PEI Men & Québec Women On A Roll

PEI’s Rod MacDonald and Québec’s Catherine Derick improved their respective records to 5-2 this morning at the 2013 Canadian Seniors Curling Championships at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside. MacDonald, John Likely, Mark O’Rourke and Peter MacDonald squared off this morning against Québec’s Robbie Maclean who was on a four game winning streak. The game was tied 2-2 after the 6th end heading to the 7th where PEI made the only deuce of the game to lead 4-2. Québec was forced to one in the 8th but stole a single in the 9th to tie it again. In the final end, third stone John Likely made a nice run-back to get the team out of a bit of trouble. Maclean decided to play another guard which MacDonald ignored drawing to the full four foot partially open. Maclean tried to follow him down to tap him out for shot stone but wrecked on the guard. PEI did not have to throw their final stone winning 5-4. PEI is now 5-2 and alone in third place behind Ontario’s Howard Rajala and New Brunswick’s Wayne Tallon, both with the morning off and both at 5-1. A key steal of two in the 6th end vaulted BC’s Craig Lepine to a 7-2 lead over Manitoba’s Bob Sigurdson. The game was conceded in the 9th at 8-4 for BC. Both rinks are 3-4. Northern Ontario’s Bruce Munro has a modest two game winning streak following a 12-4 drubbing of Saskatchewan’s Gord Bell.  Both teams are 2-5. Derick’s Thurso-based team came out strong against former Canadian Senior Champion, Heidi Hanlon of New Brunswick scoring three points in the opening end. Hanlon fought back to tie the game at five at the break. In the 6th end, Québec scored two then stole one in the 7th end and three points in the 8th end forcing handshakes from New Brunswick.  The final score was 11-5. Derick is 5-2 and alone in first place in the women’s section. Hanlon falls to 4-3 and tied for fourth place with Alberta’s Deb Santos. Santos broke open a close game with three points in the 8th end a steal of one point in the 9th end for a 9-4 win over Ontario’s Judy Oryniak. Ontario is 1-6. The final game of the morning was a 7-1 victory in just 7 ends by the leader, and the only undefeated team in the tournament, Colleen Pinkney of Truro, NS.  Pinkney scored two in the second end, then stole four points in ends three, four and five. She is alone at 7-0 and two games clear of her closest opponent, Lois Fowler of Manitoba. 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.