Playoff schedule set at Canadian Mixed
IQALUIT, Nunavut, November 14 (CCA)…The playoff schedule for the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship has now been confirmed after the conclusion of the round robin Friday morning at Arniatok Arena.
Manitoba, skipped by Sean Grassie of Winnipeg, wound up in first place with a 10-1 record to advance to Saturday’s final at 2:00 pm ET. Grassie, a 1999 provincial junior champion, won his game this morning, 10-5 over Prince Edward Island (Bill Hope of Charlottetown), but had already clinched top spot Thursday evening by defeating Saskatchewan, 9-6. Hope finished out of the playoffs at 5-6.
Manitoba has won seven Mixed titles since the championship began in 1964 in Toronto, but the latest was 17 years ago in 1991 in Thunder Bay, by skip Jeff Stoughton.
Saskatchewan, skipped by Darrell McKee of Saskatoon, finished second, with a 9-2 mark, to advance to Friday evening’s semi-final at 7:30 pm. McKee is a former Brier competitor, having played third for Bruce Korte at the 2000 Brier in Saskatoon.
Saskatchewan has taken eight previous Mixed titles, but its last win came courtesy of skip Randy Bryden in 1996 in Charlottetown.
Ontario (Wayne Tuck of Brantford) and Nova Scotia (Mark Dacey of Halifax) finished tied for third with 8-3 records and will meet in a tiebreaker at 3:00 pm today, with the winner advancing to face Saskatchewan in the semi-final. In their round robin battle in Draw 14, Ontario prevailed, but just barely, 7-6 over Nova Scotia.
While Ontario was idle Friday morning, Nova Scotia had its hands full but stayed alive with a 6-3 decision over New Brunswick (Scott Jones of Moncton), taking control with three in the eighth end.
Ontario is a two-time Mixed champion while Nova Scotia has won on six occasions. Tuck finished third at the 2002 Canadian Mixed, which was won by Dacey in Halifax. Dacey, of course, also won the 2004 Nokia Brier in Saskatoon, stunning Alberta’s Randy Ferbey in the final.
The other Draw 17 scores saw Newfoundland and Labrador (Andrew Mercer of St. John’s) hammer the Territories (George Lennie of Inuvik), 11-4 while Quebec (Simon Hebert of Thetford Mines) took two in the 10th to edge Alberta (Tom Appelman of Edmonton), 7-6.
The final standings, after the top four, showed Northern Ontario (Ian Fisher of Sault Ste. Marie) at 6-5, with New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia (Greg Monkman of New Westminster) all knotted at 5-6. Quebec was next with a 4-7 mark, followed by Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador at 3-8, while the Territories was 0-11.
This 46th edition of the Canadian Mixed, presented by First Air, marks the first time that a Canadian sport championship has been contested in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
In addition to a Canadian title, two players from the winning team will also represent Canada at the 2009 World Mixed Doubles Championship, slated for April 17-25, 2009 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.