This year’s PEI Masters (age 60+) Curling Championship Men’s and Women’s winners and finalists are a repeat of last year’s.
PEI Masters Women’s Winners (L-R): Sandy Hope, Shelley Ebbett, Debbie Rhodenhizer, Arleen Harris
PEI Masters Women’s Finalist Team (L-R) Pat Aylward (Chairperson of the Silver Fox Entertainment Complex), Shirley Berry, Sherren MacKinnon, Gloria Turner, Linda Fairhurst, Anson Carmody (Vice President of Curl PEI)
Last year’s women’s winners, the Sandy Hope team from Cornwall, needed only the first of two scheduled championship round games, on Monday afternoon, to repeat as champions, as they won their second section, the “C”, Monday morning, 8-3 over their clubmates and last year’s finalist rink, the Shirley Berry squad (who won the “A” section), and had a “double life” in the championship round, winning the title if they took either game, while Berry and her team would have had to win both. As it turned out, Hope only needed the first game, winning 6-4, with single steals in the third and sixth ends making the difference. The winning Hope team includes third Shelley Ebbett, second stone Debbie Rhodenhizer, and lead Arleen Harris, while Sherren MacKinnon, Linda Fairhurst, and Gloria Turner complete the Berry foursome.
Earlier on Monday, it took an extra end, but the defending champion Lou Nowlan men’s team from the host Silver Fox Curling Club in Summerside ran the Masters table again this year, going undefeated with a 5-0 record, and capturing heir third modified triple knockout section to repeat as men’s champions without having to play the championship round. Nowlan and his team of third stone David MacFadyen, second Earle Proude, and lead Alan Montgomery, played the Bill Hope rink from Cornwall in all three section finals, recovering from a 5-3 deficit after seven ends in the Monday morning “C” final with a tying eighth-end deuce, and a single-steal in the extra end for a 6-5 final score. Other members of the finalist Hope rink are third Peter Murdoch, second stone David Murphy, and lead Dario Zannier.
Winning men’s team (L-R): Mary MacKay (President, Silver Fox Curling Club), Lou Nowlan, David MacFadyen, Earle Proude, Alan Montgomery, Andrew Robinson (Past President, Curl PEI)
Finalist Men’s Team (L-R): Mary MacKay (President, Silver Fox), Bill Hope, Peter Murdoch, David Murphy, Dario Zannier, Andrew Robinson (Past President, Curl PEI)
Nowlan and Proude have now been on the winning men’s team at this event for ten years in a row, including four years with skip Ted MacFadyen and four with Mel Bernard as skip. Montgomery has picked up his seventh consecutive Master’s men’s title. Nowlan also won this event in the skip position five times in a row, from 2003 to 2007, for a grand total of 15 Masters wins.
Both the winning Nowlan and Sandy Hope and finalist Bill Hope and Shirley Berry 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 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.
Complete results from the PEI Masters are available at PEICurling.com/scoreboard
Five men’s and three women’s teams took part in the PEI Masters event this year.