MacLean/Dunsford and Hughes/Reid teams capture PEI Stick Curling Championships
The Ferguson-Logan Montague Funeral Home/Curl PEI Provincial Stick Curling Championships wrapped up this afternoon at the Charlottetown Curling Complex, with the Roddie MacLean/John Dunsford duo and the Elaine Hughes/Etta Reid team, both from the Cornwall Curling Club, capturing the Open and Women’s divisions, respectively.
The four teams in the finals all featured a combination of an experienced stick curler and someone new to competitive stick curling, with defending Canadian champion and last year’s provincial runner-up MacLean, teamed up with new curler John Dunsford, defeating Bill Glydon and new stick curler John Davis from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton by a 4-2 score, and Elaine Hughes and Etta Reid blanking Cornwall clubmates Shirley Lank and Mabel England by a 9-0 score.
Photo: Open Division Stick Curling Champions Roddie MacLean (left) and John Dennis (right) with Shirley Lank, Curl PEI Past President (centre)
Photo: Women’s Division Stick Curling Champions Elaine Hughes (left) and Etta Reid (right), with Ernie Stavert from Stick Curl PEI.
Hughes edged four-time defending champions Ruth Stavert and Gloria Clarke, also from the Cornwall club, 5-4 in the semi-final (Stavert is also Canadian women’s champ), while MacLean blanked the Bob Leard/Howard Kerwin duo from Montague 7-0.
MacLean finished round robin play with a 6-1 win-loss record, while Fisher was 5-1, and Glydon and Leard were 5-2. Hughes and Lank were both 4-2 in the women’s division, while Stavert went 3-3. 15 Open Division and 8 Women’s Division teams took part.
All four open division teams in the semis and the final, along with the top two women’s rinks from this year’s event (Hughes and Lank) earn the right to compete in the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 18-20 at the Gage Curling Club in Oromocto NB.
The top two Open division teams also earn the right to compete in the 2014 Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, March 30-April 2 at the St. Albert Curling Club in St. Albert Alberta. This is an “open” event, but reserves entries for the top two teams from each of BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI.
Photo: Open Division Stick Curling runners-up Bill Glydon (right) and John Davis (left) with Shirley Lank from Curl PEI
Photo: Women’s Division Stick Curling runners-up Shirley Lank (left) and Mabel England, with Ernie Stavert from Stick Curl PEI.
A patch, donated by Montague delivery stick manufacturer Bob Leard of “Bob’s Stick” was presented to Glydon and Davis for scoring a six-ender (the stick equivalent of an eight-ender in “regular” curling) during the competition.
Photo (L-R): John Davis, Bill Glydon, Stick Curling PEI’s Ernie Stavert
In stick curling there are two curlers per team, who deliver their rocks with delivery sticks, with each team member delivering from opposite ends. Sweeping is allowed only from the hog line to the back of the house at the playing end. Two curlers, one from each team, alternately deliver 6 stones each per end, while their teammate skips that end. The roles are then reversed, and the partners deliver the stones back. No stone may be removed from play until the fourth stone of each end. Games are six ends and take about an hour to play. For more information on stick curling, including complete rules of play, visit www.stickcurling.ca.
