Ontario and New Brunswick at 3-0

Ottawa’s Howard Rajala has joined former Ottawan Wayne Tallon of New Brunswick at the top of the leaderboard at the 2013 Canadian Senior Men’s Curling Championship at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, PEI. Rajala and his Rideau Curling Club’s team came out strong in the opening ends building a 6-0 lead after but two ends against Glen Hudy of the Yellowknife CC.  Hudy replied with a score of three in the 3rd end but it wasn’t enough to stay close to Rajala as he coasted to a 12-5 win in 8 ends. Tallon, with Mike Kennedy delivering skip’s stone, also boosted his record to 3-0 ending Nova Scotia’s Alan O’Leary short winning streak at two wins. Tallon led 3-1 after four ends and 5-1 after six ends coasting to a 7-3 win over in the 9th end. O’Leary’s record is now 2-1. In the final men’s game of this Sunday night draw, Wade White of Alberta scored three in the final end in defeating Glenn Goss of Newfoundland & Labrador 10-8 in an entertaining game. The game was tied three different times until the 9th when Goss only took a single to be one up coming home without last stone. Alberta is 2-1 while Goss, the 2012 runner-up at this event is at 1-2. Northern Ontario’s Bruce Munro (0-3), BC’s Craig Lepine (1-2), Québec’s Robbie Maclean (1-2), Saskatchewan’s Gord Bell (1-2), PEI’s Rod MacDonald (2-1) and Manitoba’s Bob Sigurdson (2-1) had the evening off. In the women’s event, Manitoba’s Lois Fowler joined the leaders at 3-0 with a stunning defeat of Northern Ontario’s Vicky Barrett. The Sudbury skip led 7-4 playing the 8th end but surrendered single points in that end, then the 9th, 10th and extra ends to lose 8-7. Fowler joins Alberta’s Deb Santos and Nova Scotia’s Colleen Pinkney at three wins against no losses. BC skip Karen Lepine returned to action despite a broken left wrist from an accidental fall during the first game’s practice session. She scored back to back three enders in the 5th and 6th ends to stop still winless Nola Murphy of the host province 9-5. Saskatchewan’s Cathy Inglis continues to struggle losing 9-7 to Ann McKellar-Gillis of Yellowknife. The Yorkton skipper joins PEI and Ontario searching for that first win. Enjoying the evening byes were Alberta’s Santos (3-0), Nova Scotia’s Pinkney (3-0), Québec’s Catherine Derick (2-1), NL’s Laura Phillips (2-1), New Brunswick’s Heidi Hanlon (2-1) and Ontario’s Judy Oryniak (0-3). The Canadian Seniors is being played at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, PEI. Results can be found at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/?e=8. Play continues all week with the championship finals for both genders scheduled for Sunday, March 24 at 10:00 am EST. The winners will represent Canada at the 2014 World Seniors at a location yet to be announced.