PEI rinks are both 1-1 following opening day Monday play at the Community First Curling Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in the 2021 Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships, for curlers age 50 and over. PEI’s Kim Dolan-skipped women’s team from Cornwall downed Northern Ontario 9-0 in six ends, but lost 8-5 to Manitoba’s Kim Link foursome. PEI plays Quebec, and Sask. (Sherry Anderson) on Tuesday. Anderson is looking for a record-breaking fourth consecutive Canadian senior women’s title at this event.
In men’s play, the Philip Gorveatt squad from Montague lost their opener 7-3 to N. Ont., but rebounded with a 6-3 doubling of BC. Click to watch a replay of victory over BC on Curling Canada’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/3Us5imlvrAI
The Island men play the Yukon at 9 pm Tues.
The PEI women’s team from the Cornwall Curling Club (L-R) SKIP: Kim Dolan, THIRD: Susan McInnis, SECOND: Kathy O’Rourke, and LEAD: Julie Scales
The PEI men’s team, representing the Montague Curling Club, includes (L-R): SKIP: Philip Gorveatt, THIRD: Kevin Champion, SECOND: Sean Ledgerwood, and LEAD: Mike Dillon
Fourteen men’s and 14 women’s teams (representing the 10 provinces plus Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon) are competing, and have been seeded into two pools per gender, based on 2019 results, and will first play a round robin within their pool through Wednesday.
The top four in each pool then advance to the Championship Pool for games against teams from the other pool, while the remaining teams go to the Seeding Pool. At the conclusion of the Championship Pool on Friday, Dec. 10, the semifinals will be held Saturday, Dec. 11, at 10:30 a.m., pairing 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3. The winners then advance to their respective gold-medal final while the losers will play for bronze. The medal games are set for 3:30 p.m.
Northern Ontario has won one Canadian senior men’s curling title, courtesy of skip Al Hackner in 2006. The women have won two events — in 1991 led by Eila Brown and in 1995 by Sheila Ross.
The Canadian Senior Men’s Championship began in 1965 at Port Arthur, Ont. Since then, Manitoba has won a leading 12 titles, Ontario is next with 11 while Alberta has 10.
The Canadian Senior Women’s Championship began in 1973 at Ottawa. Ontario has won a leading 10 crowns, followed by Saskatchewan with nine and British Columbia with eight.
The championships were conducted separately until being combined in 1985 at Yorkton, Sask.
This year’s winners will represent Canada in the 2022 World Seniors, at a site and date to be announced by the World Curling Federation.
Draw results for the 2021 Everest Canadian Seniors will be available at www.curling.ca/scoreboard. For event information, visit www.curling.ca/2021seniors.
This is the sixth year of title sponsorship by Everest, the first nationwide funeral planning and concierge service.
Games from the 2021 Everest Canadian Senior Championships will be live-streamed on TSN.ca as well as on Curling Canada’s YouTube channel. Check curling.ca/broadcast for the up-to-date broadcast schedule.
(With info from Curling Canada)