PEI’s Brett Gallant and Suzanne Birt rinks finished round robin play on Sunday with 4-1 and 5-0 records respectively, and have advanced to the semi-finals at 9 this morning at the inaugural Curl Atlantic Championship, being played at the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre in Sackville, New Brunswick.
On the women’s side, Birt faces Andrea Kelly of New Brunswick, while, in a battle of former Nova Scotia teammates, it’s Colleen Jones against Mary-Anne Arsenault in the other semi. In men’s play, Gallant takes on Ian Juurlink of NS, while Nova Scotia’s Jamie Murphy faces James Grattan of New Brunswick in the other match.
The winners of the semis advance to the 1 pm finals, with the final winners receiving all-expense paid trips to the Perth Masters in Perth, Scotland for the winning men’s team and the International Bernese Ladies Cup in Berne, Switzerland for the top women’s squad.
In Sunday play, Gallant, whose team this year includes last year’s PEI Tankard championship skip Eddie MacKenzie at third, along with Gallant’s long-time teammates Anson Carmody and Alex MacFadyen at second and lead respectively, edged out the Colin Thomas rink from St. John’s by a 5-4 score, but lost 6-3 to Paul Dobson of New Brunswick, who picked up four points in the seventh end to pull ahead.
Birt, whose team includes third Shelly Bradley, second Robyn MacPhee, and lead Leslie MacDougall, downed Mary Mattatall of NS 7-3 in her lone Sunday contest, scoring two triples in a game that ended early. The other PEI rink in the event, skipped by Kim Dolan, ended play on Sunday with a 2-3 win-loss record, losing 5-4 to Andrea Kelly, and 8-2 to another New Brunswick rink, captained by Melissa Adams.