The Rod MacDonald rink, a combined team from the Charlottetown Curling Complex and the host club, finished men’s round-robin play on Saturday evening with a perfect 5-0 (won-lost) record to advance to Monday’s final at 2 p.m.
Bill Hope and Blair Jay were next in the standings at 3-2. Hope beat Jay in their Friday round-robin encounter, and was awarded second place. These rinks will square off in Sunday’s semifinal at 6:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to the final.
The Hope foursome is from the Cornwall and Silver Fox clubs while the Jay rink is from The Fox.
In men’s play Saturday, MacDonald beat Hope 9-6 and downed Montague’s Donald Clarey and his Charlottetown team 12-3, taking a five-ender and stealing a four-pointer in a game that went only five ends.
Summerside’s Lou Nowlan beat Clarey 9-5 but lost 9-0 to Jay in another abbreviated game – this one going just four ends.
Masters champ Mel Bernard lost 6-4 to Jay and 9-4 to Hope. Nowlan finished round-robin play at 2-3 while Clarey and Bernard went 1-4.
Women
The second qualifier for the Page A-B game, and the two qualifiers for the Page C-D game in women’s play were all decided on Saturday. Summerside’s Nola Murphy beat clubmate Marg Nowlan 9-3 to take the second qualifier. Defending champion Shirley Berry and her Cornwall/Silver Fox team defeated Summerside’s Karen MacDonald 9-6 to take qualifier No. 3, and Kathy Clarey of Montague blanked Nowlan 9-0 to grab the final qualifying spot in the Page round, which takes place Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Page A-B game will see Montague’s Jennifer Scott rink, which won the A qualifier on Friday 11-1 over Murphy, again take on the Summerside team. The winner of this game will advance directly to Monday’s final at 2 p.m., and the loser going to Sunday’s semifinal at 6:30 p.m.
The Scott rink is back together again after winning the P.E.I. women’s championship 25 years ago.
The winner of the Page C-D game between Berry and Clarey will also advance to the semifinal, with the winner of that game facing Scott in the final.
The winning men’s and women’s rinks will return to represent P.E.I. at the Canadian senior championships, also being held at the Silver Fox, from March 16 to 24.
