MacDonald successfully defends PEI Labatt Tankard

Rod MacDonald and his Charlottetown Curling Club team of third Kevin Champion, second Mark O’Rourke and lead Andrew Robinson successfully defended their Labatt Tankard Sunday in Alberton, defeating Robert Campbell, 5-4 in the final. MacDonald thus finished with a perfect 6-0 mark, after claiming first place in the six-team round robin with a 5-0 record. Meanwhile, Campbell had finished in a three-way tie for second with a 3-2 record.  The former eight-time provincial champion first defeated John Likely, 8-3, then ousted Eddie MacKenzie, 9-6 to advance to the showdown with MacDonald. It will be MacDonald’s seventh Brier appearance, fourth as skip.  He played for brother Peter MacDonald in three other Briers, as third in 1978, then as lead in 1981 and 1996.  He skipped in 2005 in Edmonton, finishing with a 4-7 mark, in 2006, winding up 3-8 in Regina and was 2-9 last year in Calgary. It will also be the seventh Brier appearance for Champion, all as third, after competing in 2003 for skip Robert Campbell, in 2005, 2006 and 2009 for skip Rod MacDonald and in 2007 and 2008 for skip Peter Gallant. O’Rourke will be making his 11th Brier appearance, after playing second for Campbell in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999, second for Peter MacDonald in 2001 and for Peter Gallant in 2007 and 2008, as alternate for the Rod MacDonald team in 2006 and lead in 2009. Robinson makes his third Brier appearance, after skipping Prince Edward Island in 2000 (4-7 in Saskatoon) and playing second for MacDonald last year. Prince Edward Island has yet to win the Brier since joining the competition in 1936.