With one women’s round robin draw and three men’s qualifier games left, Charlottetown and Cornwall’s Diane MacKay and defending champion Mel Bernard of the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside already have playoff berths at the PEI Masters Curling Championships, for curlers age 60 and over, which wrap up Friday afternoon at the Cornwall Curling Club.
Marg Nowlan (left), Diane MacKay (2nd from left)
MacKay has sewn up first place in the women’s round robin, with a 4-0 win-loss record, following a 7-1 victory over Montague’s Sherren MacKinnon this afternoon. MacKinnon, along with defending champion Shirley Berry from Cornwall and the Silver Fox, and Cornwall’s Carol Sweetapple are tied at 2-2, while Marg Nowlan from the Fox, and Ruth Stavert from the host club are at 1-3. In other games this afternoon, Berry beat Nowlan 9-4, and Sweetapple scored singles and deuces in the first four ends to build up a 6-0 lead and hang on for a 7-1 win in her game over Stavert. Thursday at 9, MacKay takes on Berry, Sweetapple faces MacKinnon, and Stavert plays Nowlan in the final round robin draw.
No matter what happens in the last round robin draw, MacKay can’t be caught, and will finish in first place and advance to the final game. Tiebreakers, if needed, go Thursday, at noon and 3 pm. The second and third place teams after the round robin and any tiebreakers will square off in a semi-final Friday at 9 am, with the winner playing first place MacKay in the championship game at noon.
Photo (L-R): Blair Jay, Earle Proud, Mel Bernard
In the triple-knockout men’s division, defending champion Mel Bernard captured the first of the four qualifying spots in the Page championship round, with a lopsided 13-2 win in six ends over Silver Fox clubmate Bob Maynard this afternoon. Bernard took singles in the first two ends, and scored five points in the third. Maynard got on the board with a deuce in the fourth, but a pair of Bernard triples in the next two ends put the game out of reach for Maynard.
The second qualifier game goes at 9 am on Thursday, with Maynard taking on another Silver Fox team, skipped by Des Arsenault. Arsenault downed Clair Sweet of O’Leary 8-2 this afternoon to advance to the second qualifier.
The final two qualifiers will be determined in the Thursday noon draw, with Paul Arsenault of the host Cornwall club, who eliminated Crapaud’s Fred Fall rink with a 6-1 victory this afternoon, facing the loser of the morning qualifier, and Bill Hope and his combined Cornwall/Silver Fox rink facing Clair Sweet. Hope eliminated Cornwall’s Bob MacWilliams with a 5-2 win this afternoon to advance to the final qualifier.
The men’s Page championships begin Thursday at 3 pm, with Qualifier #1, Bernard, taking on Qualifier #2, and Qualifier #3 playing Qualifier #4. The winner of the Page 1 vs 2 game will advance directly to the noon Friday final, while the loser of that game will take on the winner of the 3 vs 4 game in the 9 am Friday semi-final, with the winner of that game facing the 1 vs 2 winner in the final.
Men’s and women’s winners and runners-up earn the right to compete in the Maritime Masters Championships, March 7-10 at the Capital Winter Club, in Fredericton NB. 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, April 8-14 at the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay Ontario.