Menard leads men’s Pool B
SUMMERSIDE – Glenn Howard and his team have taken charge at the 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar Pre-Trials curling competition at Eastlink Arena.
Glenn Howard (PEICurling.com photo)
Howard stole a four-ender in the fourth end en route to a 7-5 win over Halifax’s Jamie Murphy in Wednesday’s evening draw.
The win moved Howard to 3-0 (won-lost) in Pool A standings. He is the only undefeated team in the 14-team men’s pre-trials. Murphy slips to 2-2.
The top three teams from both Pool A and Pool B will advance to the playoffs, which start on Saturday.
Wednesday evening’s draw also featured a matchup between the top two teams in Pool B, and it was a crowd-pleaser. Charley Thomas, from Edmonton, scored two points with hammer in the 10th end to move into a 9-9 tie with Jean-Michel Menard from Saint-Romuald, Que., to force an extra end. Menard scored a single with the hammer to win 10-9 to improve to 3-1 in the standings while Thomas slips a notch to 2-1.
Colton Flasch from Saskatoon took a 5-1 lead after three ends and downed a Regina team skipped by Islander Adam Casey 7-4 in the evening draw to even his record at 2-2. Casey slides to 1-2. John Morris takes a 2-1 record into Thursday’s 4 p.m. game against Casey.
Click for full Men’s story in the Journal Pioneer
It’s still anybody’s game going into final two days of round-robin play in the women’s event
SUMMERSIDE – Shannon Birchard pretty much summed up the story of the week so far for the women’s teams in the 2017 Home Hardware Road to the Roar Pre-Trials curling event.
“It’s anybody’s game right now; it’s wide open,” said the skip from Winnipeg.
Birchard’s Thistle Curling Club team had just knocked the Kelsey Rocque foursome from Edmonton out of the ranks of the undefeated. Birchard goes into Thursday’s draws with a 2-2 (won-lost) record while Rocque is 2-1.
While Birchard was downing Rocque in their A pool game, Briane Meilleur from Winnipeg was giving the same sort of treatment to the B pool’s only unbeaten team. Meilleur downed Kerri Einarson from East St. Paul, Man., 8-3.
Einarson now shares a 2-1 record in the B pool with three Ontario rinks – Coldwater’s Sherry Middaugh, Thunder Bay’s Krista McCarville and Mississauga’s Jacqueline Harrison. Meilleur is even at 2-2.
Thrilled to be competing
“We’re really thrilled to be here, and we worked hard to get here,” said Julie Tippin after just skipping her Woodstock, Ont., team to a 7-3 victory over Theresa Breen and her Mayflower Curling Club team from Halifax.
The win put Tippin at 2-1, and dropped Breen to 2-2 in the A pool.
Click for full story on the women’s event in the Journal Pioneer