GANDER — Kyle Barron capped off a perfect weekend of stone throwing with a 6-4 win over Andrew Taylor of St. John’s to claim the provincial Under-18 men’s curling crown Sunday morning.
Barron, skip for the Caribou Curling Club entry out of Stephenville, finished with a perfect 5-0 round-robin record in the six-team tournament held at the Gander Community Centre over the weekend.
Barron’s perfect ride to the top included a 9-4 triumph over Taylor, of the St. John’s Curling Club who finished second with a 4-1 mark, in a round-robin matchup Friday.
Under the watchful eye of coach Scott Lamswood, Barron’s foursome, which included third Ryan McNeil Lamswood, second Greg Smith and lead Craig Laing, defeated Andrew Lawrence of the St. John’s Curling Club by a 9-3 spread, dumped Greg Blyde of St. John’s Curling Club by a 11-4 margin, blanked Alex Phillips of St. John’s 9-0 and shaded Nicholas O’Neill of Corner Brook Curling Club by an 8-7 count to go undefeated.
Blyde finished the tournament in third spot with a 3-2 record, while O’Neil’s rink, which also included third Kyle George, second Jordan Carter, lead Matthew English and coach Donna Davis, managed to nab fourth spot overall with a record of two wins and three defeats.
Phillips finished with a 1-4 record, while Lawrence finished in the cellar after suffering five-straight losses at the Gander Community Centre as provincial Under-18 and Under-16 provincial championships in both male and female were held in the airport town over the weekend.
Meanwhile, Rebecca Roberts of the Caribou Curling Club is the provincial Under-18 female championship skip after her foursome eked out a 6-5 win over Megan Kearley of the St. John’s Curling Club in the showdown for gold Sunday afternoon at the Gander Community Centre.
Roberts finished second overall in round-robin play in the three-team tournament with a 2-2 record thanks to a brace of losses to Kearley — 11-9 and 9-8 — and two wins over Mackenzie Glynn — 6-1 in the first encounter and 6-5 in the final game.
Kearley who finished first with a 3-1 record, her only round-robin loss, a 7-6 setback, coming at the hands of Glynn out of the St. John’s Curling Club with a 1-3 record at the end of round-robin play.
Elsewhere, things were quite rosy for Daniel Bruce who went undefeated en route to claiming top honours in the provincial Under-16 male championship.
Bruce’s rink, which also included third Nathan King, second Andrew Bruce and lead Bradley Power under coach Dennis Bruce, wrapped up a perfect weekend on ice with a 7-1 triumph over Ethan Davidge of the Gander Curling Club in Sunday’s final.
Davidge and Adam Kendall of the Caribou Curling Club in Stephenville finished tied for second spot with identical 2-2 records so a tie-breaker had to be played to determine an opponent for the undefeated Bruce and it was Davidge eking out a 5-3 win to advance.
The showdown for the provincial Under-16 female crown was a four-game showdown between Sarah McNeil Lamswood of the Caribou Curling Club in Stephenville and Kayleigh Casmey of the Carol Curling Club in Labrador City, but bragging rights belong to Casmey and company after the northern girls won three of the four games played at the Gander Community Centre.
McNeil Lamswood’s rink, which also included third Sarah Cassell, second Meghan Morey and lead Sara Rotchford, got its only win of the tournament with a 5-2 triumph in the third game.
