PEI Scotties
The draw should be available on Friday for the PEI Scotties Tournament of Hearts Provincial Women’s Curling Championship, sponsored by Kruger Products.. It will be posted to the event web page, PEICurling.com/scotties when it is made available. The PEI Scotties takes place January 9-12 at the Charlottetown Curling Complex. The defending champion Suzanne Birt rink are back, along with four other teams, skipped by Shirley Berry, Kim Dolan, Lisa Jackson, and Kathy O’Rourke. All teams curl out of the host Charlottetown Curling Complex, with the exception of the Berry foursome from the Cornwall Curling Club and the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club. The 2014 championship team advances to the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts, February 1-9 at the Maurice Richard Arena, Montreal, QC.
The provincial event is a single round robin with three teams advancing to a championship round.. All games will be played at 2 and 7 pm unless a second tie breaker is required, in which case it will be played at 9 am on Sunday morning. The first game will be Thursday at 2 pm with the final game being at 2 pm or 7 pm on Sunday evening. The banquet is 6:30pm Wednesday evening and the opening ceremonies will be prior to the Thursday evening game.
Future Scotties
Craig Mackie photo
In addition to the Scotties, a “Future Scotties” event is being held this year. Under 21 women’s teams from the Pepsi Juniors were invited to this event, and will be playing at 10 am Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The teams will also be invited to the Scottties banquet and the opening ceremonies, where they will be paired with a Scotties team. This a developmental event to expose the younger teams to the Island’s premier event for women’s curling. Currently there are four Future Scotties teams registered. The team rosters for the Future Scotties may be viewed at PEICurling.com/futurescotties
Jamie Bourassa
CCA Chief Ice Technician Jamie Bourassa (left) with Hans Wuthrich, maintaining the championship ice at the 2012 Tim Hortons Brier (Photo CCA/Michael Burns)
The Canadian Curling Association’s Chief Ice Technician, Jamie Bourassa, will be arriving on PEI Friday to tour all seven dedicated curling facilities. Jamie has made ice for many national events, and considered to be one of the best in Canada. At each club he will be doing an audit to see if there is anything that will help the icemakers improve the ice and rocks. He will be spending extra time at the Charlottetown Curling Complex as he will be preparing the ice for the Scotties event. He will not be able to stay for the entire event, as he has to leave to prepare the ice for the Junior Nationals in Liverpool, NS on the Saturday, but he will be working with the facility over the next week to get the ice in top shape.