Ted MacFadyen, who is skipping the PEI Masters men’s defending champion team in place of last year’s skip Mel Bernard, is in the driver’s seat in this provincial championship for curlers age 60 and over, having won both the A and B sections of the modified triple knockout event at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. This puts him in both Monday championship games, at 10 am and 2 pm. where he can win the event if he takes either game, while his opponent would have to win both.
In the event that MacFadyen and his Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club team of Lou Nowlan, Earle Proude, and Alan Montgomery also take the C final, Sunday at 2 pm, they will be declared the winner, and the two game championship round will not be played. MacFadyen won both A and B sections of this seven team event against clubmate Louis Walsh, by 7-4 and 9-1 scores, respectively. In today’s B final, MacFadyen stole a deuce in the first end and a triple in the second, and then took four in the fourth end to bring the game to a quick end.
Walsh takes on Charlottetown’s Craig Mackie, while MacFadyen faces Cornwall’s Paul Arsenault in the “C” semi-finals at 10 am Sunday, with the winners advancing to the 2 pm C final. Mackie eliminated Summerside’s Blair Jay today with a 9-2 victory, while Arsenault stole the last end to get by O’Leary’s Clair Sweet 7-6 to advance to the C semis. Sweet knocked out Crapaud’s Dario Zannier with a 9-1 win this morning, but is out of the competition as a result of his loss to Arsenault.
Only one game, at 10 am Sunday, remains in the women’s double round robin, between three teams from the Cornwall Curling Club. Sandy Hope, who finished atop the standings with a 3-1 win-loss record, will finish in first place, and has earned a berth in the 2 pm Sunday championship game, where she will play the winner of the 10 am final round robin match, between defending champion skip Shirley Berry, and Myrna Sanderson, who both have 1-2 records.
In action today, Sanderson edged Berry 8-7, while Hope, who was on last year’s winning team along with two of her team members – Shelley Ebbett and Arleen Harris, beat Berry 6-2, and then went on to defeat Sanderson by a 10-6 score. Debbie Rhodenhizer, who was on last year’s runner-up rink, rounds out the playoff-bound Hope squad.
Live end by end results are available at PEICurling.com
Winners and runners-up from the Men’s and Women’s provincial Masters championships will advance to the 2016 Maritime Masters Curling Championships to be held at Thistle-St. Andrews Curling Club from March 11 to 13, 2016. The winning rinks, or the runners-up if they don’t choose to attend, are also invited to participate in the 2016 Kings County Canadian Masters Championships, April 4-10 at the Glooscap Curling Club in Kentville NS and the Wolfville Curling Club.