Travelers curling play-offs commence today

Round-robin created logjam in women's event

Tree women's teams in tie-breakers for third place.

MONTAGUE

For either the Debbie Rhodenhizer rink from Cornwall or the Sharon Horne rink from Alberton’s Western Community Curling Club, who meet in a tie-breaker game this morning in Montague, winning this year’s P.E.I. Travelers Curling Club Championship would require a run of five consecutive victories.

They were among the three women’s teams that finished tied for the third and final play-off position with 2-3 records when their six-team round robin wrapped up at the Montague Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, the Melissa Morrow rink and the Jamie Newson rink, both from the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Club in Summerside are just one win away from taking the respective women’s and men’s provincial titles.

Morrow and her teammates of lead Miranda Ellis, second Lindsey Spencer and third Darcee Birch finished first with a 5-0 record. Travelers’ rules give undefeated teams a second life in the play-offs. That means whoever survives the 10 a.m. and the 2 p.m. tie-breakers today, and this evening’s 6 p.m. second verses third match would need to put together back-to-back wins against Morrow Tuesday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Of course, if Morrow wins Tuesday’s 10 a.m. game her rink would be able to book its tickets to the national championship, once the dates and location are determined.

The winner of the Rhodenhizer/Horne game this morning plays in a second tie-breaker today at 2 p.m. against the Amanda Holm rink from Crapaud at 2 p.m. The winner of that game will play the Tammy Dewar rink from host Montague who finished second in round robin with a 3-2 summary, at 6 p.m. Morrow puts her undefeated record to the test on Tuesday against this evening’s 6 p.m. winner.

The men’s championship will be concluded today. Newson and Western’s Darryl MacDonald finished with identical 5-1 records following the seven-team men’s round-robin but Newson takes first place because of his round-robin win against MacDonald. No tie-breakers are needed in the men’s competition and, because no team went undefeated, there’s no double life. MacDonald faces the third-place finisher, the Alan Inman rink from Crapaud who finished play at 4-2, in the men’s semi-final today at 10 a.m. with the winner faced Newson for the title at 2 p.m.

Final round-robin standings

Men (W-L)