Toronto's Chris Rees regains title at Dominion Provincial Championships

 Shauna Petrie, Alec Denys, Carl Bax, Chris Rees with coach Paul Emmett

Chris Rees, playing on home ice at the Toronto Cricket and Curling Cub, defeated previously unbeaten Ken Gregory 8-3 to reclaim the Ontario provincial title he last held in 2008.

Rees, with Carl Bax at 3rd, Alec Denys 2nd and lead Shauna Petrie, had given up an opening end 5 to Gregory in a 13-5 round robin defeat. The final began more quietly. The teams were tied at 3 after 5 ends, but Rees turned the tables on the Bradford team with a big 4 in the 6th, forcing Gregory to gamble, and allowing Rees to steal a final point in the 7th.

Gregory, playing with Collinda Joseph 3rd, Frank Cannarella 2nd and Jim Primavera at lead, were behind in only 3 of the 34 ends they played during the round robin. 

The semi-final between Rees and Ilderton's Mark Ideson was played earlier this morning. Only Jacqui Kinahan on Ideson's rink had more than a year or so's experience but the team, with Mike Munro and Tony Reynen became London's first to reach a provincial playoff. They earned their place by defeating reigning champion Bruce Cameron's Ottawa team in round robin play.

Facing home-ice favourite Chris Rees in the semi-final, perhaps, like nervous mountaineers, they looked down. After holding Rees with hammer to one in the first, they gave up steals of 3 in the second and a further point in the third, and could not recover. Final score 8-3.

Full line scores are available HERE
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The six Ontario teams (Photo - Ernie Comerford - click photo for a larger view)

Rees, Fraser, Gregory, Ideson, Wrigley, Cameron

Dominion Provincial Championships - Ontario Day 3

In the final round robin draw of the Dominion Provincial Championships, Bradford's 2009 Champion Ken Gregory maintained his perfect record and headed straight to Friday's final, defeating current champion Ottawan Bruce Cameron 10-2. Cameron started well, stealing a point in the first and holding Gregory to one in the second; but a series of steals put Gregory 7-1 ahead, and a 3 in the seventh sealed the win.

Ilderton's Mark Ideson, who had beaten Cameron yesterday, started slowly against clubmate Dal Wrigley, giving up single point steals in the first two ends. The game quickly returned to form however when Ideson posted 4 in the 3rd and stole the rest of the way to an 11-2 win that puts him in the semi-final against Chris Rees.

Richard Fraser improved his record to 2-3 when he took Rees to an extra end, taking a single with hammer for a 9-8 victory.

In the morning Draw 4, held over from the previous day because of bad weather, Ken Gregory defeated Ilderton's Mark Ideson 8-5 on the strength of steals in the 4th, 5th and 6th ends. Chris Rees bounced back from his first loss yesterday to trounce Dal Wrigley 10-2, and Bruce Cameron beat RA Ottawa clubmate Richard Fraser 8-5.

Tomorrow's semi-final between Rees and Ideson is at 10AM, with the winner playing Gregory in the final at 2.30PM

Table after 5 Draws

Ken Gregory 5-0
Mark Ideson  3-2
Chris Rees 3-2
Bruce Cameron 2-3
Richard Fraser 2-3
Dal Wrigley  0-5

Full line scores are available HERE

Dominion Provincial Championships - Ontario Day 2

In Draw 3 at the Dominion Provincial Championships in Toronto, Ken Gregory was the big winner, taking out previously unbeaten Chris Rees to maintain his own perfect record. His Bradford team took 5 in the first end, only to give back 4 on a three in the second and a steal of one in the third. Gregory's 4 before the break settled the team who went on to win 13-5 in seven ends.

Defending champion Cameron came unstuck against Ilderton's Mark Ideson when down 4-3 in the 6th, he gave up successive steals to lose 6-4. In the third game of Draw 3, Ottawa's Fraser beat Ildeton's Wrigley 10-2, posting his first win.

A significant winter storm meant that only one draw was played, with Draw 4 put back to Thursday morning, and Draw 5 to be played Thursday afternoon.

