Four Island rinks, including the foursome skipped by Suzanne Birt, who won the event back in 2008, and finished second to Sherry Middaugh at the Southwestern Ontario Charity Cashspiel this past weekend, along with teams skipped by Donna Butler, Kim Dolan, and Meaghan Hughes, are off to New Brunswick this coming weekend for the 7th annual Lady Monctonian Invitation Spiel at Curl Moncton, with 18 teams in total taking part. PEI native Anita Casey, and her Halifax Mayflower club team, who won the 20 and Under division of the Codiac Maritime Junior Bonspiel, which wrapped up Sunday, also at Curl Moncton, is also among the entrants.
There will be a new champion this year, as last year’s winning skip Ashley Howard is now curling in Winnipeg on Cathy Overton-Clapham’s team (recent winners of the Autumn Gold Curling Classic in Calgary), and last year’s runner-up rink, skipped by PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke, is no longer together, with Kathy retiring from competitive curling, Erin Carmody and Geri-Lynn Ramsay curling with Crystal Webster in Calgary (runners-up in this past weekend’s Meyers Norris Penny Charity Classic in Medicine Hat Alberta), and Tricia Affleck now playing third on the Meaghan Hughes team.
Here are the PEI team rosters (skip to lead, alternate):
Suzanne Birt, Shelly Bradley, Robyn MacPhee, Leslie MacDougall
Donna Butler, Carolyn Coulson, Melissa Andrews, TBA
Kim Dolan, Rebecca Jean MacDonald, Sinead Dolan, Nancy Cameron, Michala Robison
Meaghan Hughes, Tricia Affleck, Jackie Reid, Stefanie Clarke
Other teams entered are skipped by Melissa Adams (NB), Mary-Anne Arsenault (NS), Theresa Breen (NS), Marie Christianson (NS), Sandy Comeau (NB), Tania Hilliard (NS), Andrea Kelly (NB), Mary-Jane McGuire (NB), Tanya Phillips (NS), Colleen Pinkney (NS), Sarah Rhyno (NB), Sylvie Robichaud (NB), and Jessica Ronalds (NB).
Round-robin play begins Friday morning at 8:30 and wraps up with the 8:30 pm Saturday draw. The quarter-finals go Sunday morning at 8:30, with the semis at 11:30 and the final at 2:30 pm.
Results website: http://www.playdowns.com/nbca/teams.php?id_cmp=24
Photo: Moncton at night (Wikipedia)