The Sarah Fullerton rink from the host Cornwall Curling Club, and the Jon Rennie team from the Riverside Curling Club in Rothesay NB were the winners of the 14th annual Pizza Delight/Howard Johnson Dutch Inn Junior Cashspiel, which wrapped up this afternoon. The Fullerton foursome, includes third Michelle McQuaid, second Sara MacRae, and lead Whitney Young, with coach Brenda MacMillan, edged the Anita Casey rink from the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club 5-4 in the final, while the Rennie team stole a deuce in the second end, and followed a triple in the fourth with a steal of one point in the fifth end on the way to an 8-3 win over the Shawn Pitre team from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton.
Left to right: Brenda MacMillan (Tournament organizer and coach of the Fullerton rink), Sarah Fullerton, Michelle McQuaid, Sara MacRae, Whitney Young
Left to right: Brenda MacMillan (tournament organizer), Jon Rennie, Chris MacRae, Andrew Perrin, Tyler Milligan, Paul Brayshaw (coach)
Playing with Rennie were Chris MacRae, Andrew Perrin, and Tyler Milligan, with coach Paul Brayshaw. Other members of the Casey squad are Abby Burgess, Hillary Thompson, and Jessica van Ouwerkerk, with coach Jeff Wilson, while Daniel McCarthy, Jeff Duggan, and Colton Griffin, with coach Roger Gavin, round out the Pitre foursome.
In semi-final play this morning, Casey beat Cornwall’s Veronica Smith 8-5, while Fullerton had a 9-6 win over Amanda MacLean of O’Leary’s Maple Leaf club. In the junior men’s section, Rennie beat Cornwall’s Jeff Taylor 6-1, while Pitre made up for dropping three points in the first end to Sam Ramsay of Summerside, by scoring three points in the second end, followed by steals of 2, 3, and 1 point in the following ends to bring the game to a swift conclusion with a 9-3 win.
In addition to the final, the junior men’s division had two consolation matches, with Cornwall’s Tyler Smith beating Matthew MacLean of O’Leary 7-5, and Spencer Pitre and his Charlottetown team beating clubmate Alex Matters by a 7-4 score.
In round robin play, the Veronica Smith rink finished with a perfect 4-0 record, while Casey, Fullerton, and MacLean had one loss.
In the junior men’s section Rennie went 3-0 in the round robin, while Taylor and Shawn Pitre were 2-1, and Ramsay was 1-2 in his pool, tied with Spencer Pitre and Matthew MacLean, until tiebreaking rules came into play.
Eight junior men’s rinks, and ten junior women’s teams, from PEI, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador took part in the cashspiel.
Next year’s 15th annual event will go earlier in the season, October 29-31, because of contention with Cornwall’s co-hosting of The Dominion National Curling Club Championship.