Full line scores are available HERE

Dominion Provincial Championships - Ontario Day 1

Victories went to the more experienced teams in the first Draw of the Dominion Provincial Championships at the Toronto Cricket and Curling Club.

Chris Rees, looking to regain his title after a couple of years, beat Mark Ideson's Ilderton 1 by 8-3 with three consecutive steals for 6 points in the middle of the game.

Bruce Cameron gave up a 3 ender in the first, but stole the last 8 points to win 12-4 against Dal Wrigley's Ilderton 2.

Ken Gregory got off to a perfect start, scoring 4 in the first end on the way to a 8-2 win over Ottawa's Richard Fraser.

In Draw 2 this afternoon, home ice favourite Chris Rees overcame a 6-4 deficit to post a 3 in the 8th for a 7-6 win over Ottawa's Bruce Cameron.

Ilderton's Mark Ideson gave up single point steals in each of the first three ends playing Ottawa's other rink skipped by Richard Fraser, before steadying to win 8-3 in 7 ends.

Bradford's Gregory defeated Dal Wrigley's Ilderton 2 side 15-0.

Table after 2 Draws

Gregory 2-0
Rees 2-0
Cameron 1-1
Ideson 1-1
Fraser 0-2
Wrigley 0-2

Full line scores are available HERE

Six Ontario teams competing in Dominion Provincials February 1 - 4

Six teams will be competing at the Toronto Cricket and Curling Club this week for the Dominion Provincial Wheelchair Curling Championship and the right to represent the southern part of the province at the Nationals in Edmonton, March 21-27.

Defending champion Bruce Cameron of Ottawa returns with Doug Morris, Jamie Eddy and Christine Lavallee. Fellow  RA Curling Club skip Richard Fraser has two females on his team;  Joanna Bos at 3rd and Clare Argo at lead, while Don Stinson plays 2nd.

Chris Rees will play on home ice with Carl Bax, Alex Denys and Shauna Petrie. Bradford is represented by Ken Gregory, with Collinda Joseph playing 3rd, Frank Cannarella and Jim Primavera (who was part of the very first Team Canada squad.)

Ilderton CC is bringing two teams to the championship this year. Mark Ideson skips Mike Munro, Tony Reynen and Jacqui Kinahan. The second team is skipped by Dal Wrigley, who moved from Chris Rees's team, Gilbert Blanchette, and two players born in Africa; Hocine Zenile, originally from Algeria and Peninah Mutindah, originally from Kenya.  Ilderton coach Ernie Comeford says all but Jacqui Kinahan are fairly new to the sport.

Some of the Ilderton CC's wheelchair curlers
Mark Ideson, Tony Reynen, Jacqui Kinahan, Gilbert Blanchette, Peninah Mutindah

First Draw is 10AM tomorrow (Tuesday February 1) with five round robin draws being played through Thursday morning. The top team will go straight through to Friday's final to be joined by the winner of the 2 vs 3 semi-final game.

The timetable, schedule and team list can be downloaded HERE

Daily line scores from the Championship should be available from the Ontario Curling Association's website.

Ottawa's RA Curling Club's curling begins this Saturday 25th

Bruce Cameron writes to say that wheelchair curling will be starting at the RA Curling Club in Ottawa this Saturday, September 25th, 3 - 5 pm.

All wheelchair users are welcome. No previous experience necessary. Yearly memberships are $10, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Ontario Champions Team Cameron will be on hand for a meet-and-greet on Saturday 2nd Oct 2010, and will give a demonstration before being presented the Team Ontario provincial banner they won at last season's Dominion Provincial Championship.

Ottawa's Cameron wins Dominion Ontario Provincial Championship

Bruce Cameron's rink curling out of the RA Curling Club brought Ottawa its first provincial title when he beat three time champion Chris Rees from Toronto 8-3 in the final of the Dominion Ontario Championship.

Cameron lost his third to surgery just before the event but steered his side back from a 3-1 deficit after 2 ends to post four steals in an 8-3 victory.

Cameron  1 0 1 1 1 2 2 X  8

Rees     0 3 0 0 0 0 0 X  3

His win doubles the number of rookies (8 excluding alternates) slated to appear at  the Nationals in Kelowna BC, March 15-21, with the final team, Quebec, to be decided tomorrow.

