Curling is now getting into full swing on PEI, with Cornwall having ice ready for play, Charlottetown just a few days away, and Montague’s icemaking well underway. As well, the curling markings are on at the Eastern Kings Sportsplex in Souris, with Tuesday arena curling scheduled to start on November 7. The Crapaud Community Curling Club is having an Open House and learn to curl night on October 28th.
Five new inductees have been named to the PEI Curling Hall of Fame, with the induction ceremony scheduled for Cornwall on Oct. 23 at 7:30 pm.
On the international front, Korea’s Peter Gallant-coached EunJung Kim rink won the Paf Masters Women’s Curling Tour event in Aland Finland on Sunday, picking up eight thousand five hundred euros (approximately $12,500 Canadian), beating Shannon Kleibrink and her team 7-5 in the final.
Info at http://www.worldcurl.com/events.php?view=Main&eventid=4817
Photo: Peter Gallant and Team EunJung Kim
On the Atlantic curling scene, PEI’s Veronica Smith team, with Jane DiCarlo at third, Sabrina Smith at second, and lead Whitney Young, lost in the semi-finals at the Capital Cup in Fredericton NB. They’re busy the next two weekends, too, competing at the Lady Monctonian in Moncton, NB, followed by the Dave Jones Spiel in Halifax, NS. Team Robyn MacPhee had the weekend off, but are also at the Lady Monctonian this coming weekend.
In Junior action, 28 teams from five provinces, including seven from PEI, were taking part in the CCE Maritime Junior Spiel at Curl Moncton. There was only one age category, so many of the younger teams were there mainly to gain competitive curling experience. The PEI women’s rinks were skipped by Lauren Ferguson, PEI Junior champ Lauren Lenentine, and PEI U13 champ Clara Jack, all out of Cornwall, plus a new Charlottetown rink skipped by Annika Kelly, with New Brunswick’s Cynthia Pearson, attending school on PEI, playing third, Annika’s sister Tati Kelly at second, and Meghan Ching playing lead.
The PEI junior men’s rinks included the Mitchell Schut team out of Cornwall, the Chase MacMillan foursome from Charlottetown, and the Alex MacFadyen rink out of the Silver Fox in Summerside. Also at the event were reigning PEI Junior champ Tyler Smith, now playing third for the Liam Marin rink out of the Thistle St. Andrews club in Saint John NB, and Brooks Roche, who was on Tyler’s Junior championship team, and is now playing third for the Ryan Abraham rink out of the Halifax Mayflower club.
The Lenentine team went 3-0 in the round robin to advance to the semi-finals in the women’s division, losing a close 6-5 decision to Cally Moore of CFB Halifax, when Lenentine’s final rock was just a touch heavy. Lenentine then played in the game to determine third and 4th place, again losing 6-5, to the Erica Cluff rink from the Woodstock and Thistle St. Andrews clubs in NB. Moore took on Kaitlyn Jones of Halifax in the championship game, with Jones winning 6-3.
PEI’s Kelly rink finished round robin play with a 2-1 record, losing their game against eventual winner Jones, and then took on Lenentine in the quarter-finals, losing 6-3.
Cornwall’s young Clara Jack team won their Consolation game 7-5 over Kate Paterson of the Carleton Curling Club in Saint John, to finish with a 1-3 win-loss record.
Their clubmates the Lauren Ferguson rink won two of their three round robin games, but lost 4-1 to Vanessa Roy of the host club in their Consolation game to finish with an even 2-2 record.
The junior men’s event was won by the Owen Purcell rink from Chester NS, who defeated the Ryan Abraham foursome from the Halifax Mayflower club, which includes PEI’s Brooks Roche at third, by a 4-3 score in the championship game. The Marin rink, which includes Tyler Smith, lost 8-5 to Vincent Roberge from the Etchemin club in Quebec in their quarter-final game.
PEI’s MacFadyen rink beat the younger MacMillan team in their round robin encounter. Both teams recorded losses to event runner-up Abraham, and to third place finisher Roberge to go to their consolation games. MacFadyen won his 9-5 over Layton MacCabe from the host club. MacMillan lost his to Michael Donovan from Curl Moncton .
The Mitchell Schut team lost three fairly close round robin games, but went on to pick up a 7-1 win over Brennan LeBlanc of the host club in their consolation match.
Many of the teams of eligibility age for the 2019 Canada Winter Games will be competing in a warmup spiel this coming weekend at the Gage Curling Club in Oromocto NB. Also coming up is a U21 and Canada Games age spiel Nov. 3-5 in Saint John.