Senior women take to the ice in Yellowknife

The opening shots were delivered in the 2014 Canadian Senior Curling Championships hosted by the Yellowknife Curling Centre today. Following a two-day pre-qualifying event that added two teams to the ten-team field for both men and women, the full round robin began in two facilities which reside side-by-side in the capital of the Northwest Territories. In the curling facility, a former Women’s Senior World Champion team representing the province of New Brunswick (Hanlon) was matched up with a very experienced foursome from Manitoba (Fowler). The other women’s game in the curling facility saw one of the teams that gained a spot in the round robin out of the pre-qualifying event, Team Prince Edward Island (Scott) paired with Team Quebec (Derick). In the arena, another four women’s games took place, pairing Northern Ontario (Barrett) and the Northwest Territories (McKellar-Gillis), Alberta (Bakker) and Newfoundland & Labrador (Cunningham), Ontario (Bodogh) and Nova Scotia (Pinkney) and Saskatchewan (Arguin) and British Columbia (Shantz). After all the pebble in both venues had settled, the results were; MB 8 – NB 7 (extra end), PE 9 – QC 6, ON 8 – NS 6, AB 3 – NL 9, SK 7 – BC 6, NT 7 NO – 5. The first draw of the men’s section will take place this evening! 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. (Story by Bill Tschirhart)