Championship round underway at Everest Canadian Seniors

The championship round got underway this morning at the 2018 Everest Canadian Seniors Curling Championships in Stratford, Ont., with the leaders after the round robin starting their quest to secure a spot in the playoffs. In Women’s play, Mary Mattatall’s Bluenosers finished the day at the top of the standings with an 8-0 record. After five ends, Mattatall trailed 7-2 to Ontario’s Colleen Madonia, but picked up three in the sixth and stole the next two ends on the way to a 9-7 Nova Scotia victory. A logjam of four teams are right behind, all with 6-2 records: Ontario’s Colleen Madonia, Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson, New Brunswick’s Heidi Hanlon and British Columbia’s Lynne Noble. In other games, a tight match-up between New Brunswick and British Columbia in the afternoon draw proved just how intense the Championship Pool is expected to get. Tied in the eighth end, Noble’s B.C. rink grabbed three to make the final 7-4. Saskatchewan’s Anderson was victorious over Ontario’s Madonia, 8-3, and British Columbia secured a 6-3 win over Odette Trudel in the evening match-ups. On the Men’s side, no team remains undefeated, and after day one of Championship Pool, Northern Ontario’s Al Hackner and Quebec’s Ted Butler sit at the top of the leaderboard with matching 7-1 records. In the evening draw, Hackner stole four ends on the way to a 7-1 win against Alan O’Leary and his Nova Scotia team. “This has been a blast,” said Northern Ontario third Eric Harnden. “It’s so much fun to be out here curling competitively curling again. We’ve been getting better and better with each game and hope to continue that with two more tough games tomorrow.” New Brunswick’s Terry Odishaw and Quebec’s Butler gave the fans an evening battle on the ice at the RBC arena. The teams traded deuces most of the game, with Quebec coming out on top by a score of 8-6. Meanwhile on the Molson rink, two heavy hitters in Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane and Alberta’s Wade White went down to the wire. Cochrane, the home-province favourite, made up for a tough loss to Hackner earlier in the day by rebounding with a 6-3 win. Only the top four teams from each pool, Men’s and Women’s, advance to the championship round, with the rest of the field competing in cross-over games in a Seeding Pool. The top four finishers in the Championship Pool move on to the final four playoff positions. Championship and Seeding Pool play continues on Wednesday with three more draws, at 9:30a.m., 2:30p.m. and 6:30 p.m. EDT. Complete standings can be found at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/ Draw results for the 2018 Canadian Seniors will be available at www.curling.ca. For event information, visit https://www.curling.ca/2018seniors.