The Rod MacDonald rink from the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club and the Charlottetown Curling Complex have now captured both the A and the B section finals of the modified triple knockout PEI Credit Unions Provincial Senior Men’s championships in Montague, winning both games against the same team, Peter Gallant of Charlottetown, and by the same score — 6-5. This will give the MacDonald rink, who were runners-up in the event, for curlers age 50 and over, last year, a “double life” in the two game championship round on Wednesday, as they will play in both championship games, taking the title if they win either game, while their opponent would have to win both games. If the MacDonald rink also wins the “C” final on Tuesday at 2 pm, they will become the Senior Men’s champs, and the championship round will not be played.
File photo: Rod MacDonald directs a rock into the house at the 2014 Seniors
Gallant took points in the first two ends in today’s game, but MacDonald tied it up with a deuce in four. Gallant took a single in five to lead 3-2, but MacDonald scored a triple in six for the lead. Gallant came up with a tying deuce in seven, but MacDonald took the win with a single in eight. Gallant advanced to the B final with a 5-3 win this morning over the Mel Bernard rink from Summerside, which includes three members of last year’s winning team.
Blair Jay and his Summerside rink were eliminated this morning, thanks to a 9-2 win by Bill Hope of Charlottetown in just four ends, with Hope breaking a 2-2 tie with five points in the third end, and then stealing a deuce in the next end to bring the game to a quick close. Hope then knocked out the other Summerside rink in the six-team field, Bernard, with a 7-2 win in six ends in the afternoon draw, following a fourth end triple with single steals in ends five and six.
This leaves only MacDonald, Gallant and Hope in the competition going into Tuesday’s final two knockout round games, with Hope taking on Gallant at 10 am, and the winner facing MacDonald in the C final at 2 pm. The championship round, if required, goes Wednesday at 10 am and, if needed, 2 pm. The Senior men’s champions, along with the women’s winner, the Shirley Berry team from Cornwall and Charlottetown, who won by default as they were the only entry, will advance to the 2015 Canadian Senior Curling Championships, March 21-28, 2015, in Edmonton, AB.
End by end Curlcast results from the PEI Credit Unions Senior Men’s at CurlAtlantic.com/scoreboard
Event website is PEICurling.com/seniors20142015