Feb. 23-There’s a new winner this year in the men’s division of the Ferguson’s Funeral Homes Provincial Stick Curling Championships, which wrapped up this afternoon at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside, with the Floyd Stewart/Gordon MacDonald duo from the Montague Curling Club edging the three-time defending champion Walter Callaghan/John Vincent twosome from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton by a 5-4 score in the final. The Montague team trailed 4-3 after four ends, blanked the fifth, and scored a deuce in the final end for the come-from-behind win.

The men’s bronze medal game, between two-time stick champions Sterling Stratton and Ernie Stavert of Cornwall and Alberton’s Peter Larter and Eddy Bernard, was all but over in the first end, with the Stratton rink counting with five of their six stones. Larter scored a single in two, but Stratton blanked the third, and scored a triple in the fourth to end the game early with an 8-1 final score.

The women’s final was decided on Wednesday, with the final round robin draw, scheduled for this morning, not being needed, as the two-time defending champion Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke rink from the Cornwall Curling Club had a perfect 5-0 record, while the second-place team of Audrey Callaghan of the Western Community club, and Ann Barwise of the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary were at 3-2 and could not catch up to the winners in the final draw.  The rules specified that a final would be played only if the top two teams were tied.  The other two women’s teams, the Shirley Lank/Mary Plamondon team and the Karen Fisher/Elaine Hughes duo, both from Cornwall, were out of reach of the top two spots, with 1-4 records.

The top four men’s teams, Stewart/MacDonald, Callaghan/Vincent, Stratton/Stavert, and Larter/Bernard, and the top two women’s rinks, Stavert/Clarke and Callaghan/Barwise, all earn the right to compete in the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 13-15 at the Amherst Curling Club in Nova Scotia.

The top two men’s teams, Stewart/MacDonald and Callaghan/Vincent, may also compete at the 2012 Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, April 3-5 at the Highland Curling Club in Regina.

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.

Twelve men’s rinks and four women’s teams took part in this event, now in its sixth year.