Getting Messy In The Race To The Playoffs At Senior Men

Five teams have legitimate claims to the three playoffs spots available at the 2013 Canadian Senior Men’s Curling Championship at the Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club in Summerside, PEI. New Brunswick’s Wayne Tallon, the round robin leader heading into play today, posted a count of four points in the 2nd end against Québec’s Robbie Maclean to jump ahead 4-1. Maclean kept his cool, eventually tying the game at 5-5 with three points in the 7th end. He then stole a single in the 8th end to lead for the first time since the 1st end. The 9th end was blanked. In the 10th, Maclean faced a double take-out with his first stone but jammed it.  Mike Kennedy, who throws last stones for New Brunswick, made a nice hit and roll to lay two leaving Québec the freeze to escape the end. Maclean had the correct weight but was a touch on the low side settling for second shot stone. With great sweeping by the front end Mike Flannery and Wade Blanchard, Kennedy drew the four foot for the winning deuce by a score of 7-6. Tallon remains alone in first at 7-1. NB’s last three games are against Northern Ontario’s Bruce Munro (2-6), Manitoba’s Bob Sigurdson (3-5) and BC’s Craig Lepine (3-5).

Alberta Third – Doug McLennan
photo by Winston Maund

PEI’s Rod MacDonald, Alberta’s Wade White and Ontario’s Howard Rajala kept pace upping their overall records to 6-2 and tied for second.  PEI defeated NWT’s Glen Hudy (0-8) 7-1 in just seven ends. White survived an extra end against Manitoba’s Bob Sigurdson 8-7, while Rajala scored three in the 9th end for a 10-6 win over BC’s Lepine. Nova Scotia’s Alan O’Leary remains in the picture despite losing to Saskatchewan’s Gord Bell (3-5). O’Leary was down two playing the last end but couldn’t make his tying deuce losing 10-5. O’Leary is at 5-3. The final game of the morning draw featured Glen Goss of St. John’s, NL beating Sudbury’s Bruce Munro 10-4. Goss sits at 3-5 while Munro is 2-6. 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.