Round robin play begins Saturday at the 53rd annual Canadian Firefighters Curling Championship, being held this year at the Truro Curling Club. PEI is represented for the third straight year by the rink of Gordon MacFadyen (skip), Leo Stewart (third), Dwayne MacNeil (second) and Jim Arsenault (lead) from the Summerside Fire Department.
Photo (L-R): Gordon MacFadyen (skip), Leo Stewart (third), Dwayne MacNeil (second) Jim Arsenault (lead). Provincial Director Brian Burke is seated
The MacFadyen team advanced the nationals the hard way this year, as the Jerry Hughes team from the Crossroads Fire Department went through the provincials in January undefeated to advance directly to the finals, and had to be beaten twice by Summerside, who won the first game 7-1 and scored six points in the sixth end for a 9-1 win in the second.
Eleven teams, from all provinces except Newfoundland and Labrador, including separate entries for Northern and Southern Ontario, plus a team from the Northwest Territories are taking part in the nationals. Last year’s champs were Team Alberta, skipped by well-known curler and firefighter John Morris. Morris is not back this year, but the Alberta team is skipped by Aaron Bartling, the third from last year’s winning team.
Round robin play begins Saturday at 3 pm, with daily draws at 10 am and 3 pm through Thursday March 29. The top four teams out of the round robin will then advance to the Page playoff round on Friday the 30th, with the 1st and second place teams squaring off in the Page 1-2 game with the winner advancing diirectly to the final, and the third and fourth place teams playing in the 3-4 game, with the winner advancing to the semi-final against the loser of the 1-2 game. The semi-final goes Saturday the 31st at 9 am, with the final taking place at 1 pm.
Truro also hosted the Canadian Firefighters championship in 1988 and 2000.
Live results from the championship will be available at CurlingResults.com/firefighters/2012.