It’s Getting Crowded In The Race To First Place!
The 2009 Canadian Mixed champion Sean Grassie of the Deer Lodge CC in Winnipeg handed previously unbeaten Sylvie Robichaud her first loss in draw seven at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship in Sudbury.
The match was tied at four after the 5th end, but Grassie stormed out of the break to score a deuce in the 6th end and then stole three points in the 7th to put the game out of reach. With the 11-5 victory, Grassie stays in contention with a 4-1 record while the New Brunswick foursome drop to 5-1. Robichaud is still alone in the lead, however, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta are on her heels.
Saskatchewan and PEI also met in this morning’s action in a pivotal game for Charlottetown skip Brett Gallant. In a well played game, Gallant’s team faced the unenviable task of being one point up playing the last end without the hammer. With six stones in and around the four foot area, Ackerman needed a hail mary triple takeout to perhaps score one maybe two. He missed however and Gallant stole two for a 7-4 decision upping his record to 4-2. Ackerman suffered his first loss now sitting at 4-1.
Alberta’s Kurt Balderston is quietly moving up the leaderboard following a 17-2 pasting of Yukon’s Scott Hamilton. The Grande Prairie team now has four wins against the one loss.
BC’s Doug Marshall squared off against Chris Sutherland of Nova Scotia also in a key match-up as neither team can afford to fall too far behind. In another back and forth game, Sutherland had a difficult hit to score two to win but had to settle for a single point and an extra end without the hammer. Marshall kept play relatively clean in the 11th and had a wide open takeout for the win 8-6. BC is now 3-2 while Nova Scotia falls to 1-4.
In the final match from draw seven, Northern Ontario and Newfoundland & Labrador seesawed back and forth until Mike Assad, the Thunder Bay skip back in action after illness on Sunday, scored three in the 8th to jump ahead by two and then stole a single in the 9th for a commanding 9-6 lead and the victory. Northern Ontario improves to 3-2 and NL’s Gary Alcock is still winless at 0-5.
Ontario (3-2), Quebec (3-2), NWT (1-3) and Nunavut (0-4) had the morning byes.
Standings www.curling.ca/championships/mixed/draw-schedule/standings/
For complete results, visit the CCA’s CurlCast www.curling.ca/championships/curlcast-1/
Draws continue throughout the week at the Sudbury Curling Club with game times each day – Saturday, November 12 to Thursday, November 17 – at 10:00 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The final draw is Friday, November 18th at 9:00 a.m. followed by playoffs leading to the championship final Saturday, November 19th at 1:30 p.m. (all times Eastern).