La Belle Province 5-0!

Mike Fournier and Team Québec continued their strong play at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship at the TMR Curling Club. In a highly entertaining game in front of a full house of pro-Québec fans, Fournier edged eight time Brier participant James Grattan of NB, 6-5. With the score tied at two playing the 7th end, Fournier took advantage of the hammer to score the first deuce of the game to go up 4-2. The Glenmore CC team then stole a single in the 8th to gain control at 5-2. But Grattan battled back with great shot-making to score three, tying the game at five in the 9th end much to the chagrin of the home town fans. In the 10th end, with Fournier’s stone on the button and a Grattan stone almost frozen on it, Fournier elected to not clear the front, throwing a guard instead, forcing Grattan to make a 15 foot run-back which he missed by inches leaving the Quebec stone the winning point. Fournier leads the pack at 5-0 while Grattan drops to 2-2. Nova Scotia’s Brent MacDougall appeared to shake off his first loss earlier today leading Northern Ontario’s Mike Assad 6-3 playing the 8th. But, Assad scored a deuce in that end, then stole a single in the 9th and stole the winning point in the 10th stunning the NS foursome 7-6.  Assad moves into a three way tied for second at 3-1 with Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung and Ontario’s Cory Heggestad. MacDougall posts a 3-2 mark. Heggestad has quietly moved his way up the leader-board since the dramatic come back after being down seven points against Manitoba earlier in the week. The Ontario team is gaining momentum after defeating Steve Fecteau of Whitehorse 7-2 in a game ending after seven ends.

photo by Eve Bélisle

In a match of former Canadian Mixed champions, Robert Campbell (1989 & 2011) of PEI scored two in the first and then traded singles until the 8th end with Alberta’s Kurt Balderston (1992). A key steal of one in that 8th end put Campbell up three playing the 9th end. Balderston made a nice raise takeout to score two in the 9th and had Campbell in trouble in the last end looking for the steal. Campbell calmly put an end to Alberta’s hope, drawing the four foot for a 7-5 win. Campbell has now won two games and sits at 2-3 while Balderston struggles at 1-3. The evening byes were: NWT’s Nick Saturnino (0-4), Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung (3-1), Manitoba’s Terry McNamee (2-2) and BC’s Tom Buchy (2-2). Play continues all week at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec (part of greater Montréal) with the championship final set for 2:00 pm EST on Saturday, November 24th. Real time results are available at www.curling.ca Live streaming is available at www.canadianmixed.com Tuesday draw times are scheduled for 10:00 am; 2:30pm and 7:00 pm EST.