Aylward suffers first loss at curling club nationals (Guardian)

P.E.I. women are 2-1, while the Island’s Clarey rink is 1-2

By Al MacLeod, The Guardian.

Kim Aylward’s P.E.I. rink suffered its first loss Thursday to Saskatchewan’s Darlene Gillies foursome by a 6-3 score in a battle of the unbeaten teams at The Dominion national curling club championships in Charlottetown.

Aylward, along with third Jeanne Duffenais, second Michelle Weaver and lead Debbie Caissy, held a 3-2 lead after three ends but Gillies and her team of third Colleen Oscar-Swan, second Deavon Van-Thuyne and lead Tracy Heidt went on to score four unanswered points in the next four ends to seal the win.

“I don’t think we were totally focused (against Saskatchewan) so we got to stay together and get our focus in there and play better,” said Duffenais.

“We didn’t really have our weight down and we just missed too many shots out there.”

Despite the loss, Duffenais said her team is still confident and looking forward to the next challenge.

“We didn’t expect to go through this undefeated and we still have a good chance. There’s still three more games to go and we’ll be there.”

Oscar-Swan said the key to the win for Saskatchewan was her team’s consistency and ability to focus after a tough start.

“We struggled the first end, came out flat and gave them a steal of two then we kinda got settled down and just started throwing up the stick while keeping our weight consistent,” Oscar-Swan said.

“The turning point came when we stole the point in the sixth end. We felt we basically had control and we just had to keep things clean and keep things simple and go for the next two ends.”

With the loss, Aylward’s rink drops to 2-1 and is tied for third with the team from Nova Scotia in the women’s Blue Division, while Gillies’ rink improves to 4-0 for the top spot in the division.

Donald Clarey’s rink of third Larry Richards, second Michael Clarey and lead Cameron Lerch didn’t fare any better on the men’s side of the matchup, dropping a 7-3 decision after seven ends to Darren Camm’s Saskatchewan rink of third John Carlos, second Mark Steckler and lead Michael Steckler.

Click to read this story in today’s Guardian.

(Live scoring available at www.thedominioncurls.ca/en/Default.aspx)