Playoff picture clearer for Senior Women

As a result of the games in this 21st draw of the 2015 Everest Canadian Senior Women’s Curling Championship at the Thistle CC in Edmonton, the teams advancing to the playoffs have been identified. Regardless of what may transpire in tonight’s final draw for women, Saskatchewan’s Cathy Inglis, Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones and Alberta’s Terri Loblaw will advance to the semi finals Saturday morning. The final team to the semi finals will be decided by the game between Northern Ontario’s Peggy Taylor and BC’s Sandra Jenkins Friday night.  The seedings for the final teams will be decided later tonight once the final records have been determined. Inglis’ Yorkton team of Pat Kuspira, Donna Liebrecht and Bev Fuches were pushed to the limit by Manitoba’s Kim Link who led by one playing the final end with Saskatchewan holding last stone advantage. Link made a nice come around tap back to sit shot stone with Inglis sitting 2nd and 3rd shot.  Inglis wrecked badly with her first stone leaving Manitoba with a decision.  Draw for second stone? Guard shot stone? Or Tap shot stone back onto Inglis’ second shot? The East St. Paul skip chose door # 3 but she tapped it on the low side leaving the shot stone exposed but still a difficult take-out for Inglis. The shot stone had to be hit on the nose for the win which she executed perfectly for a 5-4 win.  Inglis is at 5-1 and will face Loblaw tonight. Link drops to 2-4 and will not qualify for the playoffs. Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones squared of with Alberta’s Terri Loblaw. With Alberta holding a slim one point lead in the 6th end, Jones played aggressively resulting in Nova Scotia scoring five points for a commanding lead so late in the game. The final was 8-5 improving Jones’ record to 4-2 now tied with Loblaw in the standings. While Northern Ontario and British Columbia were looking to continue their winning ways, both lost their morning games, albeit in different fashion.  Peggy Taylor of Kenora managed but a single point in an 8-1 thrashing by Newfoundland & Labrador’s Laura Phillips.  Sandra Jenkins of BC however, was in full control of her game leading 4-1 after six ends then 4-3 after seven ends but with the hammer in the final end against Québec’s Élaine Roy.  With Roy sitting three red stones in the twelve foot, Jenkins had to draw through a fairly wide port for the win but came up short despite frantic sweeping. The steal of three was crushing to BC losing 6-4.  While they both lost this morning, BC and Northern Ontario are still alive with that elimination game Friday night. In women’s seeding pool play, Ontario’s Kathy Brown defeated Nunavut’s Bev Ford (with Robin Manoll now skipping) 10-1. Brown will finish first in the seeding pool while Ontario will be ranked 9th for next year’s Senior Womens in Digby, NS.  New Brunswick’s Shelly Graham defeated Northwest Territories’ Debbie Moss 10-2. Graham will finish second in the seeding pool and NB will be ranked 10th in 2016 while NWT will be ranked 11th.
2015 Everest Seniors

NL’s Laura Phillips (photos by Annie Teveniuk and Lisa Miller)

STANDINGS – Championship Pool – MEN Alberta (Hansen) 5-1 Manitoba (Neufeld) 5-1 Quebec (Butler) 4-2 New Brunswick (Tallon) 4-2 Ontario (McCrady) 3-3 Nova Scotia (Sangster) 2-4 Saskatchewan (Despins) 1-5 British Columbia (Craig) 0-6 STANDINGS – Championship Pool – WOMEN Saskatchewan (Inglis) 5-1 Alberta (Loblaw) 4-2 Nova Scotia (Jones) 2-2 Northern Ontario (Taylor) 3-3 British Columbia (Jenkins) 3-3 Manitoba (Link) 2-4 Quebec (Roy) 2-4 Newfoundland & Labrador (Philips) 1-5 STANDINGS – Seeding Pool – WOMEN Ontario (Brown) 4-0 New Brunswick (Graham) 3-1 Northwest Territories (Moss) 2-2 Nunavut (Ford) 0-3 Prince Edward Island (Berry) 0-3 STANDINGS- Seeding Pool – MEN Northern Ontario (Hackner) 3-5 Northwest Territories (Hudy) 3-5 Newfoundland & Labrador (Goss) 3-5 Prince Edward Island (MacDonald) 3-5 Nunavut (Sattelberger) 2-6 Yukon (Wallingham) 1-7 At the conclusion of the Championship Round on Friday, the semifinals will be held Saturday morning, March 28 at 9:30 a.m. MT, pairing 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3. The winners then advance to their respective gold-medal finals at 2:30 p.m. while the losers meet in bronze-medal games at the same time. The winners of the 2015 Canadian Seniors will represent Canada at the 2016 World Senior Curling Championships, at a site and date to be announced by the World Curling Federation. Last year’s Canadian champions, skipped by Alan O’Leary of Nova Scotia and Lois Fowler of Manitoba, will be competing in this year’s World Seniors, April 18-25 at Sochi, Russia. Since the World Seniors began in 2002, Canada has won nine men’s and nine women’s titles. Draw results for the 2015 Canadian Seniors will be instantly available at www.curling.ca. For event information, visit Curling Canada’s Scoreboard HERE. Everest_Seniors2015_noURL_This is the first year of a three-year agreement by Everest, the first nationwide funeral planning and concierge service, to be the title sponsor of the Canadian Seniors.