The host club’s Ted MacFadyen rink, which includes two members of last year’s winning team, Lou Nowlan and Earle Proude, along with Alan Montgomery, have captured the first of four qualifying spots for the men’s Page championship round at the eight team triple-knockout Provincial Masters Curling Championships, for curlers age 60 and over, at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside. They won this afternoon’s “A” qualifier by an 8-4 score over the Crapaud Community Curling Club rink skipped by Brian Ellis. MacFadyen scored two triples in the game.
Ellis now plays John Holmes from the Silver Fox in the B qualifier, at 9 am on Wednesday. The C and D qualifiers go Wednesday afternoon at 12:30, with Clair Sweet of the Maple Leaf Curling Club in OLeary playing Cornwall’s Paul Arsenault in the C, and Louis Walsh from the host club playing the loser of the B qualifier game between Ellis and Holmes in the D.
The A and B qualifiers then square off in one Page playoff game, while the C and D battle in the other, Wednesday at 4 pm. The winner of the Page A vs B match goes directly to the 2 pm Thursday final, while the loser of that game faces the winner of the C vs D game in the semi-final at 10 am Thursday, with the winner going to the final.
In action this morning, Arsenault scored a triple in the final end in a 6-5 come-from-behind win over Sweet, while Walsh stole the last end to edge Holmes 6-5. The other afternoon contests saw Walsh down Summerside’s Bob Maynard 10-1 in just four ends, Sweet beat Cornwall’s Matt Smith 7-3, and Holmes beat Arsenault 7-1.
In the four-team double round robin women’s event, all teams now have identical 2-2 win-loss records.It was a very different day for Cornwall’s Shirley Berry rink, who were 2-0 after Monday play. They lost their morning game 9-3 to defending champion and clubmate Diane MacKay. Berry opened with a triple, but MacKay took a deuce in the second, and stole the next five ends for the win. In the afternoon draw, Berry lost 12-2 to Norma Sonier from the Fox, scoring only in the fifth end. Sonier doubled Cornwall’s Gloria Clarke 8-4 in the morning draw, aided by a four point sixth end. Clarke rebounded with a 10-3 win over MacKay in the afternoon.
The women’s double round robin wraps up on Wednesday, with MacKay playing Sonier, and Clarke facing Berry at 9 am, and MacKay playing Berry and Clarke taking on Sonier in the 12:30 pm draw. The four pm draw is reserved for tiebreakers. The second and third place teams after the double round robin and any tiebreakers then square off in the semi-final, Thursday at 10 am, with the winner taking on the first place team in the 2 pm final..
Winners and runners-up in both the men’s and the women’s divisions earn the right to compete in the Maritime Masters Championships, March 14-17 at the Cornwall Curling Club.. The winning teams, or the highest-finishing men’s and women’s rinks that choose to attend, are invited to participate in the 2014 ATB Financial Canadian Masters Championships, March 31 to Apr. 6 at the Coaldale Granite Curling Club in Coaldale Alberta.