The Nola Murphy rink from the host Silver Fox Curling and Yacht in Summerside beat the defending champion Shirley Berry foursome from the Cornwall and Silver Fox clubs 7-5 tonight, while the Rod MacDonald team from the Charlottetown Curling Complex and the Silver Fox defeated the Bill Hope rink from the Cornwall and Silver Fox clubs to win the Credit Unions of PEI/Curl PEI Senior Curling Championships. The winning teams will be on familiar ice next month, when they return to the Silver Fox for the Canadian Seniors, from March 16-24.
Photo (L-R): Laurie Tirone, Elspeth Carmody, Donna Arsenault, Nola Murphy, Pete Peters from Credit Unions of PEI
Murphy’s rink includes Donna Arsenault, Elspeth Carmody, and Laurie Tirone. They beat Montague’s Jennifer Scott team, a reunion of their 1988 PEI women’s championship rink, who went through the triple knockout round undefeated, 10-2 in the Page A vs B game to earn a bye to the final. Berry, a 5-time PEI Seniors champ, then beat Scott 8-1 in the semi-final to advance to tonight’s championship game. Other members of the Berry squad are Sandy Hope, Shelley Ebbett, and Arleen Harris.
In the final, the teams exchanged singles in the first two ends, and Murphy pulled ahead with a deuce in three. Berry scored a pair of singles to tie it at 3-all after 5 ends of play. Murphy took one in the sixth, but Berry grabbed the lead for the only time in the event with a deuce in seven. Murphy took a deuce in the eighth and stole a single in the ninth for a 7-5 score, and held on for the win.
Photo (L-R): Peter MacDonald, Mark O’Rourke, John Likely, Rod MacDonald, Pete Peters from Credit Unions of PEI
MacDonald, whose team, which includes John Likely, Mark O’Rourke, and Rod’s brother Peter MacDonald, has won a combined total of 23 PEI men’s titles over the years, went through round robin play with a perfect 5-0 win-loss record to earn a bye to the final, against 2011 PEI Seniors champ Hope, and his teammates Ted MacFadyen, Craig Mackie and David Murphy, Hope beat Summerside’s Blair Jay foursome 9-4 in this afternoon’s semi-final to advance to tonight’s game.
In the championship game, MacDonald opened with a deuce, but Hope tied it up with a pair of singles. The teams then traded deuces for a 4-4 tie at the half. MacDonald singled six, while Hope blanked seven and eight. A MacDonald steal of two in the ninth gave him a three point lead, and the game ended with a 7-4 final score.
Six men’s teams and eight women’s rinks took part in this year’s championship.
Runner-up rinks
Photo (L-R): Arleen Harris, Shelley Ebbett, Sandy Hope, Shirley Berry, Pete Peters from Credit Unions of PEI
Photo (L-R): David Murphy, Craig Mackie, Ted MacFadyen, Bill Hope, Pete Peters from Credit Unions of PEI