Day one is over at the Labatt Tankard Provincial Men’s Curling Championship at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside, with all teams, except top seed Robert Campbell, seeing action in this triple knockout event. Two Charlottetown Curling Club rinks, skipped by Peter Gallant and defending champion Rod MacDonald, lead the pack with 2-0 win-loss records. Gallant, whose team includes his son, former Canadian Junior champion Brett, throwing skip rocks, shaded Summerside’s Tom Fetterley, 11-10 in an extra end in his opener, and then beat Calvin Smith of Charlottetown 9-3 this evening. MacDonald beat Summerside’s Barry Cameron 7-3, and Mel Bernard, also from Summerside, 7-2. Other winners on opening day at 1-0 are Eddie MacKenzie, Kevin Champion, and Rob Warren, who will play Charlottetown clubmate and reigning Canadian Junior champ Robert Campbell on Friday morning at 9. Champion and MacKenzie, both from Charlottetown, will also square off in that draw. Other Friday draws are at 2 and 7 pm.
Fifteen rinks, all from the Charlottetown and Silver Fox curling clubs, are entered, with the winning team advancing to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 5-13 in London Ontario. Play continues through Tuesday.