Alberta’s Deb Santos Wins Shoot-Out

Alberta’s Deb Santos had a solid opening day at the 2013 Canadian Senior Women’s Curling Championship in Summerside, PEI.
Following up on her opening round win over the host province, Santos squared off against Ann McKellar-Gillis of the Yellowknife CC. In a game that almost required a ‘bigger’ scoreboard, Santos finally prevailed 13-9 despite owning a 9-3 lead early in the game. The St. Albert CC squad is at 2-0 in the round robin. The NWT team drops to 0-2 despite scoring 18 points in two games. Four other teams join Alberta at 2-0. Truro’s Colleen Pinkney, the 2009 Canadian Senior champion and 2010 World Senior Champion, edged BC’s Karen Lepine 9-8 in an extra end. Pinkney won her 2009 title in this building, the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club. Lepine remains sidelined with a fractured wrist. Regular third Lorraine Jeffries is skipping with local alernate Nancy Sinclair playing second stone. Manitoba’s Lois Fowler joins the group following a defeat of the current World Senior champion Heidi Hanlon of NB 10-9. Fowler led 10-4 after 6 ends only to watch Hanlon battle back. St. John’s Laura Phillips snuck past Saskatchewan’s Cathy Inglis 5-3 on the strength of a steal of one in the 9th to give her a two point lead. Finally, Quebec finished off their strong start with Thurso’s Catherine Derick stopping Nola Murphy of the host club and province 13-6. Joining Hanlon at 1-1 is Northern Ontario’s Vicky Barrett. The Sudbury skip dropped Ontario’s Judy Oryniak to 0-2 with a hard fought 6-5 last stone victory. Also winless after two games are BC’s Lepine and Saskatchewan’s Inglis. The Canadian Seniors is being played at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, PEI. Results can be found at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/?e=8. Play continues all week with the championship finals for both genders scheduled for Sunday, March 24 at 10:00 am EST. The winners will represent Canada at the 2014 World Seniors at a location yet to be announced.