O'LEARY, P.E.I. — Two familiar faces skipped their rinks to the provincial women’s and men’s curling championships on Saturday.
Suzanne Birt and her rink out of the Cornwall and Montague clubs defeated Darlene London in three straight games – 12-0, 12-2 and 10-1 – to win the provincial Scotties title and secure P.E.I.’s berth at the Scotties Canadian women’s curling championship in Calgary from Feb. 20-28.
“The feeling of winning never gets old,” said Meaghan Hughes, who throws second stones for Team Birt. “We are all pretty excited, and we all had the same butterflies going into this weekend as usual. It was nice to pull it off.”
Birt won two of the three draws in six ends while the middle contest went seven ends.
Eddie MacKenzie skipped a rink to the Tankard provincial men’s championship for the sixth time. The MacKenzie rink, which lists its home clubs as Montague and Crapaud, defeated the Blair Jay-skipped rink from the Silver Fox in Summerside 10-4, 6-3 and 8-4. All three games were decided in nine ends.
“It’s always nice to win a Tankard and get a chance to go to the Brier,” said MacKenzie, who finished runner-up to Bryan Cochrane in the 2020 Tankard. “It was nice to get some games in and have an actual playdown.”
MacKenzie, third Tyler Smith, second Sean Ledgerwood and lead Ryan Lowery will wear P.E.I.'s colours at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s curling championship, which will also take place in Calgary from March 6-14.
“It’s definitely cool to win it in the first year out of junior as a men’s player,” said Smith, who twice skipped junior teams at previous Tankards.
Smith also competed in six Canadian junior championships, including five as a skip.
The 20-year-old Lowery, who is still junior-aged, also experienced winning the Tankard for the first time.
“It’s pretty cool,” he said.
Format
The national championships will feature a bubble format – which requires self-isolation before, during and after the events – and that was a contributing factor to only two women’s and two men’s teams registering for the provincial championships.
“It’s always exciting (competing in a Tankard), but it was a very, very different year with only two teams in it,” said Ledgerwood. “You are used to playing a lot of games, you are used to playing a bunch of different teams.
“We did get to know Blair Jay and his team very well over the last three games. That was positive, and we got to know the guys.
“Everybody was pretty loose. As always, it’s always fun to win, and we look forward to the Brier.”
Jay’s teammates included third Chuck Jay, second Jon Philip and lead Glenn Rogers.
Team Birt
Third Marie Christianson, lead Michelle McQuaid and alternate Kathy O’Rourke round out Team Birt, coached by Mitch O'Shea.
O’Rourke played third in the provincials as Christianson could not travel to P.E.I. from Nova Scotia due to COVID-19 restrictions. She joked she played more than anticipated after joining the Birt rink this season.
“I told them they broke our contract numerous times already,” O’Rourke said with a laugh.
Birt said it was a smooth transition into the lineup for O’Rouke, crediting lots of practising and previous game action together.
“Obviously, we missed having Marie here; she wasn’t able to come because of the self-isolation requirements obviously, but she was cheering from afar,” said Birt. “The girls played awesome all weekend and had some great games.”
Team Birt entered the provincials knowing they were guaranteed a berth in the national Scotties as one of three wild-card teams through the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) points standings. But make no mistake about it, Team Birt wanted to win its way there.
“That was our goal coming into this weekend, and we are pretty happy to be representing P.E.I.,” said Birt, who will wear Team P.E.I.’s uniform for the 12th time at the Canadian women’s championship.
McQuaid said it was a “good weekend” for the Birt rink.
“We knew coming in we had to be patient and stick to our game plan,” she said. “I think we did a good job of that, and we are pleased."
London's teammates are third Robyn MacDonald, second Shelley Rice and lead Gail Greene.
Jason Simmonds is The Guardian's sports reporter. He can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @JpsportsJason .
