SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — It was a case of déjà vu for the Kim Dolan and Philip Gorveatt rinks this past weekend.
Both teams went undefeated in the modified-triple-knockout format en route to repeating as the P.E.I. senior curling champions for curlers aged 50 and over at the Silver Fox in Summerside.
“We had to prepare ourselves, and luckily things went our way,” said Gorveatt, who went undefeated for the second year in a row. “We were obviously excited to win; it’s always nice to win.”
Dolan said she was “delighted” to have the opportunity to play for a provincial championship during COVID-19 after skipping her team to a perfect record of 4-0 (won-lost).
“To add another title was quite awesome,” added Dolan, who played for P.E.I. in 10 Canadian women’s curling championships and attended numerous other Scotties Tournament of Hearts as an alternate and coach.
The Dolan and Gorveatt rinks have earned the right to represent P.E.I. at the Canadian senior curling championships in December. However, it will depend on COVID-19 if the nationals will go ahead.
“We will see what the country looks like in another six months,” said Gorveatt, who has won four provincial senior titles in the last five years. “There are some other events that will be in a similar timeline, so they may decide to try to do them all together, or they may decide to do none of them. We will just let fate take its course.”
Short-staffed rink
The Dolan rink, which curls out of the Cornwall Curling Club, played with three players as second Kathy O’Rourke is attending the 2021 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary. O'Rourke is the alternate on Team P.E.I.’s Suzanne Birt rink.
“We consider (O’Rourke) a very influential teammate and a great person, so we wanted to stick with playing three and not bring someone else into our mix,” said Dolan, a Charlottetown resident.
Julie Scales served as vice-skip and threw the first three rocks. Susan McInnis threw rocks four to six, and Dolan made the final two shots of each end.
Dolan said familiarity with each other also made the decision to go with three players an easy one.
“The girls played awesome, and we stuck to our game plan and were successful,” said Dolan.
Team Dolan defeated clubmate Shirley Berry 11-4, Montague’s June Moyaert 7-4, Cornwall’s Sandy Hope 10-2 and a title-clinching 7-4 win over Berry on Saturday night.
Faced with having to play with only one sweeper was not much of an adjustment for Team Dolan. The skip noted they had played with only one sweeper for most of the season due to COVID-19.
“(It wasn’t) until sometime in February (that) we were we able to go back to our normal play,” said Dolan. “We got used to one sweeper going down the ice with the stone.”
Two years in a row
The Gorveatt-skipped rink from the Montague Curling Club finished with an overall record of 6-0 and defeated the John Likely rink from Cornwall in all three section finals. Those scores were 9-3, 6-4 and 8-1.
“We hadn’t played a lot of games (before the provincials), but we practised quite a bit,” said Gorveatt, who lives in Pownal. “We lost our curling club in Charlottetown (due to ice plant issues in the fall), so it’s been a scramble.
“We have been making do the best we could. … It was a similar pattern to last year; we kept getting better each game.”
For the second year in a row, Gorveatt, third Kevin Champion, second Sean Ledgerwood, and lead Mike Dillon never lost a game at the provincials. Gorveatt credited strong team chemistry for the rink’s success and said the team members are comfortable playing with each other.
Likely’s teammates were third Peter Gallant, second Mark O’Rourke and lead Mark Butler.
“I rely a lot on Sean Ledgerwood and Kevin for assistance,” said Gorveatt. “I haven't skipped that long, so I rely on those guys a lot. They are a big part of our team and are pretty solid.
“Mike Dillon and I have curled together for the better part of 35 years. We all know each other quite well and have played multiple times with each other.”
At a glance
Here are the scores from the P.E.I. senior curling championships (8-end games)
Draw 1
- Shirley Berry 11 Wendy Fraser 5
- June Moyaert 6 Sandy Hope 5 (9 ends)
- Freddy Fraser 8 Bill Hope 5
- John Likely 11 Dale Cannon 2
- Mark MacDonald 16 Paul Deveau 1
Draw 2
- Kim Dolan 11 Shirley Berry 4
- Sandy Hope 6 Wendy Fraser 5
- Philip Gorveatt 10 Freddy Fraser 4
- Dale Cannon 15 Paul Deveau 2
- John Likely 7 Mark MacDonald 2
Draw 3
- Sandy Hope 9 Shirley Berry 6
- Kim Dolan 7 June Moyaert 4
Draw 4
- Philip Gorveatt 9 John Likely 3
- Mark MacDonald 10 Bill Hope 7
- Freddy Fraser 5 Dale Cannon 4
Draw 5
- Philip Gorveatt 7 Mark MacDonald 2
- John Likely 8 Freddy Fraser 5
- Bill Hope 7 Paul Deveau 1
- Sandy Hope 9 June Moyaert 8
- Shirley Berry 13 Wendy Fraser 2
Draw 6
- Kim Dolan 10 Sandy Hope 2
- Shirley Berry 9 June Moyaert 2
Draw 7
- Freddy Fraser 6 Dale Cannon 5
- Philip Gorveatt 6 John Likely 4
- Mark MacDonald 11 Bill Hope 4
Draw 8
- Shirley Berry 7 Sandy Hope 5
- John Likely 8 Mark MacDonald 3
- Phil Gorveatt 9 Freddy Fraser 1
Draw 9
- Kim Dolan 7 Shirley Berry 4
- Phil Gorveatt 8 John Likely 1
