The Cornwall Curling Club is the venue for this year’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts provincial women’s curling championship, which gets underway on Thursday, with the opening ceremonies at 5 pm, and the first draw at 6, and wraps up on Monday January 31. Bleachers are being installed, and cameras and monitors are in place for all eight houses, to give fans a great view of the event. Admission prices are only $4 per game, or $25 for a full event pass. Event passes are available in advance at the bar, and both game and event passes are available at the door before each draw.
In 2004, the last time the Scotties was held at Cornwall, it was Suzanne Gaudet (now Birt) taking on Kathy O’Rourke in the final, with Birt winning 8-4. Both five-time champion Birt and defending champion O’Rourke, who has been on six PEI women’s championship rinks, are back for this year’s event, along with teams skipped by four-time PEI Seniors champion Shirley Berry, eight-time PEI women’s champ Kim Dolan, and former PEI Mixed champions Tammy Dewar (last year’s runner-up in this event), and Donna Butler, who curls out of this year’s host club. A warmup spiel held at Cornwall recently was won by the O’Rourke team, who beat the Dolan foursome 5-3 in the final.
Here are the team rosters:
| Skip | Throws | Vice-skip/Mate/Third | Throws | Second | Throws | Lead | Throws | Alternate | Coach #1 | Coach #2 | Club |
| Shirley Berry | 4th | Sandy Hope | 3rd | Shelley Ebbett | 2nd | Arleen Harris | 1st | Butch McGee | Bill Hope | Cornwall/Charlottetown | |
| Suzanne Birt | 4th | Shelly Bradley | 3rd | Robyn MacPhee | 2nd | Leslie MacDougall | 1st | Paul Power | Charlottetown Curling Club | ||
| Donna Butler | 4th | Carolyn Coulson | 3rd | Melissa Morrow | 2nd | Jackie Reid | 1st | Lori Robinson | Cornwall Curling Club | ||
| Tammy Dewar | 4th | June Moyaert | 3rd | Darlene London | 2nd | Gail Greene | 1st | George Koke | Montague Curling Club | ||
| Kim Dolan | 4th | Rebecca Jean MacDonald | 3rd | Sinead Dolan | 2nd | Nancy Cameron | 1st | Michala Robison | Charlottetown Curling Club | ||
| Kathy O’Rourke | 2nd | Geri-Lynn Ramsay | 3rd | Erin Carmody | 4th | Tricia Affleck | 1st | Pat Aylward | Peter MacDonald | Charlottetown Curling Club |
A list of previous PEI women’s championship winners is available at: peicurling.com/history/womens.shtml
Four of the six teams were seeded in the triple knockout draw, based on cashspiel winnings this season, as follows: #1-O’Rourke, #2-Birt, #3-Dolan, #4-Butler. Draws go at 6 pm Thursday, 11 am, 4 pm, and 7 pm on Friday, and 1:30 and 6:30 pm Saturday through Monday.
The A, B, and C section winners advance to the two-game championship round on Monday. In the event that a team wins all three sections, they will win without playing the championship round. If a team wins two sections, they will play in both championship games and take the championship if they win either, while their opponent would have to win both.
Here are the opening draws:
Thursday, January 27 at 6 pm
Ice 2: Shirley Berry (Cornwall/Charlottetown) vs Donna Butler (Cornwall)
Ice 4: Tammy Dewar (Montague) vs Kim Dolan (Charlottetown)
Friday January 28 at 11 am
Ice 1: Kathy O’Rourke vs winner Berry/Butler game from Thursday
Ice 2: Suzanne Birt vs winner Dewar/Dolan game from Thursday
Complete draw and end-by-end results available at peicurling.com/scotties.
The winning team from this event will advance to the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts, February 19-27, a few kilometres down the road at the Charlottetown Civic Centre. PEI’s O’Rourke rink were the runners-up in the national event last year, taking Team Canada (Jennifer Jones) to an exciting 8-7 extra-end finish in the final, with Erin Carmody, who throws fourth stones for the O’Rourke team (O’Rourke throws second but calls the game) winning the Sandra Schmirler award for Most Valuable Player.
Both the provincial and national Scotties Tournament of Hearts competitions are sponsored by Kruger Products and its family of brands, including Scotties® facial tissue, Cashmere® and Purex® bathroom tissue, SpongeTowels®, and White Swan® products.