The Cornwall Curling Club team skipped by eleven-year-old Tyler Smith edged our their clubmates, the Jeff Taylor foursome, by a 7-6 score this afternoon to cap off an extremely close junior men’s event at the Canada Games Curling Trials at the Charlottetown Curling Club, and advance to the Canada Games, February 11-27 2011 in Halifax. Smith, with hammer, opened the scoring with a deuce in the first end. Taylor blanked the second, and took the lead with a triple in the third end. Smith came back with three of his own in the fourth. The teams traded singles in five and six, and Taylor tied the game at six-all with a deuce in the seventh end. Smith scored a single point in the eighth for the win.

Photo (L-R): Tyson Smith, Noah O’Connor, Parker O’Connor, Tyler Smith, Kevin Smith (coach)

The Smith rink join the Amanda MacLean team from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary, who earned the junior women’s berth on Sunday.

Other members of the winning Tyler Smith rink are Parker and Noah O’Connor, and Tyson Smith, with coach Kevin Smith. Alex Sutherland, Alex Jenkins, and Jonathan Schut, with coach AJ Campbell, round out the runner-up Jeff Taylor foursome.

All four teams in the junior men’s section had identical 3-3 win-loss records in the double round robin competition. The teams were ranked by draw to the button results, and competed in a tiebreaker round, with second-ranked Smith winning over top-ranked Taylor by an 8-4 score in the 1st vs 2nd place game on Sunday afternoon, earning a bye to today’s final. Taylor then played off against third-ranked Matthew MacLean of O’Leary, this morning. MacLean beat Tony Nabuurs’ Montague/Charlottetown rink in the 3rd vs 4th tiebreaker game on Sunday, by an 8-3 score, after taking five points in the seventh end.

In this morning’s game, Taylor edged MacLean 6-5 in an extra end to advance to this afternoon’s final against Smith.