The Tony Nabuurs rink, a combined team with members from the Charlottetown Curling Complex, and the Montague and Maple Leaf curling clubs, and the Jenny McLean foursome from Summerside’s Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club are the new O’Connor Glass/Curl PEI Provincial Under 18 champions, winning their respective men’s and women’s finals this afternoon at the Montague Curling Club.
Nabuurs, who finished round robin play with a 3-2 win-loss record, tied for third with Summerside’s Alex MacFadyen rink, took the long way to the men’s final, beating MacFadyen in a tiebreaker, by a 6-5 extra-end score, and winning the semi-final 7-4 over Justin Campbell and his Silver Fox rink to advance to this afternoon’s final. The Nabuurs rink’s opponents in the final, the Tyler Smith foursome from the Montague and Crapaud Community clubs, finished the round robin in first place and advanced directly to the final, which Nabuurs won 5-2, trailing 2-1 after five ends, but picking up a triple in the sixth and stealing a single in the seventh to build up a three point lead coming home. Smith and Campbell both finished round robin play with 4-1 records, with Smith beating Campbell 8-3 in the last round robin draw to capture first place.
Other members of the winning Nabuurs team are third Parker O’Connor, second Alan MacLean, and lead Noah O’Connor, with coach Glen MacLean. Third stone Brooks Roche, second Dylan Lowery, and lead Ryan Lowery round out the runner-up Smith foursome, coached by Tammy Dewar and Kevin Smith. The other two rinks in the six team men’s section were the Donald DeWolfe rink from Cornwall, who finished at 1-4, and the Owen Collier team from the host club, who went 0-5.
In the four team women’s divison, the top two teams from the double round robin – McLean, who finished with a 5-1 win-loss record, and the Emily Keen team from Charlottetown and Cornwall, who went 3-3, both advanced to the final, which McLean won by a 4-3 score. Three of the four ends in the first half of the eight end contest were blanks, with McLean picking up a single in the third end. The teams traded deuces in ends five and six, and singles in seven and eight to give McLean a 4-3 win. The other two women’s teams in the event, the Heather Drake rink from Montague, and the Rachel O’Connor team from Cornwall, finished play with 2-4 win-loss records.
Completing the winning McLean team are third Lauren MacFadyen, second stone Ava Whitney-Coulter, and lead Emily Vaniderstine. The rink is coached by Dr. Don Vickerson. The Butch McGee/David Ross-coached Keen team includes Jessica Watts at third, Kayla Schut throwing second, and Jenny Mutch in the lead position.
The winning Nabuurs and McLean rinks will advance to their choice of either the Atlantic Under 18 Curling Championships, March 28-31 at the Caribou Curling Club in Stephenville NL, OR the Optimist International Under 18 Curling Championships, March 27-31 in Surrey and Langley BC, with the runner-up Smith and Keen foursomes going to the other event. Starting last year, the option to attend the Optimist rotates annually between the four Atlantic Provinces – 2013 is PEI’s turn.
The Provincial Under 16, also sponsored by O’Connor Glass, and the Provincial Mixed championships both start on Thursday.