Underdogs take over at Seniors

Upsets ruled the day in the first round of the championship pool games at the 2015 Everest Canadian Seniors Curling Championships at the Thistle Curling Club in Edmonton. Saskatchewan’s Cathy Inglis started the day without a loss on her record until she was beaten by BC’s Sandra Jenkins in a game conceded after 7 ends.  Jenkins opened with a single point in the first end then stole one in the 2nd. Inglis managed single points in the 3rd and 5th ends sandwiched around a 4th end BC point. But two points in the 6th end for the Salmon Arm based team forced Inglis to gamble which did not pay off with a steal of two and the game over at 7-2.  BC brought forward only a single win to the championship pool and trailed the first place Inglis by two games before game time. That gap is now one game with Saskatchewan at 3-1 and BC 2-2. Continuing with the underdog theme, Kenora’s Peggy Taylor played her best game of the week when she needed it the most with a 6-3 win over Manitoba’s Kim Link.  Link’s East St. Paul team gave up a three ender in the 3rd end but could not generate any type of comeback in the next ends.  The win vaults Taylor into a tie for the last playoff spot with BC and Manitoba. Alberta’s Terri Loblaw struggled for the first half of her game with Québec’s Élaine Roy down 3-2 without the hammer playing the 5th end.  A big steal of three in that end– allowed them to breathe a little easier, blanking the 6th, stealing one in the 7th and running the Québec team out of stones for 6-3 win.  Alberta is alone at the top of the pool at 4-0 while Québec is in tough at 0-4. Colleen Jones of Nova Scotia kept pace with Alberta getting ahead of Newfoundland & Labrador’s Laura Phillips 6-1 after 6 ends.  Phillips made it interesting though, taking three points in the 7th and forcing Jones to deliver her last stone in the 8th for a 6-5 win. Jones is at 3-1 while Phillips is winless at 0-4. In the first seeding pool game for women, Ontario’s Kathy Brown scored the game’s only deuce in the 5th end sneaking by Shirley Berry of PEI 4-3. Brown is 1-0 and Berry 0-1 in this five team round robin. For the first time this week, the draws featured both genders as Nunavut’s Ed Sattelberger and Yukon’s Walter Wallingham took the ice in a men’s seeding pool game.  The Iqaluit skip won his first game of the competition 5-2 benefiting from steals in the 6th and 7th ends. Both teams are 1-6 in the men’s seeding pool. STANDINGS – Championship Pool – WOMEN Alberta (Loblaw) 4-0 Saaskatchewan (Inglis) 3-1 Nova Scotia (Jones) 3-1 Northern Ontario (Taylor) 2-2 Manitoba (Link) 2-2 British Columbia (Jenkins) 2-2 Quebec (Roy) 0-4 British Columbia (Philips) 0-4 STANDINGS – Seeding Pool – WOMEN Ontario (Brown) 1-0 Nunavut (Ford) 0-0 Northwest Territories (Moss) 0-0 New Brunswick (Graham) 0-0 Prince Edward Island (Berry) 0-1 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 STANDINGS – Seeding Pool – MEN Northern Ontario (Hackner) 3-4 Northwest Territories (Hudy) 3-4 Newfoundland & Labrador (Goss) 2-5 Prince Edward Island (MacDonald) 2-5 Nunavut (Sattelberger) 1-6 Yukon (Wallingham) 1-6 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. 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.