The Mel Bernard rink from Summerside’s Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club could win the PEI Masters Men’s title in this afternoon’s 2 pm draw (note revised time from original schedule) at the Curl PEI Provincial Masters Curling Championships at the Cornwall Curling Club. The Bernard rink has won both the A and B sections of the modified triple knockout, and has now advanced to the C final. at 2 pm, against Clair Sweet and his rink from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary. If Bernard wins that game, he will take the title. If Sweet wins, the two teams will square off in the first of two championship round games at 9 am on Tuesday. If Bernard wins that game he would take the championship. If Sweet wins, the deciding final would go at 1 pm Tuesday.
Photo: Mel Bernard
Bernard, whose team recently won the Provincial Legion title, beat the Bill Hope rink from the Charlottetown and Cornwall clubs by an 8-3 score in C semi-final play this morning, with the teams shaking hands after Bernard took a triple in the seventh end.
Photo: Clair Sweet
The Sweet team blanked Matt Smith’s Charlottetown rink 9-0 this morning in the other C semi, taking a single in the second end, stealing a deuce and a single in the next two ends and bringing the game to handshakes with a steal of five in the fifth end.
Meanwhile, the Shirley Berry rink from the Cornwall and Charlottetown curling clubs are repeat Curl PEI Masters women’s champs, winning their first three games of their best of five championship against the Diane MacKay rink, taking the title with a 9-1 score in Sunday morning’s game at the Cornwall Curling Club. MacKay curls out of the host club, and was runner-up last year as well. Berry said that she tried to keep the game simple, minimizing rocks in play, and it worked out for her. The game was tied 2-all after three ends, but Berry pulled ahead with a stolen deuce in the fourth, and then put the game out of reach for the MacKay squad by stealing four points in the fifth end.
The men’s and women’s winners earn the right to compete in the Maritime Masters Championships. Dates and venue for this event have not yet been confirmed. The winning men’s and women’s rinks or the runner-up team if they don’t choose to attend, are invited to participate in the 2015 NVA Hotel Divison Canadian Masters Championships, March 30 to Apr. 5 at the Whitehorse Curling Club in the Yukon.
Masters curlers are age 60 and over.