The men’s and women’s playdowns at the St. Albert Curling Club sweep into action Sunday. Draw times are 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
The double-knockout tournament for the President’s Cup features eight men’s rinks and seven women’s rinks. The winners will represent the club at the Tournament of Champions city playoffs next month at the Crestwood.
The playoffs wrap up next weekend. Sunday’s finals are 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., if needed.
Kathy Piper, last year’s Tournament of Champions-winning skip, is shooting for a fifth-straight women’s club title with teammates Nicole Bellamy and Laurie Schreiner. The first-place 11-3 Wednesday night league rink strengthened its line-up this winter with the addition of Alison Howes, the third thrower for Doug McLennan’s mixed rink, last year’s Tournament of Champions winners and four-time reigning club playoff winners.
Piper’s first game Sunday is against Jeanie Murch, 13-3 in the Tuesday afternoon league.
Trolling for their sixth-straight club championship is the legendary Hootie and the Old Fish quintet of Jamie King, Craig King, Ralph Killips, Brian Pfeifer and Elson Keown. Their record in the Thursday night A division was a league-best 11-0-2.
Sunday’s opening game for the longtime rink is against Greg Albert, 12-4 for second place in the Monday night A1 division.
The consolation playoffs for the men’s and women’s Manager’s Cup will also be awarded next weekend.
See page 57 for the various men’s, women’s and mixed league standings.
St. Albert curling product Marc Kennedy is three wins away from celebrating his third Brier championship with the Kevin Martin rink.
The Alberta champions edged Glenn Howard of Ontario 6-5 in the final round-robin draw Thursday in London, Ont. to finish 9-2 for third place overall.
It was the seventh consecutive triumph by Martin over Howard at the Brier. The 2010 Olympic gold-medal winning team, featuring third John Morris and lead Ben Hebert, led 2-0 after the first, 4-1 after three and in the 10th broke a 4-4 tie with the hammer.
The victory also forced a rematch with Howard in the Page 3-4 playoff today at 12:30 p.m.
Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador and Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba also finished 9-2, but are ranked higher than Martin with wins over the Saville Sports Centre team. Gushue and Stoughton squared-off in Friday’s Page 1-2 game, but the score was unavailable at press time.
The semifinal between the Page 1-2 loser and the Page 3-4 winner goes today at 5:30 p.m. The final is Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
Kennedy, 29, ranked first among seconds in shot-making at 90 percent in the round robin. The southpaw thrower was the first team all-star second at the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Briers.
