Quebec Determined to Stay in the Lead

Mike Fournier’s hometown favourite Team Québec is showing no signs of relinquishing first place at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship being held at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal (part of greater Montréal). Fournier, with teammates Alanna Routledge, Mike Kennedy and Joëlle St.-Hilaire, hailing from the Glenmore CC, scored in big numbers in a 9-6 dumping of BC’s Tom Buchy (2-2). A count of four in the 2nd end, two in the 4th and three in the 7th end jumped Fournier to a 9-4 lead. Buchy made a nice double take-out to score one in the 8th and then stole a single in the 9th to make it interesting but inevitable. Fournier is perfect at 4-0 and now the lone unbeaten team at this year’s edition when Nova Scotia’s Brent MacDougall went down to defeat at the hands of veteran mixed campaigner Terry McNamee of Brandon, Manitoba. McNamee needed the win to avoid falling too far behind and now sits at 2-2. Manitoba led 4-1 at the 5th end break and 6-4 playing the last end. MacDougall could not manufacture a deuce in the last end however, and the final score was 6-4. MacDougall is now 3-1.

photo by Eve Bélisle

Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung (3-1) kept pace and is tied for second overall after his 11-5 win over Steve Fecteau of the Yukon (0-4). A big score of five points in the 6th end broke open a close game against the tough luck Whitehorse team. In the final game of draw #6, Robert Campbell earned his first win of the tournament 13-4 over Inuvik’s Nick Saturnino. Campbell is 1-3 and Saturnino is 0-4. Teams from Monday morning’s draw had the afternoon byes: Alberta’s Kurt Balderston (1-2), Ontario’s Cory Heggestad (2-1), Northern Ontario’s Mike Assad (2-1) and New Brunswick’s James Grattan (2-1). Play continues all week at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec (part of greater Montréal) with the championship final set for 2:00 pm EST on Saturday, November 24th. Real time results are available at www.curling.ca Live streaming is available at www.canadianmixed.com Monday evening games are scheduled for 7:00 pm EST.  The key match-ups in draw 6 are games between Nova Scotia vs. Northern Ontario and Quebec vs. New Brunswick.