A reception, banquet and dance on Sunday night brought the 2010 The Dominion Curling Club championship to a close.

During the banquet, a number of awards were handed out. The Sportsmanship awards were presented to Wade Kingdon, skip of the Nunavut men’s team (Iqaluit Curling Club), and Michelle Weaver, second on the PEI women’s team (Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club)

Photo: Women’s Player’s Liaison Julie Scales, Wade Kingdon

Photo: Michelle Weaver, Men’s Players’ Liaison Roy Coffin, Women’s Players’ Liaison Julie Scales

The Nova Scotia men’s and women’s teams made a clean sweep of the Skills Competition. The Skills and Sportsmanship winners all went home with curling gear donated by Balance Plus.

Team Nova Scotia Women: Heather Ross, Shelley Barker, Abbey Miller, Courtney Smith

Team Nova Scotia Men:  Jim Bradford, David Dingwell, Sherman Jackson, Brent Barrie.

The event champions, the Darren Camm team from the Sutherland Curling Club in Saskatchewan, and the Nanette Dupont rink from the Lethbridge Curling Club in Alberta were also congratulated for their wins.

A cheque for $30,000 was presented to the PEI branch of the Canadian Paraplegic Association by The Dominion’s Vice President of Corporate Communications Shelagh Paul. CPA PEI Executive Director Paul Cudmore thanked The Dominion profusely, noting that the amount represented almost 1/3 of the organization’s annual budget.

The winner of the “pick the winners” pool was Greg Groves, a volunteer from the Cornwall Curling Club.

Speakers included event co-chair Leigh Armstrong, and regional The Dominion Vice President Scott Beattie. The banquet wrapped up with a lively speech and slideshow by Olympic men’s curling coach Jim Waite, who provided a behind the scenes look at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Photo: Jim Waite

The next The Dominion Curling Club Championship will take place in Richmond BC, from November 21-26 2011.

(CCA) The eighth edition of the Canada Cup of Curling gets underway on Wednesday, as the best Canadian men’s and women’s teams take to the ice at the Medicine Hat Arena for the first event in the Canadian Curling Association’s Season of Champions. Ten men’s and 10 women’s teams will battle, not only for the $25,000 winner’s share, but also for berths into next year’s Canada Cup in Cranbrook and the 2012 World Financial Group Continental Cup, presented by Monsanto, in Langley, British Columbia.

 The teams have been seeded into two pools and will play a round robin within their group plus one cross-over game.  At the conclusion of the round robin on Friday, the Page Playoffs will commence.  The first place teams in each pool will face off, with the winners advancing to their respective finals while the losers go to the semi-finals.

 The second place teams in each pool will also meet, with the winners advancing to the semi-finals, while the losers are eliminated.

 This marks the first time that the Canada Cup will be held in Medicine Hat, which has been the site of the two most successful Continental Cups ever…in 2004 and 2007.    The Canada Cup was staged in Kamloops from 2003-2008, then was conducted in Yorkton, Saskatchewan in 2009.

2010 Canada Cup 

 His competition includes the reigning Canadian and world champion Kevin Koe of Edmonton, who won last year’s Tim Hortons Brier in Halifax and the Capital One world men’s championship in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.  He also won the 2008 Canada Cup.

 There’s also three-time Brier and world champion Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ontario, who suffered two excruciating losses last season…the Brier final to Koe, his only loss of the week, and the Trials final to Martin.

 Edmonton’s Randy Ferbey, also a three-time Canada Cup winner, as well as a record six-time Brier winner and four-time world champion, has joined the Brad Gushue team from St. John’s.   He’ll skip but throw third stones.  Gushue, who will toss fourth rocks, and second Mark Nichols won Olympic gold in 2006 in Torino (Pinerolo), Italy.

 Completing the field are Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton, a two-time Brier and former world champion, Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen, Rob Fowler of Brandon, Serge Reid of Jonquière, Quebec, Calgary’s Brent Bawel and Ottawa’s Mat Camm.

 The women’s field is one of the strongest ever.   It includes Calgary’s Cheryl Bernard, the 2010 Olympic silver medallist; Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones, a four-time Scotties Tournament of Hearts winner, 2008 Ford Worlds champion and 2007 Canada Cup winner and Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink, the 2006 Olympic bronze medallist who is also the defending Canada Cup champion and a two-time winner of the event.

