It was an all Nova Scotia final in the men’s section of the second annual Maritime Stick Curling Championships, sponsored by Ferguson Funeral Homes, which wrapped up this afternoon at the Cornwall Curling Club.
The duo of Ted Lohnes and Ron Crowe beat the team of Wayne Gormann and Ray Shillington by a 7-1 score in the final, taking two points in the opening end, and stealing a deuce and a single in the next two ends to build up an early 5-0 lead. Lohnes/Crowe doubled PEI’s Grant Laird/Vernon Chowan twosome 4-2 in one semi-final, while Gormann/Shillington got by the Vince Clark/Kerry Gardner pair, also from Nova Scotia, by a 7-5 score in the other.
The Clark/Gardner team edged the Laird/Chowan rink 4-3 in the consolation final, between the losers of the semi-final matches. Twelve teams participated in the men’s division.
In the four team women’s divison, with all PEI teams this year, the Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke team from the host Cornwall Curling Club beat out the team of Cornwall’s Shirley Lank and Crapaud’s Ruth Walsh by a 7-1 score in the final. Lank/Walsh had finished the round robin in first place with a 5-1 win-loss record, while Stavert/Clarke were second at 3-2.
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.
Next year’s Maritime Stick championship will be in New Brunswick.