The first day of play wrapped up Tuesday afternoon in the Ferguson-Logan Montague Funeral Home Provincial Stick Curling Championships at the Cornwall Curling Club, with the defending champion teams each having two opening day losses in this two player per team event. The 14 team Open Divison (any combination of male and/or female player) are playing a single round robin with 2 pools, advancing the top 3 finishers in each pool to a championship round. The 3 team Women’s division are playing a double round robin, with the 2nd and 3rd place finishers advancing to a semi-final, and the semi-final winner playing the first place team in the final.

Photo: Sterling Stratton (foreground) sweeps a rock into the house in Open Divison play on Tuesday afternoon

Last year’s Open Division winners, the Sterling Stratton and Barry Craswell duo from the host club, lost their opener 8-2 to the Bazil and Sterling Higginbotham team from Montague, and their second game 6-5 to Alvin Hackett and Victor Hogan from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, before picking up their first win, edging Eddie Bernard and Roger Gavin from Alberton 6-5  in an extra end. Three Open Division teams remain undefeated: the Walter Callaghan/John Vincent twosome from Alberton, at 3-0, along with the Roddie MacLean/John Dunsford pair and the Vern Chowan/Ernie Stafford rink, both from Cornwall, both at 2-0.

Photo: Audrey Callaghan (foreground) delivers a rock in the Women’s Division

Cornwall’s Gloria Clarke and Ruth Stavert, who have won six out the seven women’s championships held to-date, also got off to a slow start, losing their first game 7-4 to Audrey Callaghan and Ann Barwise from Alberton, and their second, to Myrna Craswell and Elaine Hughes of the host club, by an 8-2 score. Craswell/Hughes are 2-0, while Barwise/Callaghan are at 1-1.

Six draws are scheduled on Wednesday, starting at 10 am, with the last draw at 4:30 pm.

At the end of the competition, the top four Open Division, and top two Women’s Division teams advance to the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 14-16 at Curl Moncton. The winning and runner-up Open Division teams are also invited to participate in the Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, March 23-26 at the Bluenose Curling Club in New Glasgow NS. 

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, visit www.canadianstickcurling.ca.

Event website: PEICurling.com/stick20162017

Live results: peicurling.com/scoreboard/#!/competitions/2272