Quebec and Ontario take the lead at Canadian Wheelchair Championship

Quebec’s Benoit Lessard and Ontario’s Mike Munro have taken over first place after two days of competition at the 14th Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship at the Club de curling Boucherville in the Complexe sportif Duval Auto in Boucherville, Que. Lessard and his Magog Curling Club team of third Carl Marquis, second Johanne Mathieu, lead Christine Lavallée, alternate Claude Brudet and coach Germain Tremblay racked up an 8-0 lead after five ends against New Brunswick’s Mike Fitzgerald on Tuesday afternoon. Fitzgerald was able to score two points in the sixth, but it wasn’t enough to keep Quebec from taking an 8-2 victory and moving into first place in the standings, tied with Ontario. Munro and his Ilderton Curling Club team of third Tony Reynen, second Paul Grose, lead Shannon Wilcox, alternate Collinda Joseph and coach Christ Bowden came out on top of a tough 5-4 battle with British Columbia’s Gerry Austgarden, joining Quebec as the two undefeated teams in the round robin. Manitoba’s Dennis Thiessen is alone in third place, right behind the leaders, with a 2-1 record after defeating Alberta’s Jack Smart 6-2 in Draw 3. It was a bounce-back game for Thiessen, who gave up two three-enders in an 8-3 loss to Munro earlier in the day. In other Draw 3 match-ups, Northern Ontario’s Doug Dean defeated Nova Scotia’s Trendal Hubley-Bolivar 6-3, and Saskatchewan’s Gil Dash defeated Newfoundland and Labrador’s Cecilia Carroll 8-5. The round robin continues on Wednesday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. (all times EDT) Scores, standings and team information can be found on the event website, at www.curling.ca/2017wheelchair/.