Morning Star Staff
There were mixed results through the first two games at the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in Saskatoon for Vernon’s Jim and Jaelyn Cotter.
The father-daughter B.C. champions defeated P.E.I.’s Sabrina Smith and Kyle Holland 8-6 but lost 6-2 to Nova Scotia’s Jennifer Baxter and Mark Dacey in their opening matches Thursday at the Nutana Curling Club.
Cotter, a six-time B.C. men’s champ, and his 15-year-old daughter scored deuces in the first and third ends of the eight-end match to take a 4-2 lead before the P.E.I. squad scored three in the fourth for a 5-4 advantage.
After Cotter tied it in the fifth, the Vernon duo took control of the match with a huge steal of two in the sixth end for a 7-5 lead.
Baxter/Dacey snapped a 2-2 draw with a deuce in the fifth end, then stole single points in six and seven.
The Cotters took on Alberta’s Jessie Kaufman and Brock Virtue in a preliminary game Thursday evening, and continue with three games today before wrapping up the round-robin Saturday morning.
There are 32 rinks competing in four, eight-team pools. The four pool winners after the round-robin, plus the eight teams with the next-best records, advance to a 12-team single elimination playoff.
Former Vernon curler Dave Stephenson remains in the hunt for a national title at the 2016 Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships in Digby, NS.
Stephenson throws third rocks for Bob Ursel’s B.C. rink out of Kelowna, which qualified for the championship round by going 4-2 to finish in a tie for second in its seven-team pool.
The top four teams in the pool advance to the championship round, playing the four teams from the other pool.
Ursel began championship round play Thursday with a 6-4 win over two-time Brier champ Ed Lukowich of Alberta and a 5-3 victory against Saskatchewan’s Brad Heidt.
Ursel will face Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane – who hadn’t lost in seven games entering play Thursday afternoon – and Manitoba’s Randy Neufeld today.
The top four teams advance to the semifinals Saturday.
Nova Scotia’s Alan O’Leary won Ursel’s pool with a perfect 6-0 record – including an 8-5 win over Ursel to wrap up the round-robin – but lost 7-6 to Heidt in the opening game of the championship round Thursday.
On the women’s side in Digby, Vernon’s Sherry Heath throws lead rocks for Diane Foster’s B.C. championship rink from Kelowna, which is playing on the consolation side.
Foster went 2-4 in Pool B in the preliminary round, good for a three-way tie for the fourth and final pool berth into the championship draw with Kim Dolan of P.E.I. and Manitoba’s Sandra Cowling.
Each of the three teams were 1-1 in games against each other but it was Dolan who advanced from a tie-breaker formula.
Foster now plays the bottom three teams from Pool A in the seeding pool, opening Thursday afternoon against Debbie Moss of the Northwest Territories.
Foster plays Peggy Taylor of Northern Ontario and Leslie Grant of the Yukon today.
The men’s and women’s champions will represent Canada at the 2017 world seniors championships, April 22-29, at the Crossings Ice Complex in Lethbridge.