All the way hard…whoa!

Life continued to look good for the female Albertans at this year’s Canadian Senior Curling Championships presented by Raymond James leading into today`s eleventh draw. This morning the women of the blue & gold brigade (Cathy King) strutted their stuff against the defending champion from New Brunswick (Heidi Hanlon). One might have referred to the performance by Team AB is a surgical in nature. They did not give Team NB much of an opening in any of the first ends in the first half of the game. But, with the tenacity that has become the hallmark of the defending champions from the Thistle-St. Andrews C.C. in Saint John, NB, Team NB fought their way back to tie the game at five at the conclusion of seven ends. The teams traded “ones” in ends 8 & 9 leaving the game to be decided in the 10th with AB having last stone advantage. With skip King’s last shot as an attempted hit-and-stay for the win, she hit but rolled a little too far leaving a NB stone counting in the back of the house for the win. There are no longer any undefeated teams in the women’s section of the championship! Team AB is now tied at 5-1 with Team NL (Cathy Cunningham). Team NB stands at 2-4.

Photo by Davina

Sheet B was the site of the battle of the ‘Nancy`s’! Team NS skipped by Nancy Delahunt went up against Team Ontario with Nancy Harrison at the controls. As in the NB v AB game described above, this one too was a last rock situation only this time the team ‘with’ last stone made it count as Colleen Jones (delivering last stones for Team NS) drew to the four foot circle for the win, 8-7. The team out of the Mayflower C.C. in Halifax is now 4-2 while the Upper Canada crew sport a 3-3 record. In the remaining women`s game, with eyes straying to the NB v NS game on sheet A on occasion, Team NL (Cathy Cunningham) defeated Team QC (Odette Trudel) 13-5 in nine ends. There will be a showdown looming between AB & NL in the 13th draw if both teams (AB & NL) win there next games. In curling it’s usually good to have last stone advantage. There’s one instance when it’s not good. It’s not good to have last stone advantage for almost the entire game as the lads from Prince Edward Island (Dave Wilkinson) discovered in their game with the prairie gang out of The Nutana C. C. in Saskatoon. The wheat province four (Eugene Hritzuk) pitched a10-0 shutout to send the islanders to a 1-5 record and boost theirs to 3-3. Team QC (Pierre Charette) is climbing back into contention slowly and methodically as they posted a hard fought 10-7 win over the Kelly Robertson squad out of the Neepawa C.C. in Manitoba. The Quebecers are back curling at .500 (3-3) along with the Buffaloes. The final men`s game on sheet F pitted the host province skipped by Dennis Graber against their counterparts from Northern Ontario (Rob Gordon). Team BC made good on last stone advantage in the last end scoring two to win 5-3. The victory leaves Team BC one game behind in the loss column (5-1) to front running AB (5-0). Scores & Standings Host Committee Web Site