Three teams remain undefeated atop their respective pools after opening day at the Ferguson Funeral Homes / Curl PEI Provincial Stick Curling Championships, being played at the three sheet Western Community Curling Club in Alberton. The Montague Curling Club duo of Bob Leard and Billy Power, and the host club pair of Walter Callaghan and John Vincent, who have won the event three times before, lead the two pools in the 16 team Open (Men’s and Mixed teams) divison with 3-0 win-loss records, while the three-time defending champion Ruth Stavert and Gloria Clarke twosome from the Cornwall Curling Club lead the three-team Women’s division, with a 2-0 record.
Round robin play continues on Wednesday, with the women’s final, if needed, going at 7:30 pm. If a definitive winner can be determined out of the round robin, no women’s final will be needed.
The Open Division round robin concludes with the 12:30 Thursday draw, followed by quarter-finals at 2:15, semi-finals at 3:30 pm, with the men’s final and consolation final going at 5 pm.
In stick curling there are two curlers per team, who deliver their rocks with delivery sticks, with each team member delivering from opposite ends. Sweeping is allowed only from the hog line to the back of the house at the playing end. Two curlers, one from each team, alternately deliver 6 stones each per end, while their teammate skips that end. The roles are then reversed, and the partners deliver the stones back. No stone may be removed from play until the fourth stone of each end. Games are six ends and take about an hour to play. For more information on stick curling, including complete rules of play, visit www.stickcurling.ca.
The top four open division teams, and the top two women’s rinks from this year’s event all earn the right to compete in the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 12-14 here in PEI at the Montague Curling Club. The Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke duo are the defending women’s champs, and also won in 2010. The Floyd Stewart/Gordon MacDonald rink were runners-up in the open division last year.
The top two open division teams also earn the right to compete in the 2013 Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, April 1-4, also here in PEI, at the Cornwall Curling Club. The defending champs from last year’s event in Regina are the Earl Stephenson and Warren Johnson team from Winnipeg MB. The Montague Curling Club rink of Basil and Sterling Higginbotham won the B consolation prize. This is an “open” event, but reserves entries for the top two teams from each of BC, Alberta, Manitoba,Saskatchewan. Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. There are 32 spots available for other teams, for a total of 48 teams.