Teams skipped by Canadian Open champ Roddie MacLean, and Canadian Women’s champ Ruth Stavert are among those taking to the ice for the 9:30 opening draw this morning at the 2014 Ferguson Funeral Homes/Curl PEI Provincial 2 person Stick Curling Championships, continuing through Thursday afternoon at the Charlottetown Curling Complex.
Defending Open division (any combination of men and/or women) champions are the John Vincent and Walter Callaghan duo from the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, while Ruth Stavert and Gloria Clarke from the Cornwall Curling Club are four-time defending Women’s champs. Both teams are back this year.
The top four open division teams, and the top two women’s rinks from this year’s event earn the right to compete in the Maritime Stick Curling Championships, March 18-20 at the Gage Curling Club in Oromocto NB. The Ruth Stavert/Gloria Clarke duo are the two-time defending Maritime Women’s champs, while the Paul Doucet and Dave MacDougal twosome from Yarmouth NS are the defending Open champs.
The top two Open division teams also earn the right to compete in the 2014 Canadian Open Stick Curling Championship, March 30-April 2 at the St. Albert Curling Club in St. Albert Alberta. This is an “open” event, but reserves entries for the top two teams from each of BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. Defending Canadian champions are the team of Roddie MacLean and Paul Field from the Cornwall Curling Club, the hosts of last year’s event. MacLean/Field were last year’s provincial runners-up, losing to Callaghan/Vincent after two extra ends of play. A Women’s division was added to last year’s event, with Cornwall’s Ruth Stavert and Eileen Blanchard winning.
Fifteen open division, and eight women’s division teams are entered in this year’s PEI championships, including seven open and six women’s teams from our Club. Draw, schedule, team rosters and live results are available at the event website, PEICurling.com/stick.
In stick curling there are two curlers per team, who deliver their rocks with delivery sticks, with each team member delivering from opposite ends. Sweeping is allowed only from the hog line to the back of the house at the playing end. Two curlers, one from each team, alternately deliver 6 stones each per end, while their teammate skips that end. The roles are then reversed, and the partners deliver the stones back. No stone may be removed from play until the fourth stone of each end. Games are six ends and take about an hour to play. For more information on stick curling, including complete rules of play, visit www.stickcurling.ca.