 There’s also 2008 Canada Cup winner Stefanie Lawton of Saskatoon; 2007 world champion and two-time Scotties winner Kelly Scott of Kelowna; Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay, who finished third in last season’s Scotties and the Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials; Amber Holland of Kronau, Saskatchewan; Chelsea Carey of Winnipeg; Shelley Nichols of St. John’s and Edmonton’s Heather Nedohin, the 1996 world junior champion and 1998 Scotties winner.

 The Canada Cup gets underway with four draws on Wednesday, followed by three draws Thursday and Friday, prior to the start of the playoffs on Saturday.  Draw results will be instantly available on the Canadian Curling Association website, www.curling.ca. 

 Full event, mini-packs or draw tickets are available by calling (403) 502-8777, in person at The Esplanade Box Office or the Medicine Hat Mall Box Office or online at Seasonofchampions.ca.

 2010 Canada Cup of Curling
December 1-5, Medicine Hat Arena
Medicine Hat, Alberta

 MEN’S TEAMS (listed in order of skip, third, second and lead)

 Team Bawel – Calgary Curling Club, Calgary, AB
Brent Bawel, Sean O’Connor, Mike Jantzen, Hardi Sulimma, coach John Hamm

 Team Camm – Ottawa Curling Club, Ottawa, ON
Mat Camm, Scott Howard, David Mathers, Andrew Hamilton, coach Will Hamilton

 Team Fowler – Brandon Curling Club, Brandon, MB
Rob Fowler, Allan Lyburn, Richard Daneault, Derek Samagalski

 Team Ferbey – Bally Haly Golf & Curling Club, St. John’s, NL
Randy Ferbey (third stones), Brad Gushue (fourth stones), Mark Nichols, Ryan Fry

 Team Howard, Coldwater & District Curling Club, Coldwater, ON
Glenn Howard, Wayne Middaugh (replaces Richard Hart), Brent Laing, Craig Savill

 Team Koe – Saville Sports Centre, Edmonton, AB
Kevin Koe, Blake MacDonald, Carter Rycroft, Nolan Thiessen

 Team Martin – Saville Sports Centre, Edmonton, AB
Kevin Martin, John Morris, Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert

 Team McEwen – Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club, Winnipeg, MB
Mike McEwen, BJ Neufeld, Matt Wozniak, Denni Neufeld

 Team Reid – Kénogami Curling Club, Jonquière, QC
Serge Reid, François Gionest, Simon Collin, Steeve Villeneuve

 Team Stoughton – Charleswood Curling Club, Winnipeg, MB
Jeff Stoughton, Jon Mead, Reid Carruthers, Steve Gould

  WOMEN’S TEAMS (listed in order of skip, third, second and lead)

 Team Bernard – Calgary Curling Club, Calgary, AB
Cheryl Bernard, Susan O’Connor, Carolyn Darbyshire, Cori Morris

 Team Carey – Morden Curling Club, Morden, MB
Chelsea Carey, Kristy Jenion, Kristen Foster, Lindsay Titheridge, coach Dan Carey

 Team Holland – Kronau Curling Club, Kronau, SK
Amber Holland, Kim Schneider, Tammy Schneider, Heather Kalenchuk

 Team Jones – St. Vital Curling Club, Winnipeg, MB
Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer, Dawn Askin, coach Earle Morris

 Team Kleibrink – Calgary Winter Club, Calgary, AB
Shannon Kleibrink, Amy Nixon, Bronwen Webster, Chelsey Bell, coach J.D. Lind

 Team Lawton – Granite Curling Club, Saskatoon, SK
Stefanie Lawton, Sherry Anderson, Sherri Singler, Marliese Kasner

 Team McCarville, Fort William Curling Club, Thunder Bay, ON
Krista McCarville, Ashley Miharija, Kari MacLean, Sarah Lang, coach Rick Lang

 Team Nedohin – Saville Sports Centre, Edmonton, AB
Heather Nedohin, Beth Iskiw, Jessica Miller, Laine Peters, coach Tom Lomgore

 Team Nichols – RE/MAX Centre, St. John’s, NL
Shelley Nichols, Stephanie LeDrew, Rhonda Rogers, Colette Lemon

 Team Scott – Kelowna Curling Club, Kelowna, BC
Kelly Scott, Jeanna Schraeder, Sasha Carter, Jacquie Armstrong, coach Gerry Richard

Click to see this story at the CCA website.

