The 2020 PEI Scotties Tournament of Hearts Provincial Women’s Curling Championship, along with the Tankard Provincial Men’s Championship will take place concurrently at the Montague Curling Rink, beginning with a men’s draw at 9 am Wednesday, and wrapping up by the Sunday afternoon draw, with five teams competing in the Scotties, and eleven in the Tankard. If a team wins all three sections of the modified triple knockout event, a champion would be declared on Saturday evening, while a team winning two sections could wrap things up with a Sunday morning win.

There is no admission charge to watch this combined event, with the women’s championship sponsored by Kruger Products, Canada’s #1 tissue products manufacturer and the longest national corporate sponsor of amateur sport in Canada, along with local event sponsors O’Connor Glass, Tim Hortons, and Bogside Brewing. 50/50 draws will be held, with proceeds going toward the Montague Junior Curling Program.

The kitchen will be open for lunch (soup or chili and sandwiches) and supper (regular menu). Food and beverages are also available at the Bogside brewery, only a three-minute walk from the club, and at Tim Hortons, just a six-minute walk away.

Defending champions the Suzanne Birt women’s rink, curling out of the host Montague club this year, and the John Likely men’s team from Cornwall are back looking to defend their titles. Birt, a ten-time PEI Scotties champ, will be competing against the Veronica Smith and Melissa Morrow foursomes from the Silver Fox, the Amanda Power team from Charlottetown, with PEI junior champion skip Lauren Ferguson as an alternate, and the Tammy Dewar rink from the host club.

Likely, whose team this year includes Steve Burgess from last year’s edition, along with two members of Tyler Smith’s championship Junior team, Ryan Abraham and Jake Flemming, will be facing ten other teams, including another Cornwall rink which includes three members of the reigning World Senior Men’s Championship team — Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane and PEI natives Ian MacAulay and Morgan Currie, along with Mark O’Rourke. MacAulay and Currie are eligible under Curling Canada’s new “Birthright Status” eligibility rule for the Brier and the Tournament of Hearts, while Cochrane would be the team’s permitted “free agent”. 

Other teams include the Mitchell Schut junior rink from Cornwall, who were finalists in the recent Pepsi Juniors, the Steve vanOuwerkerk foursome, also from Cornwall, the Darren Higgins and Jamie Newson rinks from the Silver Fox, Charlottetown’s Philip Gorveatt,  Rod MacDonald and Eddie MacKenzie teams, and the Philip MacDonald and Keith Nabuurs foursomes from the host Montague club.

Teams have been seeded in their respective modified triple knockout draws based on cashspiel winnings, with Cochrane seeded 1st in the Tankard, followed by Newson, Higgins, vanOuwerkerk and Gorveatt, while Birt is top Scotties seed, followed by Power. Draws go daily at 9 am and 2 and 7 pm from the 8th through the 11th, with the Championship Round (not needed if a team wins all three draw sections) going Sunday the 12th at 9 am and, if needed, 2 pm. Opening ceremonies are at 6:15 on the 8th. 

Live end-by-end results will be available at:  PEICurling.com/scoreboard

The winning women’s team will advance to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Feb. 15-23, 2020 at
Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, while the men’s championship team will compete in the 2020 Tim Hortons Brier, Feb. 29 to March 8, 2020 at Leon’s Centre in Kingston Ontario.

Scotties Draw Tree

Tankard Draw Tree

Schedule

Tankard Games are in light blue

Scotties Games are in pink
Qualifying games have game number highlighted in yellow

*If required

Explanation for MA/WA and MB/WB Championship Round games:

1. One team wins all three qualifiers: Championship Round is not required.

2. One team wins two qualifiers. They play in both X and Z (and win the event if they win either game), the other winner plays in Y (and has to win both games).

3. Three separate winners: the team that played in the most qualifying games plays in Z and the other winners play off in X and Y. If there is a tie in number of qualifying games played, then the team that qualified earliest goes to Z and the other two teams play off in X and Y.

Team Rosters – Tankard

(Number = throwing order, S=skip)