The Maritime Stick Curling Championships, featuring the top curlers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI in the two-person per team sport of Stick Curling, wrapped up Sunday afternoon at the Cornwall Curling Club, with teams from the host club winning both the Open (any combination of male/female) and Women’s divisions, and also finishing as runners-up in the women’s. 12 Open and an equal number of Women’s teams took part in the annual championship, the location of which rotates around the three Maritime provinces.
(L-R): Paul Arsenault and Vince Fisher, Open Division winners
In the Open Division final, the duo of Vince Fisher and Paul Arsenault stole the last end in a 5-3 decision over the John Marshall/Lowell Jenkins twosome from Nova Scotia, finishing with an overall win-loss record of 6-2, after finishing round-robin play at 3-2. The PEI rink got by the Steve Murray/Harold Smallwood team from New Brunswick 5-3 in the quarter-final round, and edged the Chuck Dyke/Jim Burgess team from Nova Scotia 4-3 in the semis, while Marshall/Jenkins outlasted Montague’s Gordon MacDonald/Bazil Higginbotham twosome 3-2 in their low-scoring semi.
Maritime Stick Women’s Winners Gloria Clarke (left) and Ruth Stavert
In the Women’s Division, the Gloria Clarke and Ruth Stavert team, who went 6-1 in the competition, and have won both the PEI and Maritime stick titles numerous times, beat the duo of Elaine Hughes and Etta Reid, who repeated as PEI champions this season, 8-6 in an extra end in the all-PEI final. Hughes/Reid finished with a 5-2 win-loss record.
Maritime Stick finalists Etta Reid (left) and Elaine Hughes, with event organizer Ernie Stavert
Clarke/Stavert beat New Brunswick’s Sherill Minns and Sue Harris 8-1 in the semi-finals, while Reid/Hughes defeated the Ann Barwise/Audrey Callaghan duo from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton 8-3 in their semi-final match, in which they were leading 6-0 after three ends.
Some of the same teams and many others will be back at the Cornwall Curling Club for the Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship from March 31 to April 3rd.