Three teams – the Bill Glydon/John Davis rink from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, the Sherrill Barwise/Orville Willis duo from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary, and the Roddie MacLean/John Dunsford twosome from the Cornwall Curling Club, sport 3-0 win-loss records after opening day round robin play in the 15 team Open Division (any combination of men/women) at the Ferguson Funeral Homes/Curl PEI Provincial Stick Curling Championships being played at the Charlottetown Curling Complex. Defending champions Walter Callaghan and John Vincent from Western are 2-1.
Five rinks have 2-1 records in the eight team women’s division. They are the Elaine Hughes/Etta Reid, Joan Doiron/Jane Peters, Mary Plamondon/Karen Wood, and Shirley Lank/Mabel England, all from the Cornwall Curling Club, and Leah Harris/Ann Barwise from Maple Leaf. The four-time defending champion Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke rink from Cornwall are 1-2.
Wednesday draws go at 9:30 and 10:45 am, 12 noon, and 2:30, 3:45, 5, and 6:15 pm. The event wraps up on Thursday.
The top four open division teams, and the top two women’s rinks from this year’s event earn the right to compete in the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 18-20 at the Gage Curling Club in Oromocto NB. The Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke duo are the two-time defending Maritime Women’s champs, while the Paul Doucet and Dave MacDougal twosome from Yarmouth NS are the defending Open champs.
The top two Open division teams also earn the right to compete in the 2014 Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, March 30-April 2 at the St. Albert Curling Club in St. Albert Alberta. 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. Defending Canadian champions are the team of Roddie MacLean and Paul Field from the Cornwall Curling Club, the hosts of last year’s event. MacLean/Field were last year’s provincial runners-up, losing to Callaghan/Vincent after two extra ends of play. A Women’s division was added to last year’s event, with Cornwall’s Ruth Stavert and Eileen Blanchard winning.
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.
