The  first Curl PEI provincial curling championship of the season, the Pepsi Juniors, for curlers under age 21, with eight junior men’s, and seven junior women’s teams from six of the Island’s seven dedicated curling facilities competing, gets underway Thursday at 7 pm at the six-sheet Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside. The finals are scheduled for Monday the 23rd, also at 7 pm. Friday draws are at 1 and 7 pm, with Saturday action at 10 am, and 3 pm, and Sunday play at 9 am, and 2 and 7 pm. There is a 9 am timeslot on Monday in the event that a second women’s tiebreaker round is needed, followed by the semi-finals at 2 and the finals at 7 pm.

Defending champions are the Veronica Smith rink from the Cornwall Curling Club, and the Tyler Smith team, who also curled out of Cornwall. Veronica is back with last year’s rink intact, while Tyler  has a new team this year, out of Montague.The junior men will play a triple-knockout format, which will qualify four teams for a Page championship round. The junior women will play a single-pool round robin, with the top three teams advancing to the championship round.

The winning junior men’s and women’s rinks will advance to the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, January 18-26, 2014 in Liverpool NS.

Here are the opening draws:

Thursday December 19 at 7 pm

Women’s

Ice A: Veronica Smith vs Emily Keen
Ice B: Meghan Ching vs Jenny McLean
Ice C: Amanda MacLean vs Lauren Moerike

Men’s

Ice D Matthew MacLean vs Leslie Noye
Ice E: Justin Campbell vs Donald DeWolfe

Friday December 20 at 1 pm

Men’s

Ice A: Loser MacLean/Noye vs Loser Campbell/DeWolfe from previous draw
Ice B: Devin Schut vs Kyle Holland
Ice C: Alex MacFadyen vs Tyler Smith

Women’s

Ice D:Jenny McLean vs Kaleigh MacKay
Ice E: Emily Keen vs Amanda MacLean
Ice F: Veronica Smith vs Meghan Ching

Full draw and end-by-end Live Results at PEICurling.com/juniors