With only two round robin draws left to go at the Ferguson Funeral Homes PEI Stick Curling Championships at the Cornwall Curling Club, the host club duo of Ernie Stavert and Sterling Stratton, who are the two-time defending champions, remain undefeated with a 7-0 win-loss record. This guarantees them first place in the nine-team A pool, as the second place team of Edwin Walker and Clifford Picketts of the Silver Fox are two games back, at 5-2, and have only one game remaining. Vernon Chowan and Grant Leard from the host club are tied with Gord MacDonald and Floyd Stewart of Montague at 4-3, while Roy Coffin and Paul Arsenault from Cornwall are 4-4.and Barry MacDonald and Malcolm Patterson are 3-4. At 2-5 are Basil Higginbotham/Brent Mutch from Montague, along with Mary Plamondon and Ruth Stavert from the host club. Eileen Blanchard and Karen Fisher from Cornwall are 1-6.
In the eight-team B pool, two teams from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, consisting of Walter Callaghan and John Vincent, and Rick Hardy and Bill Glydon are 5-1, followed by Kimball Blanchard and Vince Fisher from Cornwall, and Howard Kerwin and Bill Power from Montague, both at 4-2. At 2-4 are Joey Ellsworth and Glen Betts from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary, and Johnny and Frances Ellsworth from Western. Trailing the field at 1-5 are Philip Curley and Sterling Higginbotham of Montague, and Cornwall’s Don Graham and Gordie Hermann.
In stick curling there are two curlers per team, who deliver their rocks with delivery sticks, with each team member delivering from opposite ends. Sweeping is allowed only from the hog line to the back of the house at the playing end. Two curlers, one from each team, alternately deliver 6 stones each per end, while their teammate skips that end. The roles are then reversed, and the partners deliver the stones back. All games are six ends.
The final two round robin draws go Wednesday at 9 and 10:20 am. The 12:10 pm quarter-finals see the second place teams from one pool play the third place team in the other. The semi-finals at 1:40 pm pit the first place teams in each pool against the quarter-final winners.
The two semi-final winners play off in the final at 3:10 pm, with the losers of the semis meeting in the consolation final.
The winning and runner-up rinks earn the right to compete in the Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, April 3-5 in Winnipeg.