Only two Open Division round robin draws and the Open and Women’s championship rounds remain to be played at the Ferguson-Logan Montague Funeral Home PEI Stick Curling Championships at the Cornwall Curling Club.
Myrna Craswell
Elaine Hughes
The host club team of Myrna Craswell and Elaine Hughes finished in first place in the Women’s double round robin, with a 3-1 win-loss record, and have earned a bye into the 3:45 pm Friday finals. The other two women’s teams – Ann Barwise and Audrey Callaghan from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton (2-2) and defending champions Gloria Clarke and Ruth Stavert from Cornwall (1-3) will square off in the semi-final at 2 pm, with the winning duo facing Craswell/Hughes in the championship game.
The Western Community Curling Club duo of Walter Callaghan and John Vincent is the only undefeated (5-0) team in the 14 team, two pool Open Division (any combination of male/female) round robin, and will finish in first place in their pool, as the 4 next closest teams all have two losses.
Walter Callaghan
John Vincent
Leading the other pool is the host club team of Vern Chowan and Ernie Stavert with a 4-1 win-loss record. Defending champions Sterling Stratton and Barry Craswell, who were slow out of the gate, losing their first two games, made a remarkable recovery, reeling off four consecutive wins to finish round-robin play at 4-2, very much in playoff contention. Joe Gill and Merrill Cronin (Cornwall) and Alvin Hackett and Victor Hogan (Western) also have 2 losses in the pool, with one game left to play.
On Friday, the Open Division round robin wraps up with draws at 10 and 11:15 am. The second and third place teams in opposite pools square off in the quarter-finals at 12:30, with the winners of the quarters playing one of the first place teams in the semi-finals at 2 pm. The winners of the 2 semis advance to the championship final at 3:45.
All times are subject to change, particularly with the forecast storm.
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.