MONTAGUE
Cornwall’s Debbie Rhodenhizer stitched together three wins – two tie-breakers and a semi-final – at the P.E.I. Travelers Provincial Curling Club Championship at the Montague Curling Club on Monday. The rink will need to add two more victories on Tuesday to advance as provincial champion.
Rhodenhizer and her team of Nancy MacFadyen, mate; Sandra Sobey, second and Cindy Nicholson, lead, will meet the championship’s round robin winner, the Melissa Morrow rink from the Silver Fox in the 10 a.m. final on Tuesday. The catch is it’s only a final if Morrow wins. Because she went through the round robin undefeated (5-0), Morrow needs to be defeated twice in the playoffs to be denied the title. If Rhodenhizer wins the morning draw, her team gets to face Morrow and Co, Darcee Birch, third; Lindsey Spencer, second and Miranda Ellis, lead in a winner-take-all final Tuesday at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile, the men’s champion has already been determined. The Jamie Newson rink from the Silver Fox scored a 5-3 win over Crapaud’s Alan Inman foursome in the 2 p.m. final on Monday. Joining Newson at the nationals, at a date and place yet-to-be announced, are Corey Miller, Patrick Ramsay and Adam Arsenault. Newson, who had hammer in the first end, score singles in each of the first three ends. Inman got a deuce in the fourth, but Newson was up 5-2 following a steal of one in the seventh.
Inman, who was third after round robin with a 4-2 record, scored four in the extra end Monday morning to defeat Western’s Daryl MacDonald rink 9-5 in the semi-final MacDonald and Newson had finished round robin at 5-1 but Newson got the bye to the final because he had beaten MacDonald in round robin play.
For Rhodenhizer, her day started with a 9-2 play-off win over Sharon Horne from Western. Her team followed that up with a late comeback against Cornwall’s Amanda Holm. Trailing 6-3 after six ends, Rhodenhizer scored three in the seventh and won 7-6 with a steal in the eighth.
Rhodenhizer, Horne and Holm had all finished round-robin with a 2-3 record.
Rhodenhizer counted five in the fourth end of the semi-final against Montague’s Tammy Dewar rink who finished round robin in second place at 3-2. That big end powered Rhodenhizer to a 6-3 win in a game that had only the one multiple point end and no stolen ends.
