Teams skipped by Matthew MacLean and his sister Amanda, from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O`Leary captured the M&M Meat Shops provincial 15-and-under curling championships, which wrapped up this afternoon in Montague.
In the boy`s final, the defending champion Matthew MacLean team doubled Cornwall`s Jeffrey Taylor foursome by a 6-3 score. taking a pair of deuces in ends 3 and four. Other members of the MacLean rink are Marshall Smallman, Kevin Gallant, and Alan MacLean. Glenn MacLean and Shannon Smallman share coaching duties. Alex Sutherland, Sean Young and Alex Jenkins round out the Taylor foursome, who are coached by Whitney Young and her father Trevor.
In the girl`s game, Amanda MacLean trailed 7-3 after five ends, after the opposing skip, Leah Deveau of the host Montague Curling Club scored three points in end three, and stole another three in the fourth. MacLean took control in the final ends, following a deuce in the sixth end with triples in ends seven and eight to win 11-7. Playing with MacLean, who was runner-up last year, were Kassinda Bulger, Emily Gray, and Aleya Quilty, with coaches Shelley Gray and Glen MacLean. This year`s runner-up Deveau rink includes Sarah MacPhee, Jessica Chapman, and Carolyn Rose, with coach Carol MacPhee.
Both MacLean rinks were undefeated in round robin play, while Taylor and Deveau each had one loss. Matthew MacLean then beat Tony Nabuurs of the host club 6-5, while his sister defeated Heather Drake of Montague 5-3, in the Page playoff games between the first place teams in each pool, to advance directly to the finals.
Taylor beat Shawn Pitre of Alberton 5-3 in the 2nd place vs 2nd place Page game, and then defeated Nabuurs 8-5 in the semi-final. Deveau edged Veronica Smith of Cornwall 6-5 in the 2 vs 2, and scored two five-enders in a 14-2 victory over Drake in the semi.
Nine girls and eight boys teams took part in the championship.