FREDERICTON -- Regina’s Randy Bryden will be taking the ice in the playoff round at the World Senior Men’s Curling Championship.
Bryden and his Team Canada foursome of third Troy Robinson, second Russ Bryden and lead Chris Semenchuk ran their round robin record to 5-0 with a 9-4 victory over Ireland’s Bill Gray during Draw 17 action in the 31-team tournament currently underway in Fredericton, N.B.
As a result, Bryden has locked down the first playoff spot in Group A and can clinch top spot in their pool and a quarter-final berth with a win in their final preliminary round game on Thursday morning.
As has been the case since their extra end win in their opening game, Canada left little to chance against Ireland thanks to an early lead.
Bryden gave up a rare steal to Gray in the first end but promptly got back on track with a four spot in the second. Canada was in control from there, holding Ireland to one in the third and picking up a deuce in the fourth for a 6-2 lead. Gray picked up another single point in the fifth, but Bryden made things all but academic with three more the next end, and after Ireland scored one in the seventh, the teams shook hands.
It was the fourth straight game that Canada has ended early, with three of those wins coming by six or more points.
Bryden opened the tournament with a 6-3 extra end win over Belgium’s Stefan Van Dijck on Saturday before downing Portugal’s Vitor Santos 15-2 Sunday, England’s Ken Horton 8-2 Monday and Wales’ Andrew Tanner 11-2 on Tuesday.
Canada closes out the round robin against the Netherlands’ Bob Bomas during the 9 a.m. draw on Thursday.
Standings in Group ! heading into afternoon round robin play are as follows:
Canada (Bryden) 5-0 Q
England (Horton) 3-1
Portugal (Santos) 3-2
Netherlands (Bomas) 2-2
Belgium (Van Dijck) 1-3
Ireland (Gray) 1-4
Wales (Tanner) 1-4
The top two teams from each of the five round robin pools advance to the playoffs, along with the two third place teams with the best Draw Shot Challenge score from throughout the week.
Once the round robin is complete and the playoff teams have been decided, teams will be ranked 1-12 by comparing the DSC of the teams with the same rank from each group. Teams ranked one-to-four get a bye to the quarter-finals, teams ranked 5-12 will play qualification games on Thursday night, with the winners going on to the quarterfinals.
The semifinals will take place on Friday, May 2, followed by the medal games on Saturday, May 3.
You can keep up with all the scores at www.worldcurling.ca.
