The defending champion Lou Nowlan men’s team from the host Silver Fox Curling Club in Summerside has captured two of the three modified triple knockout sections at the PEI Masters Curling Championships, for curlers age 60 and over, and needs just one win out of their next three games, the “C” final at 10 am Monday, or one of the two championship round games, at 2:30 Monday and 10 am Tuesday, for a repeat men’s title, while their opponent, the Bill Hope foursome from Cornwall, would have to win all three.
Last year’s women’s winners, the Sandy Hope team, and finalist rink, the Shirley Berry squad, both from Cornwall, have won the “B” and “A” sections respectively, and are squaring off in the “C” at 10 am Monday. The winner of the “C” will have a “double life” in the women’s championship round, winning the title if they take either game, while their opponent would have to win both.
Nowlan hits for the win
In the Sunday morning “B” finals, a picked rock resulted in Bill Hope giving up three in the second end, the only end in which either team picked up more than a single, and Nowlan hit out Hope’s shot stone in the final end for a 5-4 win.
Sandy Hope rink
A four-ender in the second and a triple in the seventh gave the Sandy Hope rink a 9-5 lead coming home without hammer, and they kept the house clean, running the Berry team out of rocks in the final end.
Jay (left) and Sweet
Summerside’s Blair Jay staved off elimination in the other 10 am game, building up a 7-0 lead in four ends, but his opponent, Clair Sweet from the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary came back, but ended up one point short of a tie, with a final score of 8-7.
Nowlan and Sandy Hope both advanced automatically to the 10 am Monday “C” final by virtue of their “B” section win. Bill Hope punched his “C” ticket with an 8-2 “C” semi-final win on Sunday afternoon, over Jay in six ends, while Berry advanced with a 12-1 elimination of the host club’s Sheila Compton in another abbreviated contest.
Both the winning and finalist men’s and women’s teams will compete against their peers from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia at the Maritime Masters, here on PEI at the Cornwall Curling Club from March 12-14 2020, while the men’s and women’s winning teams, or the finalist teams if they are unable to attend, also earn the right to compete in the 2020 Canadian Masters Curling Championships, March 30-April 5, 2020 at the Riverside Country Club in Rothesay, and the Thistle St.-Andrews Curling Club in Saint John New Brunswick.
Live end-by-end results from the PEI Masters are available at PEICurling.com/scoreboard