During the opening ceremonies for the inaugural The Dominion Provincial Club Championship taking place at the Crapaud Community Curling Club, Danny McInnis from Peake and McInnis Insurance, representing The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, announced that the 2010 national championship would be held on PEI, at the Charlottetown and Cornwall Curling Clubs in November 2010. This year’s provincial championship teams will compete in the 2009 event, in Toronto from November 24-29.

This new event is designed to give regular club curlers across the country an opportunity to compete in provincial and national level competitions. Club curlers are those who enjoy the sport recreationally, supporting club leagues on a regular basis each curling season. The Dominion gives these curlers  an opportunity to demonstrate their skill against other curling clubs in their province and country.

One men’s and one women’s draw were played on opening day, with Brock Spence of Cornwall beating Leslie Hardy of the Western Community Club in Alberton by a 10-4 score, keeping Hardy off the scoreboard until the fifth end, and scoring four points in the seventh. Gordon Fall of the host Crapaud club beat Louis Walsh of the Silver Fox 7-1, keeping Walsh scoreless until the sixth end, while Donald Clarey of Montague beat Robert Jenkins of Charlottetown 6-2.

In women’s play, Lorianne Davies of Cornwall lost a close 9-8 extra-end decision to Charlottetown’s Paula Creamer. Davies led 6-1 after four ends, but Creamer opened the second half with a double and a stolen triple. The teams traded deuces in ends seven and eight, and Creamer stole a point in the extra for the win. In other games, the host club’s Vanessa Hamming followed a four point third end with three stolen ends for an 8-3 win over Rushell MacDonald of the Maple Leaf club in O’Leary, while Barb Currie of Summerside beat Montague’s Gail Greene by an 8-5 score

Round robin play continues on Friday and Saturday with men’s draws at 9:30 am, and 2:30 and 8 pm and women’s play at noon and 5:30 pm.

Semi-finals, between the second and third place teams from the round robin go Sunday at 1 pm, with the winners playing the first place teams in the men’s and women’s finals, Sunday at 5:30 pm.

Live scoring is available at peicurling.com/thedominion