New Brunswick's Hanlon steals win in Draw 8 action

As another day came to a close at the Canadian Senior Curling Championships, the teams started to sort themselves out even though this draw is just shy of the midpoint of the round robin.

(Report by Bill Tschirhart)

There are now no undefeated teams in the women’s division. Going into Monday night’s games, there were four women’s teams tied in the loss column, the only column that really counts, with one loss (MB, ON, SK and PE). Three teams are right behind – Alberta, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island – chasing the leaders. On the men’s side, NS was the only undefeated team, and that situation was maintained as Nova Scotia’s Alan O’Leary scored two in the final end against New Brunswick’s Mark Armstrong to win 8-7 in their Draw 8 match-up.
New Brunswick's Heidi Hanlon in action at the 2014 Canadian Senior Curling Championships ((Photo James MacKenzie)

New Brunswick’s Heidi Hanlon in action at the 2014 Canadian Senior Curling Championships ((Photo James MacKenzie)

In a key game on the women’s side, two former world senior champions – Nova Scotia’s Colleen Pinkney and New Brunswick’s Heidi Hanlon – locked horns and as expected, it was tight right from the start. The game went down to Pinkney’s last rock, which slid a few centimetres too far, leaving the Saint John crew shot for a 5-4 victory. Ontario’s Marilyn Bodogh of St. Catharines defeated PEI’s Jennifer Scott 10-7, while on the men’s side, the PEI men led by Ted MacFadyen lost to Ontario’s Peter Mellor from Kitchener-Waterloo, who stole a point in the extra end for a 6-5 verdict. In the battle of the territories (YK vs NT) the George Hilderman of Whitehorse won the bragging rights for this season posting a score of 8-2 over the hometown team of Glen Hudy. Denis Laflamme put Quebec into the win column and did it with last-end heroics. Going into the last frame down one against Saskatchewan’s Darrell McKee, they blueprinted a deuce right out of the strategy manual and an 8-7 final score. Unfortunately Catherine Derick and the women from la belle province could not follow suit in their game, losing to Lorraine Arguin’s “green machine” by a 10-4 tally. The final game of the night was just one of those games, were you to talk to a member of Ann McKellar-Gillis’s Yellowknife team, as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Cathy Cunningham won going away with a 14-3 victory in their wake. The winners of the 2014 Canadian Seniors will represent Canada at the 2015 World Senior Curling Championships, at a site and date to be announced by the World Curling Federation. Last year’s Canadian champions, skipped by Colleen Pinkney of Truro, N.S., and Wayne Tallon of Fredericton, N.B., are competing in this year’s World Seniors, April 23-30 at Dumfries, Scotland. Since the World Seniors began in 2002, Canada has won eight men’s and nine women’s titles. Draw results for the 2014 Canadian Seniors will be instantly available at www.curling.ca. For information about the event, including team rosters and event schedules, visit www.curling.ca/2014seniors-en.