By Amber Nicholson, the Journal-Pioneer. SUMMERSIDE – Eddie MacKenzie’s rink went undefeated to win the 2010 Labatt/Journal Pioneer Cashspiel here at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club over the weekend.

MacKenzie prevailed 7-2 win over Brett Gallant in the final between two Charlottetown teams. Third stone Mike Gaudet, second stone Mike Dillon and lead Alex MacFadyen round out the MacKenzie foursome. Gaudet and MacFadyen are Summerside natives.

Click to read this story in today’s Journal-Pioneer.

It’s Saskatchewan vs Ontario for the Men’s title, and Saskatchewan vs Alberta for the women’s, as
The Dominion Curling Club Championship concludes this afternoon at the Charlottetown Curling Club with the 2 pm finals.

In the men’s semi-finals this morning, Ontario doubled Alberta 6-3, while Saskatchewan got by Manitoba 6-5 in an exciting extra end, which required a measure to determine the winner.

The women’s semi-finals took place Saturday night, with Saskatchewan downing Manitoba 7-1, and Alberta beating Nova Scotia 8-3. This makes it Alberta vs Saskatchewan in the all-western women’s final at 2 pm.

Live end-by-end CCA Curlcast results, and live web streaming via 30 mbps Eastlink high speed can be viewed at TheDominionCurls.ca.

Photo (L-R): Buttons, Little Softie

The mascots from the two national curling championships taking place this season in the Charlottetown area had a brief meeting in the parking lot of the Charlottetown Curling Club on Saturday, on their way to the Santa Clause Parade. “Buttons” is the mascot of The Dominion Curling Club Championship, co-hosted by the Charlottetown and Cornwall clubs, which wraps up on Sunday, while “Little Softie” will be taking part in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian Women’s Curling Championship, February 19-27 at the Charlottetown Civic Centre. “Buttons”, whose duties are nearing completion for this year, wished “Little Softie” success in the upcoming championship.

Update: 8 pm women’s semis are now at Charlottetown (not Cornwall)

Al MacLeod (The Guardian) , with updates.

With the completion of the men’s 1:30 p.m. draw, the round robin portion of The Dominion national club curling championship has come to an end but there is still plenty to be decided before the semifinals take place.

What is known is on the men’s side Manitoba’s Steve Irwin Rink (6-0) and Ontario’s Chris Van Huyse rink (6-0) posted perfect records in leading the grey and blue divisions, respectively and will advance to the playoffs.

After that it gets a little murkier. 

Alberta’s Kerry Leckie rink (4-2) will face Northern Ontario’s Raymond Roy rink (4-2) in a tiebreaker in the grey division, while Nova Scotia’s Jim Bradford rink (4-2), Quebec’s Richard Faguy rink (4-2) and Saskatchewan’s Darren Camm rink (4-2) are all tied for second in the blue division and only one can move on.

On the women’s side, things are a little clearer with Alberta’s Nanette Dupont rink (5-1) and Manitoba’s Stacey Fordyce rink (5-1) qualifying in the grey division and Saskatchewan’s Darelen Gillies rink (5-1) moving on from the blue division.

Nova Scotia’s Courtney Smith rink (4-2) will face Ontario’s Susan Burnside rink (4-2) in a tiebreaker at 4:30 p.m. in Charlottetown to decide the final women’s team to qualify for the semifinals.

The women’s semifinals go tonight at 8 p.m. in Charlottetown (change from previous announcements), while the men’s semifinals see Manitoba take on the team which emerges in second place in the Blue pool, and Ontario take on the second place team in the Grey pool. The men’s semis are 10 am Sunday at the Charlottetown club, with the men’s and women’s finals at 2 pm, also in Charlottetown.

Click to read this story in the online edition of the Guardian.

Buttons, The Dominion Curling Club Championship mascot, together with Little Softie, the mascot of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts will be making an appearance together tomorrow (Saturday Nov. 27) at 3:30 pm at the Charlottetown Curling Club. This is a unique opportunity to get photos taken with the mascots of the two national curling championships being held here this season.

Photo: Buttons

Photo: Little Softie