After a couple of weather delays during the event, the Ferguson-Logan Montague Funeral Home PEI Stick Curling Championships wrapped up Saturday evening at the Cornwall Curling Club, with the Walter Callaghan and John Vincent duo from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton winning the 14 team, two pool single round robin Open (any combination of male/female) division, and, despite a slow start, losing three of their four games in the three-team double round robin Women’s division, the Gloria Clarke and Ruth Stavert team from the host club added yet another Women’s championship (their seventh out of the eight held to-date) to their collection.
Photos (L-R): Walter Callaghan, John Vincent
The top three teams in each Open Division pool advanced to the Open championship round, with the second place teams in one pool playing the third place teams in the other in the quarter-final round, with Howard Kerwin/William Power from Montague (4-2, B pool) beating Alvin Hackett/Victor Hogan (4-2, A pool) from Alberton’s Western Community Curling Club 7-2, and Cornwall’s Roddie MacLean/John Dunsford (4-2, B Pool) doubling defending champs Sterling Stratton and Barry Craswell, also from Cornwall (4-2, A Pool) by a 4-2 score.
The A pool winners, Vern Chowan/Ernie Stavert from Cornwall (5-1) then took on MacLean/Dunsford, winning 8-6, while the B pool winners, Callaghan and Vincent, also 5-1, beat Kerwin/Power 7-5 in the other semi-final. The semi-final winners Chowan/Stavert and Callaghan/Vincent then squared off in the final, with Callaghan/Vincent winning 3-1.
Photos (L-R): Gloria Clarke, Ruth Stavert
All three teams advanced to the championship round in the Women’s Division, with third place finishers Clarke and Stavert (1-3) beating 2nd place finishers Ann Barwise and Audrey Callaghan from Western Community (2-2) by an 11-3 score in the semi-final, taking four points in the third end, stealing three in the fourth, and singles in five and six for the win. e final against first place
Clarke and Stavert then took on the first place team from the double round robin, the Myrna Craswell and Elaine Hughes duo, in the final, stealing four points in the final end for a 9-5 win. Clarke/Craswell have now won.
The top four Open Division (Callaghan/Vincent, Chowan/Stavert, Kerwin/Power and MacLean Dunsford), and top two Women’s Division (Clarke/Stavert and Craswell/Hughes) teams advance to the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 14-16 at Curl Moncton. The winning and runner-up Open Division teams (Callaghan/Vincent and Chowan/Stavert) 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.