UNITY — The CurlSask senior men’s provincial curling championship will see a heavyweight match-up in the A event final on Friday afternoon.
Reigning Canadian champion Randy Bryden and defending provincial champion Bruce Korte each picked up a pair of wins on the opening day of competition in Unity and will face off for the first playoff spot during the 2 p.m. draw Friday.
Bryden and his Regina Callie rink of third Troy Robinson, second Russ Bryden and lead Chris Semenchuck didn’t have a whole lot of difficulty in their two matches, defeating Prince Albert’s Rob Brown 7-1 in their A quarter-final match-up before advancing to the final with a 7-3 win over Saskatoon Nutana’s Blaine Duncan.
Korte and his Nutana rink of Bruce Korte, third Darrell McKee, second Kory Kohuch and lead Rory Golanowski also had a relatively smooth trip to the first qualifier game, taking a 6-3 win against Unity’s Robert Bakken and then defeating clubmate Shawn Joyce 6-1 in the A semifinal.
The senior men’s tournament will continue throughout the weekend, with the B event final at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday and two C event qualifiers at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Page playoffs 1-2 game will see the A and B event winners play for a spot in the finals at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with the two C event winners playing in the 3-4 game for a semifinal berth. The winner there will face the loser of the Page 1-2 game in the semifinal at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by the gold medal game at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The senior women’s championship is also taking place in Unity and features four teams.
Amber Holland and her defending champion Saskatoon Sutherland rink of third Jill Shumay, second Sherri Singler and lead Trenna Derdall defeated Yorkton’s Joan McCusker, third Patsy Kuspira, second Bev Fuches and lead Kristina Just 5-3 in their opening game.
Nutana’s Tracy Streifel, third Julie Vandenameele, second Deanne Miller-Jones and lead Donna Ell also won their opener, downing Regina Highland’s Cathy Inglis, third Candace Newkirk, second Nancy Inglis and lead Deanna Doig 6-3.
Holland will now face Streifel in the second round of the triple knockout draw at 9:30 a.m. Friday, with McCusker taking on Inglis in the first round of the B side at 2 p.m.
Teams will continue to play through the draw until the championship final at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Be sure to keep an eye on www.curlsask.com for updates throughout the weekend.
