There’ll be a delay in deciding the winner in the 16 team Open (men’s and mixed teams) Divison at the Ferguson Funeral Homes/Curl PEI Provincial Stick Curling Championship, as the host Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, along with the rest of the West Prince region from the St. Eleanors part of Summerside all the way to North Cape, was plunged into darkness just before the final game because of a power blackout expected to last at least four hours. As both the winner and the runner-up will advance to both the Maritime Stick Curling Championship in Montague, and the Canadian Open Stick Championship in Cornwall, there’s no urgency to choose a definitive winner, and it may take some time to reschedule, as one of the skips will be out of the country for the next 10 days.
The two finalists are the Walter Callaghan/John Vincent duo from the host Western club, who have previously won the event three times, and the Roddie MacLean/Paul Field team from the Cornwall Curling Club. Both teams had 5-2 round robin records. MacLean/Field won their semi-final 5-3 over Cornwall clubmates Bryan Sutherland and Elaine Hughes, while Callaghan/Vincent won theirs 3-1 over their Western clubmates Bill Glydon and Eldon Hardy.
The Glydon and Sutherland rinks finished round robin play in first place in their pools, with 5-2 and 6-1 records, respectively. In quarter-final action earlier this afternoon, the Callaghan team beat Cornwall’s Sterling Stratton and Ernie Stavert twosome 7-3, while the MacLean rink stole a single and a triple in the final two ends to defeat the Eddie Bernard/Roger Gavin duo from the host club. Stratton, Bernard, MacLean, and Callaghan all had 5-2 round robin records.
The consolation game to determine third and fourth place, between the Sutherland and Glydon rinks, was also a victim of the blackout, but third place was awarded to the Sutherland/Hughes team by mutual agreement.
The three-team Women’s Divison wrapped up on Thurday. with the Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke duo from the Cornwall Curling Club winning their fourth consecutive women’s stick title. They finished round robin play with a 3-1 win-loss record, ahead of Cornwall’s Shirley Lank and Mary Plamondon twosome at 2-2, and the Ann Barwise/Audrey Callaghan team from the host club (1-3). The rules dictate that, since a definitive winner came out of the round robin, no championship game was necessary.
The top four open division teams, skipped by Callaghan, MacLean, Glydon, and Sutherland, and the top two women’s rinks from this year’s event, skipped by Stavert and Lank, 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, skipped by Callaghan and MacLean, 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 last year. 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.
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.