The Mel Bernard rink from the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, and the Shirley Berry foursome from the Charlottetown and Cornwall clubs, won The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy Provincial Masters Curling Championship, for curlers age 60 and over, which wrapped up today at the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary.
The Bernard team, which includes Ted MacFadyen, Lou Nowlan, and Earle Proude, beat the Clair Sweet team from the host Maple Leaf club by a 7-4 score this evening to repeat as men’s champions. Bernard followed a first end single with a steal of three in the second end. The teams traded deuces in ends three and four, with Sweet narrowing the gap to 6-4 with singles in ends five and six, but Bernard took one in the seventh, and they shook hands in the eighth. Other members of the Sweet team are Bob Matheson, Muncey Harris, and Wayne Arsenault.
The Bernard rink won this afternoon’s B final against the Fred Fall foursome from the Crapaud Community Curling Club by a 6-2 score, to advance to the final against A section winner Sweet. Bernard blanked the first end in this afternoon’s game, scored four in the second and stole singles in the next two ends to lead 6-0 after 4 ends. Fall picked up singles in the next two ends, and shook hands in the seventh. Fall edged Summerside’s Louis Walsh 6-5 in an extra end and Bernard downed Sweet 7-2 in the B semi-finals this morning. Sweet won the A final Tuesday afternoon, with a 6-4 win over Walsh.
Meanwhile, the Shirley Berry rink from the Charlottetown and Cornwall curling clubs won the women’s section this morning, with an 8-5 victory over Cornwall’s Ruth Stavert team. The Berry squad got off to a quick start in the game, taking five points in the first end, and stealing a single in the second. Stavert fought back with a deuce in three, and two stolen singles, to come within 2 points. Berry responded with a deuce in end six, with Stavert taking a single in the seventh. Berry ran the Stavert foursome out of rocks in the final end. Other members of the winning Berry rink are third Sandy Hope, second Arleen Harris, and lead Evelyn Rogerson. Playing with runner-up Stavert were Myrna Sanderson, Gloria Clarke, and Myrna Craswell.
The two women’s finalists were determined on Tuesday, with Ruth Stavert and her team edging the Marg Nowlan foursome from Summerside by an 8-7 score to take the A final, and the Berry rink defeating Summerside’s Marg Nowlan team by a 9-2 score, taking four points in the fifth end and stealing a deuce in the sixth to bring the game to an early conclusion. The other women’s rink in the event, the defending champion Carol Sweetapple rink from Cornwall, lost their first two games, and were eliminated on Monday.
Seven men’s and four women’s rinks were entered in the double-knockout competition.
Winners and runners-up earn the right to compete in the Maritime Masters Championships, February 12-19, in New Glasgow NS. The winning teams, or the highest-finishing men’s and women’s rinks that choose to attend, are invited to participate in the Canadian Masters, March 26 to April 1 in Montreal.