The PEI Canada Winter Games Trials #1, which will qualify two male and two female teams out of the five girl’s and three boy’s team entered, to be the Canada Winter Games Training Teams, got underway Saturday at the Silver Fox in Summerside The Training Teams will receive additional training opportunities and will advance to the Trials #2 at the Cornwall Curling Club in November. The boy’s teams are playing a double round robin, while the girl’s rinks are playing a single. The winning teams from Trials #2 will advance to the 2019 Canada Winter Games, which will take place from February 15 until March 3, 2019 in Red Deer, Alberta.
Following opening day, the Lauren Ferguson girl’s team from Cornwall, Crapaud and Charlottetown, and the Mitchell Schut boy’s rink from the Cornwall Curling Club, are the only undefeated teams, both with 2-0 records. The Ferguson rink beat Cornwall’s Sydney Howatt and Clara Jack teams 8-3 and 7-1, respectively, while the Schut team recorded a 6-2 win over the Cruz Pineau team (0-2) from Summerside and a 7-1 victory over the Chase MacMillan squad (1-1) from Charlottetown.
Howatt and her Cornwall clubmate Rachel MacLean are both at 1-1, while Jack, and Emily Sanderson, also from Cornwall, sit at 1-2. Sanderson, following a pair of losses, had a big win in her third game, against MacLean, stealing five points in the first end, and three more in the second, going on to win 10-3.
Play continues Sunday at the Fox, with draws at 9 am, and 1:30 and 6 pm. If needed, a tiebreaker round will go Monday at 9 am. End-by-end results are available at PEICurling.com.