ALBERTON -- A power outage, a storm and vacation schedules delayed the men’s final of the Ferguson’s Funeral Homes/Curl PEI Provincial Stick Curling Championship by a full two weeks.
When the game finally got underway on Thursday, teams didn’t seem to want to quit.
It took two extra ends for John Vincent and Walter Callaghan from the host Western Community Curling Club to emerge as champions.
Paul Field and Roddie MacLean from the Cornwall Curling Club scored a single in the sixth end to tie the score at 3-3 and send the game into an extra end.
The seventh end ended with no rocks in the house. Callaghan was looking at two Cornwall rocks when he stepped out of the hack with his final delivery in eight and he cleared both of them and stayed for the win.
The WCCC duo won the provincial title three years in a row before being dethroned last year.
“This is getting a lot tougher every year,” observed Callaghan, pointing out more and more people are picking up stick curling.
Field, who just made the switch to stick curling this year, acknowledged the growth in the use of sticks for rock delivery. During one night of curling this winter, Field said he counted 15 sticks being used on three sheets of ice.
There will be a lot more than 15 sticks on the ice in Cornwall from April 1 to 4, though, as that is the venue for the national stick curing championship and both the PE.I. winner and the runner-up are attending. They also plan to take in the Maritime stick curling championship March 12 to 14 in Montague.
The Ferguson’s Funeral Homes/Curl PEI Provincial Stick Curling Women’s Championship concluded before the power outage on February 21 with Ruth Stavert and Gloria Clarke from Cornwall taking the title.
There were 16 men’s and mixed teams and three women’s teams entered in this year’s provincial championship.
