Big win for Manitoba’s Kim Link

Manitoba’s Kim Link will be moving on to Championship Pool round at the 2015 Everest Canadian Senior Men’s Curling Championship at the Thistle CC in Edmonton as the result of a decisive 11-5 win over Ontario’s Kathy Brown. The East St. Paul skip stole two points in the first end but relinquished those two points in the 2nd end and then gave up her own steal of two in the third end. While only scoring a single in the 4th end, she was down 4-3 at the halfway point.  Brown could only manage a single point in the 5th end but then the wheels came off. Facing three guarded Manitoba counters, Brown attempted a run-back to limit the damage but jammed it leaving Link an open draw for four points now leading by two.  Link kept the pressure on with well executed peels and when Brown missed her draw to the four foot, stole another four points to end this game.  Manitoba is 3-1 with one game remaining in Pool play. Regardless of that outcome, she will advance to the championship pool. Alberta’s Terri Loblaw continues her strong play overwhelming Newfoundland & Labrador’s Laura Phillips 7-2. The Calgary skipper sits at 4-0 and will face Manitoba this afternoon to determine who will finish first in Pool B. BC’s Sandra Jenkins had the morning bye and will face PEI’s Shirley Berry (1-3) in the last game of Pool B. A win for Jenkins will advance her to the championship while PEI must win to have any hope of winning this Seniors title. Ontario and NL are both 1-3 playing each other in the last draw. The winner will advance coupled with a PEI loss. The results in Pool A are much clearer. Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia are both 5-0 and will move on.  Colleen Jones’ Mayflower crew scored a 7 ender in defeating Nunavut’s Bev Ford 12-3. The Nunavut team is now skipped by third Robin Manoll because of Ford being ill.  This afternoon Jones will play Cathy Inglis for first place in Pool A. The next two berths to the championship pool will be decided on the ice. New Brunswick (Graham), NWT (Moss), Québec (Roy) and Northern Ontario (Taylor) are each at 2-3 but play each other this afternoon.  Northern Ontario plays New Brunswick while Québec plays the Northwest Territories. The winners will advance to the championship pool while the losers will play in the seeding pool. Both Northern Ontario and New Brunswick helped their causes this morning with victories. Shelly Graham’s Fredericton squad overcame Yellowknife’s Debbie Moss 7-2 while Peggy Taylor from Kenora upended Élaine Roy of Jonquière. Pool play will end today and the championship round and seeding pools will begin tomorrow, March 25th. Fourteen men’s teams and 13 women’s teams (Yukon did not enter a team) are competing at this Canadian Seniors. Unlike the previous three years, when a pre-qualifying event was held to determine which two teams of gender advanced to the main draw, this year’s renewal sees all the teams seeded into two pools per gender to first play a round robin within their pool while also playing 8 end games as opposed to the 10 ends of the past. In men’s, the top four in each pool advance to the Championship Round for games against the teams from the opposite pool, while the bottom three in each go to the Seeding Pool. In women’s, the top four in each pool advance to the Championship Round for games against the teams from the opposite pool, while the bottom three in Pool A join the bottom two in Pool B for a round robin within the Seeding Pool. At the conclusion of the Championship Round on Friday, the semifinals will be held Saturday morning, March 28 at 9:30 a.m. MT, pairing 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3. The winners then advance to their respective gold-medal finals at 2:30 p.m. while the losers meet in bronze-medal games at the same time. The winners of the 2015 Canadian Seniors will represent Canada at the 2016 World Senior Curling Championships, at a site and date to be announced by the World Curling Federation. Last year’s Canadian champions, skipped by Alan O’Leary of Nova Scotia and Lois Fowler of Manitoba, will be competing in this year’s World Seniors, April 18-25 at Sochi, Russia. Since the World Seniors began in 2002, Canada has won nine men’s and nine women’s titles. Draw results for the 2015 Canadian Seniors will be instantly available at www.curling.ca. For event information, visit Curling Canada’s Scoreboard HERE. This is the first year of a three-year agreement by Everest, the first nationwide funeral planning and concierge service, to be the title sponsor of the Canadian Seniors.