The Ashley Howard team from Fredericton and Moncton beat PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke rink by an 8-5 score this afternoon in the final of the sixth annual Lady Monctonian women’s cashspiel at Curling Beauséjour in the Hub City. Playing on the winning Howard rink are Shannon Williams, Lucille Savoie, and Pam Nicol. The runner-up O’Rourke rink includes fourth stone thrower Erin Carmody, third Geri-Lynn Ramsay, O’Rourke calling the game and throwing second stone, and Tricia Affleck at lead.
In this afternoon’s final, Howard, from Moncton, but currently attending UNB in Fredericton, stole a deuce in the opening end. The Islanders took a single in two, but another deuce in the third end gave Howard a 4-1 lead. The O’Rourke team scored a single in the fourth, with the Howard rink grabbing a 7-2 lead with a triple in the fifth end. The sixth was blanked, with O’Rourke narrowing the gap with a seventh end triple. Howard ended the game with a single in the final end.
In the all-PEI consolation game between the semi-final runners-up, the Suzanne Birt foursome scored a triple in the opening end, and went on to double the Rebecca Jean MacPhee rink 4-2 in an abbreviated game.
Playing with Birt were Shelly Bradley, Robyn MacPhee, and Leslie MacDougall. The Rebecca Jean MacPhee team includes Kim Dolan, Kim’s daughter Sinead Dolan, and Nancy Cameron. All three PEI rinks finished round robin play with 3-2 win-loss records. The fourth PEI team in the event, skipped by Donna Butler, with teammates Carolyn Coulson, Melissa Andrews, and Jackie Reid, finished play on Saturday, with a 2-3 win-loss record.
The semi-final round saw another all-PEI battle, as the Scotties silver medallist Kathy O’Rourke foursome edged out the Birt team by a 7-6 score to advance to the finals. O’Rourke opened the scoring with hammer, and took a single, followed a deuce for Birt. Three in the third gave O’Rourke a two point margin, and a stolen deuce in six gave her a 7-3 lead. Birt, who won the event in 2008, took a single in seven, and stole a deuce in the final end to narrow the gap, but came up one short.
In quarter-final action Sunday morning, MacPhee doubled defending event champion and World Senior champ Colleen Pinkney of Truro by a 6-3 score, O’Rourke edged Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton 5-4, and Birt got by Sylvie Robichaud of Moncton 4-3 in an extra end. In the other game, Ashley Howard remained the only undefeated team in the event, easily beating Haligonian Theresa Breen 7-1, aided by consecutive three-point ends.
Part of the proceeds from this 20 team women’s event, which features a total purse of $11,ooo, go to support the Moncton Autism Resource Centre.
Click here for results website.
