MacDonald won twice on Friday to improve to 3-0 (won-lost). MacDonald stole four in the ninth end to blow open a close game against Mel Bernard of the host Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club to post an 8-3 win in the afternoon draw. Then in evening action, MacDonald scored a single with the hammer in the 10th and final end to edge Lou Nowlan, also of The Fox, by a 6-5 score.
MacDonald’s teammates are third stone John Likely, second stone Mark O’Rourke and lead Peter MacDonald. Combined, the team members have won 23 P.E.I. Tankard provincial men’s championships over the years.
Bill Hope and his combined Cornwall/Silver Fox team are in second place in the round robin at 2-1. Hope lost 6-5 to Nowlan in the afternoon, and won 10-6 over Summerside’s Blair Jay in the evening.
Jay, Nowlan, Bernard and Montague’s Donald Clarey, who is skipping a Charlottetown Curling Complex team, round out the field with identical 1-2 records.
Women
In women’s action, the Montague Curling Club rink of Jennifer Scott, June Moyaert, Terri Thompson and Fran McGowan has qualified for the Page 1-2 playoff game on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Scott rink, which won the P.E.I. women’s curling title in 1988 and reunited for this year’s senior championships, built a 10-0 lead after five ends in Friday afternoon’s A qualifier game against Summerside’s Nola Murphy. The final score was 11-1.
Murphy will play Marg Nowlan of The Fox in the B qualifier on Saturday at 1 p.m. Nowlan advanced with a 9-4 win over clubmate Karen MacDonald on Friday night.
Nowlan scored a triple in the first end, and stole ends six through nine en route to the win.
The third qualifier is also set, with MacDonald taking on defending champion Shirley Berry and her Cornwall/Silver Fox rink, Saturday at 6 pm. Berry stole five consecutive ends in a 9-4 win over Cornwalll’s Diane MacKay rink this evening to advance to the qualifier.
Montague’s Kathy Clarey has locked up one of the two spots in the last qualifier game, Saturday at 6 pm, with a 10-2 win over Cornwall’s Karen Currie foursome this evening, following an opening-end triple with a stolen deuce and two singles to lead 7-0 after four ends.
The loser of the Nowlan/Murphy game will be the other team in the final qualifier, the winner of which will play the winner of the third qualifier in the Page 3-4 game on Sunday afternoon.
The winner of the Page 1-2 match will advance directly to the final while the loser will play the winner of the Page 3-4 game in the semifinal on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. The men’s and women’s finals are both set for Monday at 2 p.m.
The winning teams will represent P.E.I. in the Canadian senior curling championships that will also be staged at The Fox from March 16 to 24.
Scores
Friday’s scores at provincial senior curling ch’ships:
1 p.m. Draw
Karen MacDonald 10 vs. Karen Currie 5
Jennifer Scott 11 vs. Nola Murphy 1
Marg Nowlan 10 vs. Kathy Clarey 3
Lou Nowlan 6 Bill Hope 5
Blair Jay 8 Donald Clarey 2
Rod MacDonald 8 Mel Bernard 3
6 p.m. Draw
Donald Clarey 10 Mel Bernard 3
Bill Hope 10 Blair Jay 6
Rod MacDonald 6 Lou Nowlan 5
Shirley Berry 9 Diane MacKay 4
Kathy Clarey 10 Karen Currie 2
Marg Nowlan 9 Karen MacDonald 4
