Fuzzy Playoff Picture at Senior Women

While Nova Scotia is guaranteed the bye to the final, the battle for the final two playoff spots is up for grabs after Thursday evening’s play at the 2013 Canadian Senior Women’s Championship at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, PEI. The winner of the Québec vs Manitoba featured game will have a leg-up on one of those spots guaranteed to be 7-3 at the end of the evening. Catherine Derick’s Thurso-based foursome were behind 5-2 at the 5th end break. They turned it on in the 6th with a three count and then a steal of one in the 7th to take the lead for the first time.  The teams traded singles in the 8th and 9th leaving Manitoba a chance to score the winning deuce. This game went to Québec when Fowler failed to make her final stone. The final score was 8-6 pushing Derick to 7-3 and tied for second place with Alberta’s Deb Santos. Fowler is 6-4 and needs help if she has any hopes of a playoff spot. Santos had her eyes firmly set on a semi final berth against the surging Cathy Inglis of Saskatchewan. In a well played game, Santos was down one coming home in the 10th where she scored her two points to win the game 5-4. The loss eliminated Inglis from any playoff scenarios. In the final draw of the round robin, Québec meets BC’s Karen Lepine while Santos squares off with Northern Ontario’s Vicky Barrett who is still alive at 6-4 and can force tie-breakers with a win.  A Quebec loss could also force tie-breakers. Barrett sidelined defending world senior champion Heidi Hanlon of NB 11-9 in an extra end. Hanlon’s 5-5 mark will leave her outside the playoffs. While she already has the berth in the final sewn up, Pinkney kept the pedal down with a 13-5 romp over NWT’s Ann McKellar-Gillis. NS is a perfect 10-0 while NWT is 3-7. In other games, Laura Phillips of St. John’s defeated BC’s Karen Lepine 8-6. Both teams are 4-6. Finally, Ontario’s Judy Oryniak defeated PEI’s Nola Murphy 8-5. Ontario improves to 2-8 while Murphy is in the basement at 1-9. All results can be found at here. The draw schedule can be found here. The list of teams participating in this seniors championships can be found here. Statistics for previous games played in the round robin can be found here. 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.