Corner Brook -
There's still much to be decided at the Newfoundland and Labrador Curling Association Junior Men's Championship.
Following the third day of action at the Re/Max Centre in St. John's, Corner Brook Curling Club's Matthew Hunt rink, which includes Tyler Brown, Brandon Gillespie, Michael Dawe and Lenny Tiller, are still in the mix for the second-place spot and a potential berth in the final following a win and a loss on Tuesday.
Hunt took down Matthew Noseworthy of St. John's by a 7-2 count earlier in the day, before he squared off with Ryan Withycombe. A win would've made life a little easier for Hunt, in his effort to make the championship game, but Bally Haly's Withycombe handled him 9-4.
The loss was mainly due to a slow start, according to Hunt.
"We ... I should say I, I didn't curl very well for the first several ends and then when we started to curl well, it was almost a little bit of too little, too late," he said via cellphone. "They played pretty good though, I can't take that away from them. They made most of their shots. They won it, they deserved it."
Draw 9, taking place today, will hold all the answers. Kelly Schuh of St. John's is safe at 6-0, which is who Hunt's opponent will be.
Hunt needs a win there to improve to 5-2. He also needs Withycombe to lose to the already-eliminated Henderson (3-3) to drop to 5-2. Colin Thomas is still in the picture too, as a win over Noseworthy (2-4) would push him to 5-2 and, if all those scenarios were to happen, a three-way tiebreaker would take place.
Hunt insisted he and his mates won't be scoreboard watching today.
"We have to focus on our game against Schuh," he said. "Hopefully we'll win it and, with a little bit of luck, the results we need will happen on the other sheets too."
In the Junior Women's bracket, Caribous Curling Club's Amanda Rumboldt rink, featuring Ashley Rumboldt, Chloe Deaves and Bronwyn Woolfrey, fell to 1-3 after a pair of losses Tuesday - a 7-4 defeat to Jen Cunningham and an 11-end 12-11 loss to Erin Porter.
With no hope of making the championship game, Rumboldt wraps up her tournament experience today against Julie Devereaux.
