Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 16:24:28 -0500
From: Jeff Timson
Subject: 2001 Canadian Seniors start Saturday in Calgary
CANADIAN SENIOR CURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS START SATURDAY IN CALGARY
January 17, 2001...The Canadian senior men's and women's curling
championships begin Saturday, January 20 at the Calgary Curling Club.
It's the second event in the 2001 Season of Champions, comprising
five Canadian and two world championships.
Twelve men's and 12 women's teams, representing the 10 provinces plus
entries from Northern Ontario and Yukon/Northwest Territories, will
compete in the 2001 Canadian Seniors. Following the round robin on
Thursday, the first place teams advance to their respective finals on
Sunday, January 28 while the second and third place teams meet in a
semi-final: Friday evening (women) and Saturday morning (men).
TSN will televise both the women's (11:00 am MT/1:00 pm ET) and men's
finals (5:00 pm MT/7:00 pm ET) live on Sunday, January 28. RDS will
also air both finals on tape delay.
Ontario has won a leading nine senior men's titles since the
competition began in 1965. Last year in Portage la Prairie,
Manitoba, Ontario's Bob Turcotte defeated British Columbia's Wayne
Laface of Vernon in the final. Laface has returned to this year's
event, along with last year's third place finisher, Northern
Ontario's Mike Coulter of Sault Ste. Marie. Other skips include New
Brunswick's David Sullivan, the 1994 Canadian Seniors champion and
six-time Brier participant, along with other Brier veterans Tom Reed
of Alberta, Richard Belyea of Nova Scotia and Ted MacFadyen of Prince
Edward Island.
This will mark the fifth time that Alberta has hosted the Canadian
senior men's championship. Edmonton (1968 and 1993), Calgary (1975)
and Medicine Hat (1996) were the previous sites. The senior women's
event, which began in 1973, has been hosted by Alberta on three
previous occasions: Peace River (1977), Edmonton (1993) and Medicine
Hat (1996). It wasn't until 1985 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan that both
the men's and women's championships were conducted jointly at the
same site.
Quebec skip Agnès Charette and her Buckingham Curling Club teammates
Martha Don, Lois Baines and Mary Anne Robertson will be back to
defend their title. Last year, they defeated Saskatchewan in the
final in Portage la Prairie and will be attempting to win the
championship three years in a row. They also won in 1997 in
Thornhill and in 1999 in Saskatoon. Charette will try to join
Saskatchewan's Ev Krahn as the only three-time consecutive-winning
skips and Ontario's Jill Greenwood and British Columbia's Flora
Martin as the only four-time winning skips.
Other skips include last year's runner-up, Saskatchewan's Nancy Kerr,
who won the 1980 Canadian and women's world championship, Alberta's
Susan Seitz, the 1981 Canadian women's champion and 1983 Scott
Tournament of Hearts winner Penny LaRocque of Nova Scotia. British
Columbia leads with six victories.
Alberta has won three senior men's titles, the most recent by Len
Erickson in 1993 and four senior women's crowns, with Cordella
Schwengler of the Calgary Curling Club the latest in 1994.
Jeff Timson
Media Director, St. Clair Group
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