Logjam at the top of Senior Men standings

The championship pool games began this morning at the 2015 Everest Canadian Senior Men & Women’s Curling Championships at the Thistle CC in Edmonton.After this opening round, four teams are now tied for first place at 3-1. Teams in this pool carried over their round robin wins against the teams in their pool who advanced with them, or three games.  Alberta’s Glen Hansen, New Brunswick’s Wayne Tallon, Ontario’s Jeff McCrady and Manitoba’s Randy Neufeld each won their games this morning. Hansen stole a single point in the 2nd end to go up 2-0 against BC’s Wes Craig. After a BC single point, the Hinton CC team grabbed two points in the 4th end for a 4-1 lead. They went to a defensive mode not allowing BC any opportunities to score multiple points. A meaningless steal in the last end made the score close at 5-4.  BC drops to 0-4. New Brunswick’s Tallon survived giving up three points in the 2nd event to Nova Scotia, clawing their way back to lead for the first time with a deuce in the 7th end. The NB team, with Mike Kennedy throwing last stones, played to steal the 8th end as they were one up without coming home. They executed well as Sangster’s failed in his attempt at a long raise take-out to tie the game.  The final score was 6-4. Nova Scotia drops to 1-3. Ontario’s Jeff McCrady resorted to larceny in his game stealing single points in the 5th and 6th ends to lead Saskatchewan’s Glen Despins 5-2.  Saskatchewan scored two in the 7th end to get close but the Ottawa CC foursome with Brian Lewis delivering fourth stones, were efficient in keeping the front clean allowing Lewis to score his point and a 6-4 win. Despins’ record is now 1-3. Randy Neufeld of La Salle, Manitoba needed a nose hit to win his game against Quebec’s Ted Butler. The four foot was cluttered with stones but Butler’s raise double attempt resulted in only sitting one wide open for Neufeld to remove.  The final score was 7-5.  Butler’s record is 2-2.
Northern Ontario's Al Hackner

Northern Ontario’s Al Hackner ((Photo Annie Teveniuk and Lisa Miller)

In seeding round play, Northern Ontario’s Al Hackner score 5 points in the first end against Rod MacDonald of PEI but the score was 7-5 playing the 7th end with PEI holding the hammer. The PEI squad unfortunately gave up a steal of three in that end conceding it to Hackner 10-5. Seeding Pool teams carry forward their full records so Hackner is now 3-4 while PEI is 2-5. In the final game of the morning, the NWT’s Glen Hudy scored early and often against NL’s Glen Goss leading 8-0 by the 4th end. Goss shook hand after the 6th, losing 8-1.  Hudy is 3-4 while Goss is 2-5. Nunavut’s Ed Sattelberger (0-6) and Yukon’s Walter Wallingham (1-5) had morning byes. Here are the standings: Championship Pool – MEN Alberta (Hansen) 3-1 Manitoba (Neufeld) 3-1 Ontario (McCrady) 3-1 New Brunswick (Tallon) 3-1 Quebec (Butler) 2-2 Saskatchewan (Despins) 1-3 Nova Scotia (Sangster) 1-3 British Columbia (Craig) 0-4 Seeding Pool – MEN Northern Ontario (Hackner) 3-4 Northwest Territories (Hudy) 3-4 Newfoundland & Labrador (Goss) 2-5 Prince Edward Island (MacDonald) 2-5 Yukon (Wallingham) 1-5 Nunavut (Sattelberger) 0-6 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. Everest_Seniors2015_noURL_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.