After day one play in the Open Playdowns portion of the Labatt Tankard Provincial Men’s Curling Championship at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club, four rinks have advanced to the qualifying matches for the Final Six portion, to be played beginning February 4th in Alberton.
Qualifier number one will see Bill Hope take on Charlottetown clubmate and last year’s runner-up, John Likely, while Robert Campbell of Charlottetown will face Tom Fetterley of the host club in the qualifier number two final. These games will go Saturday at 2 pm.
Hope advanced by doubling clubmate John Desrosier 6-3 in the afternoon draw, and defending champion Rod MacDonald and his Charlottetown rink by a 10-5 score, recording three triples in that evening match. Likely, who had a first round bye, took four points in the final end in an 8-3 win over Seniors and Legion champion Mel Bernard of Summerside. Bernard beat clubmate Grant Somers 10-4 in his opener.
Eight-time (6 as skip) Tankard winner Campbell also had a first round bye, and had little trouble in his game, following a triple with four single steals and a steal of three to win 9-2 over Charlottetown clubmate Dave Ross, who beat Robert Shaw, also from Charlottetown 10-7 in the opening draw.
Fetterly beat Charlottetown’s Tyler MacKenzie rink 8-3, and Eddie MacKenzie 9-7 to advance to his qualifier game.
Play resumes Saturday morning at 9, with the losers of the opening day games seeing action. The two qualifier games go at 2 pm, with the final draw of the day going at 7 pm.
Play wraps up on Sunday, with qualifiers three and four being decided in the 1 pm draw, and the final two being chosen in the final draw, at 6 pm.
The six qualifiers from the Playdowns advance to the Final Six, which gets underway on Feb. 4th. The winner of the Final Six will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 6-14 in Halifax.