Rod MacDonald and his Charlottetown/Silver Fox team of John Likely, Mark O’Rourke. and Peter MacDonald, who have won a combined total of 23 PEI Tankard men’s championships between them over the years, are still unbeaten, with a 3-0 win-loss record at the PEI Credit Unions / Curl PEI Provincial Senior Curling Championships, for curlers age 50 and over, being played at Summerside’s Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club, also the site of the national Seniors in March.
The MacDonald foursome won both their games today, 8-3 over Summerside’s Mel Bernard, aided by a 4 point 9th end, and 6-5 over Lou Nowlan and his host club rink. Bill Hope and his combined Cornwall/Silver Fox team are in second place in the round robin, with a 2-1 win-loss record, losing 6-5 to Nowlan this afternoon, and winning 10-6 over Summerside’s Blair Jay this evening. Jay, Nowlan, Bernard, and Montague’s Donald Clarey, who is skipping a Charlottetown Curling Complex team, round out the field, all at 1-2.
Men’s round robin play wraps up with the 6 pm Sunday draw. The first place team at the end of the round robin and any tiebreakers will advance to the men’s final, Monday at 2 pm, while the second and third place teams will play in the 6:30 pm Sunday semi-final, with the winner advancing to the final.
In the triple knockout women’s division, the Montague Curling Club rink of Jennifer Scott, June Moyaert, Terri Thompson, and Fran McGowan, a reuniting of their rink who won the PEI women’s championship back in 1988, wasted no time in building up a big lead this afternoon in their A qualifier game against Summerside’s Nola Murphy. The Montague team took a deuce in the first end, followed by steals of 1, 5, 1, and 1, to lead 10-0 at the half. The teams then traded singles, and shook hands with an 11-1 final score. This puts the Scott team in the Page 1-2 game, Sunday at 2 pm.
Murphy will now face clubmate Marg Nowlan in the second of the four qualifier games, Saturday at 1 pm. Nowlan advanced the qualifier with a 9-4 win over another Summerside team, skipped by Karen MacDonald, this evening. Nowlan scored a triple in the first end, and stole ends six through 9 en route to the win. The winner of tomorrow’s second qualifier will face Scott in Sunday afternoon’s Page 1-2 game.
The third qualifier is also set, with MacDonald taking on defending champion Shirley Berry and her Cornwall/Silver Fox rink, Saturday at 6 pm. Berry stole five consecutive ends in a 9-4 win over Cornwalll’s Diane MacKay rink this evening to advance to the qualifier.
Montague’s Kathy Clarey has locked up one of the two spots in the last qualifier game, Saturday at 6 pm, with a 10-2 win over Cornwall’s Karen Currie foursome this evening, following an opening-end triple with a stolen deuce and two singles to lead 7-0 after four ends.
The loser of the Marg Nowlan/Nola Murphy game on Saturday afternoon will be the other team in the final qualifier, the winner of which will play the winner of the third qualifier in the Page 3-4 game on Sunday afternoon.
The winner of the Page 1-2 will advance directly to the 2 pm Monday final, while the loser will play the winner of the Page 3-4 game in the semi-final, Sunday at 6:30 pm. The winner of the semi will advance to the final.