The annual WPG Jim Sullivan Curling Classic wrapped up Sunday afternoon at the Thistle St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John NB, with PEI’s Suzanne Birt rink and Nova Scotia’s Kendal Thompson team taking the top cash prizes back to their home provinces.
File photo of Team Birt (L-R): Michelle McQuaid, Meaghan Hughes, Suzanne Birt, Marie Christianson
Birt beat New Brunswick’s Andrea Crawford team 6-4 in the final, scoring three of those points in the final two ends while Thompson edged defending champ Jamie Murphy, also from Halifax, by an 8-7 score, fighting back from a 7-4 deficit by taking four points in the final two ends.
PEI’s Veronica Smith team, runners-up last year, went undefeated in the round robin and won their quarter-final, but lost in the semi-finals to Birt by an 8-6 score, when Birt stole the eighth end to tie the game and then stole a deuce in the extra end for the win.
The Melissa Morrow foursome from Summerside, runners-up in last season’s PEI Travelers Curling Club Championship, was the third PEI team in the event, finishing just out of the playoffs with a 2-2 win-loss record.
18 teams (none from PEI) took part in the men’s event with the following prize structure:
Total Prize Purse: $15,300
1st Place – $5,000
2nd Place – $3,300
Semi-finalists – $1,500
Quarter-finalists – $1,000
The women’s prize structure was based on 10 teams, but it was expanded to include 15, and the updated prize structure has not been provided.