Pinkney Survives a Scare at Canadian Seniors

The unbeaten streak looked to be coming to an end for Nova Scotia’s Colleen Pinkney at the 2013 Canadian Senior Women’s Championship at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, PEI. Pinkney was drawn against Ontario’s Judy Oryniak from the Galt CC and the win/loss records of the two teams suggested a mis-match. Pinkey was 5-0 and Oryniak at 1-4.  Pinkey jumped out to a 3-1 lead after four ends and then 4-2 after seven ends. In the 8th, Oryniak scored a nice deuce to tie the game, then forced NS to a single in the 9th. Down one coming home with the hammer, Oryniak played a solid end while NS struggled a bit, late in the end. Facing three Ontario counters, Pinkney’s first stone over curled, bumping one of Oryniak’s stone closer to the button.  Ontario then guarded the raise but, came a little deep leaving Pinkney the double raise. Her final stone curled a little too much but fortunately, her attempt resulted in sitting second shot, just in the eight foot circle. A simple draw to the full eight foot was there for the win; however, the Ontario skipper was heavy and only scored the one.  In the extra end, Pinkney made a nice come around tapback for shot stone. Oryniak was not able to duplicate the shot leaving Nova Scotia the 6-5 victory. They are now 6-0, two games ahead of the field. 2011 Canadian Senior champion Heidi Hanlon of Thistle St. Andrews in Saint John continued her climb up the leaderboard with a 6-3 win over Alberta’s Deb Santos. A steal of two in the 9th end opened up a three point lead for Hanlon which is how the game ended at 6-3. Hanlon is tied for third place with Quebec at 4-2 while Alberta drops to 3-3. Derick’s Thurso, QC team were in tough against Laura Phillips of Newfoundland & Labrador.  Derick led 4-1 after four ends but Phillips scored four points over the next five ends tying the score at five playing the 10th end. A couple of wonderful draw shots by Sylvie Daniel and Derick forced Phillips to a difficult double raise takeout to be shot stone. She missed it by inches ending the game 7-5 for Quebec. Phillips drops to 3-3. The Quebec men’s team skipped by Robbie Maclean was stellar in his victory over Manitoba’s Bob Sigurdson. Maclean made great shots in the 7th and 9th ends scoring two points each time. He protected the lead in the 10th end allowing Manitoba no opportunities to try and tie the game. The final score was 7-5.  Since losing his first two games, Maclean has strung together four straight wins now tied for third place at 4-2. Sigurdson has a 3-3 record. Joining Maclean at 4-2 is the host province’s Rod MacDonald. The PEI squad scored three points in the second end followed by steals in the next three ends to lead 9-2 after six ends. The final score was 9-3 in a game conceded after seven ends. In the final match-up Monday afternoon, Northern Ontario’s Bruce Munro earned his first win of the championship thumping BC’s Craig Lepine 9-4 on the back of a four count in the 8th end. Northern Ontario is 1-5 while BC is 2-4. All results can be found at here. The draw schedule can be found here. The list of teams participating in this seniors championships can be found here. Statistics for previous games played in the round robin can be found here. 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.