ALBERTON – There’ll be a delay in deciding the winner in the 16-team Open Division (men’s and mixed teams) of the Ferguson Funeral Homes/Curl P.E.I. provincial stick curling championships.
The host Western Community Curling Club in Alberton was plunged into darkness just before the final game due to a power blackout.
As both the winner and the runner-up will advance to both the Maritime stick curling championships in Montague and the Canadian open stick championships in Cornwall, there’s no urgency to choose a definitive winner. It may take some time to reschedule as one of the skips will be out of the country for the next 10 days.
The two finalists are the Walter Callaghan/John Vincent duo from the host Western club, and the Roddie MacLean/Paul Field team from the Cornwall Curling Club. Both teams had 5-2 (won-lost) records in the round robin, and Callaghan/Vincent have previously won the event three times.
MacLean/Field won their semifinal 5-3 over Cornwall clubmates Bryan Sutherland and Elaine Hughes, and Callaghan/Vincent won 3-1 over Western clubmates Bill Glydon and Eldon Hardy.
The Glydon and Sutherland rinks finished round-robin play in first place in their pools at 5-2 and 6-1 records, respectively.
In quarter-final action on Thursday afternoon, the Callaghan team beat Cornwall’s Sterling Stratton and Ernie Stavert twosome 7-3, and the MacLean rink stole a single and a triple in the final two ends to defeat the Eddie Bernard/Roger Gavin duo from the host club. Stratton, Bernard, MacLean and Callaghan all had 5-2 round-robin records.
The consolation game to determine third and fourth place, between the Sutherland and Glydon rinks, was also a victim of the blackout. However, third place was awarded to the Sutherland/Hughes team by mutual agreement.
The three-team Women’s Division wrapped up on Wednesday, with the Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke duo from the Cornwall Curling Club winning their fourth consecutive women’s stick title.
The top four Open Division teams, skipped by Callaghan, MacLean, Glydon and Sutherland, along with the top two women’s rinks from this year’s event, skipped by Stavert and Lank, all earn the right to compete in the Maritime stick curling championships at the Montague Curling Club from March 12 to 14.
