The defending champion duo of Walter Callaghan and John Vincent from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton edged the Gordie MacDonald/Floyd Stewart twosome from Montague by a 5-4 score this afternoon to win the men’s and mixed section of the Ferguson Funeral Homes Provincial Stick Curling Championship, at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. Ruth Stavert and Gloria Clarke from Cornwall got by the Shirley Lank/Ruth Walsh pair from Cornwall and Crapaud by a 7-5 score to win the women’s section, a new addition this year. In the men’s and mixed consolation game, Edwin Walker and Clifford Picketts from Summerside’s Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club beat Grant Laird and Vernon Chowan from Cornwall by a 5-2 score. The winners and runners-up earn the right to compete in the 2010 Canadian Stick Curling Championship, April 9-11 at the Fort Garry Curling Club in Winnipeg.
It took two extra ends for Callaghan/Vincent to get by Leard/Chowan by a 5-4 score in one men’s and mixed semi-final, while MacDonald/Stewart blanked Walker/Picketts 7-0 in the other. Stavert/Clarke beat the Audrey Callaghan/Gail Jenkins team from Alberton and Charlottetown 7-2 in the women’s semi.
In stick curling there are two curlers per team, who deliver their rocks with delivery sticks, with each team member delivering from opposite ends. Sweeping is allowed only from the hog line to the back of the house at the playing end. Two curlers, one from each team, alternately deliver 6 stones each per end, while their teammate skips that end. The roles are then reversed, and the partners deliver the stones back. All games are six ends.
Eleven men’s and mixed teams, and five women’s rinks took part in this fourth annual PEI stick curling championship.