Day one is over at the Provincial Masters Curling Championships, for curlers aged 60 and over, being played at the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary. Nine men’s teams are playing a double-knockout format, while the four women’s rinks are playing a round robin with a two game championship round.
In the men’s division, four teams are undefeated, with five-time champion Lou Nowlan from Summerside at 2-0, and defending champion Bob MacWilliams from Cornwall, his clubmate and reigning stick curling champion Sterling Stratton, and John Holmes from the Silver Fox all with 1-0 win-loss records. Nowlan downed Father Art Pendergast and his Western Community Curling Club team 9-1 in his opener, and Silver Fox clubmate Louis Walsh 8-1, while MacWilliams edged Bob Maynard of the Fox 8-7, Holmes beat Alfred (Chick) Morrison and his combined Charlottetown/Cornwall rink 5-3, and Stratton took a six ender in his 12-2 routing of Alberton’s Leslie Hardy. In the B section, Hardy beat Pendergast 7-3.
In the women’s section, Summerside’s Jeanne Duffenais is off to a good start in her quest for a sixth consecutive Masters title, with a decisive 11-2 victory over Wanda Collings of Alberton, stealing five points in the seventh end, followed up by a 7-2 win over Cornwall’s Myrna Sanderson foursome. In other games, Diane MacKay beat Cornwall clubmate Sanderson 9-2, and Collings edged MacKay 7-6 in an extra end.
Play continues Tuesday with the women’s round robin wrapping up in the 9 am morning draw, and the playoff game between the second and third place team happening at 3 pm. The women’s final between the winner of that game and the first place finisher from the round robin goes Wednesday at 1 pm. The men play at 9 am, noon, and 3 pm on Tuesday, with the final set for Thursday at 1 pm. If the same team wins both A and B divisions in the double-knockout, the champion could be declared in the 1 pm Wednesday draw.
The winners and runners-up from both men’s and women’s divisions will advance to the Maritime Masters Championships, March 1-5, 2009 at the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax.