michel Ménard’s 2006 Canadian champs and world silver-medallists), a world women’s champ (Ontario women’s lead Jane Hooper-Perroud, who was a member of Marilyn Bodogh’s 1996 Scotties and world championship team; now playing for Sherry Middaugh [Thornhill]), not to mention both reigning world senior champions — Anderson on the women’s side and Alberta’s Wade White (Edmonton) on the men’s side.

Skipping the host-province entries will be Wes Craig on the men’s side, representing the Nanaimo and Kerry Park curling clubs, and Marilou Richter on the women’s side, representing the Penticton and Kelowna curling clubs.

Team PEI Men (L-R): Phil Gorveatt, Kevin Champion, Larry Richards, Mike Dillon

The men’s field is rounded out by Manitoba’s Dave Boehmer (Petersfield), New Brunswick’s Wade Blanchard (Saint John), Newfoundland/Labrador’s Gary Oke (Corner Brook), Glen Hudy of the Northwest Territories (Yellowknife), Nova Scotia’s Brent MacDougall (Halifax/Dartmouth), Nunavut’s Peter Mackey (Iqaluit), Phil Gorveatt of Prince Edward Island (Charlottetown/Montague), Saskatchewan’s Bruce Korte (Saskatoon), and the Yukon’s Pat Paslawski (Whitehorse).

Team PEI Women (L-R): Kim Aylward, Shelley MacFadyen, Debbie Caissy, Donna Whelan

Completing the women’s field are Manitoba’s Terry Ursel (Arden), New Brunswick’s Judy Ross (Fredericton), Newfoundland/Labrador’s Diane Roberts (St. John’s), Northern Ontario’s Kim Beaudry (Fort Frances), Sharon Cormier of the Northwest Territories (Yellowknife), Nova Scotia’s Nancy McConnery (Bridgewater/Glooscap/Lakeshore), Nunavut’s Geneva Chislett (Iqaluit), P.E.I.’s Kim Aylward (Summerside), Quebec’s Odette Trudel (Trois-Rivières), and the Yukon’s Rhonda Horte (Whitehorse).

Schedule (click to enlarge, add four hours for PEI time):

This year’s winners will represent Canada in the 2020 World Seniors, at a site and date to be announced by the World Curling Federation.

 Since 2005, the winners of the Canadian Seniors have represented Canada in the following year’s World Seniors. Thus, last year’s winners — Cochrane and Anderson — will wear the Maple Leaf in the 2019 World Seniors, April 20-27 at Stavanger, Norway.

Draw results for the 2019 Everest Canadian Seniors will be available at www.curling.ca. For event information, visit www.curling.ca/2019seniors.

This is the fifth year of title sponsorship by Everest, the first nationwide funeral planning and concierge service.

Selected games from the 2019 Everest Canadian Seniors will be streamed live by CBC Sports. You can watch at cbcsports.ca or via the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android.

Click to read at Curling Canada.

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