Full championship details can be found HERE

Rees crushes Gregory's hopes of repeat Ontario title

3-time Ontario champion Chris Rees (Toronto) booked his place in the final of the 2010 Dominion Ontario Provincials by beating defending champion Ken Gregory (Bradford) 10-1 in the semi-final. Gregory, who had relied on a last end 4 in the morning's last round robin draw to squeak into afternoon play, had no answer for Rees, who took 2 in the first and then stole to 9-0 lead after 5 ends.

The Rees rink, with Carl Bax (3rd) Dal Wrigley (2nd) and Shauna Petrie will hope to revenge an extra end round robin defeat, when they meet Ottawa's Bruce Cameron in Saturday morning's final - 10.30 am at the Collingwood CC.

The semi-final loss will disappoint a team that had travelled to Utica for the US Open (as did Bruce Cameron) to gain competition experience. Frank Cannarella (3rd) will also lose his record of appearing in every national championship, an achievement he shared with 2010 Team BC skip Whitney Warren.

Lines scores can be found HERE

Final end 4 puts Gregory in Ontario semi-final

For most of the game it looked like defending Ontario champion Ken Gregory would become entangled in a three-way tie of 1-3 teams for third place in the Dominion Ontario Provincials at the Collingwood CC this morning.

Down 5-3 after 6, he gave up a steal in 7 but then posted 4 in the final end to give Ottawa's Bruce Cameron his first defeat 7-6. He closed with a 2-2 record, good enough for this afternoon's 2 vs 3 semi-final against Toronto's Chris Rees who beat Richard Fraser 9-4 to finish 3-1.

Cameron (3-1) went straight through to Saturday's final having stolen a 9-8 win over Rees in round robin play.

Ottawa's Cameron through to Dominion Provincial final

Bruce Cameron's Ottawa rink rolled to a third victory on Day 2 of the Dominion Ontario Provincials at the Collingwood CC. beating Tpronto's Chris Rees 9-8 on a steal in an extra end. At 3-0 he is assured of a first place finish in the 5 team round robin, and will go straight through to the final.

Bradbury's defending champion Gregory lost to 2008 champion Rees 7-5 in the morning draw but registered his first win in the afternoon, beating Iderton's Claus 11-3. Claus beat Ottawa's Fraser in the other morning game; his team's first ever competitive win.

Cameron plays Gregory in the final round robin draw with Gregory needing a win to assure at least a tie-break. If Rees beats Fraser he'll go into the 2 vs 3 semi-final. If Fraser and Gregory win tomorrow, there will be a three way tie for second. If Cameron and Rees win there's a 3 way tie for third. If Rees and Gregory win they'll face off again in the semi-final.

Tomorrow
Cameron vs Gregory
Rees  vs Fraser

Standings after 4 draws
Cameron  3-0
Rees  2-1
Fraser 1-2
Gregory 1-2
Claus  1-3

Cameron takes early lead at Dominion Ontario Provincials

Bruce Cameron's Ottawa rink won both their games on the opening day of the Dominion Ontario Wheelchair Curling Championships at the Collingwood CC. Cameron, out of the RA Curling Club beat fellow Ottawan Richard Fraser from the North Greenville CC 9-6 in the morning draw despite giving up a steal of 4 in the 3rd. In the afternoon Cameron posted a 14-1 win over Iderton's Lance Claus

Cameron's rink suffered a blow when their third, Doug Morris. underwent a scheduled back surgery yesterday. Jamie Eddy moved from second, replaced by rookie Andre Beaudin, who has been practicing with Team Cameron all season.

Eddy is in his fourth season of curling and the second on Team Cameron. He represented Canada at sledge hockey in the Lillihammer and Nagano Paralympics. He is legally blind and uses binoculars and a CCA approved guide light to assist his accuracy.

Defending champion Ken Gregory lost his opening draw to Fraser 10-9, after going behind by 6 after two ends. Fraser took 2 with hammer in the eighth for the victory.

In the day's other game, Toronto's Chris Rees, the 2008 champion, beat Claus 13-2.

You can find team members and line scores HERE