Friday began with all 16 teams that qualified for the 2011 SaskTel Tankard, but at the end of the four draws at the Civic Centre only nine teams remain and one has qualified for the page playoff game Saturday.
The featured game of the day was the A-final between Carl deConinck Smith and Scott Bitz. It was an exciting, well-executed game and 10 ends weren't enough. In an extra end, deConinck Smith tossed an in turn into a packed house and earned the 7-6 victory. After a few missed shots deConinck Smith was left with one shot in the 11th end and deConinck Smith gave it to lead Jesse St. John to sweep the winning point into the house.
"The last one, I just tried to draw on my mistake from last night," said deConinck Smith, who stretched his playdown winning streak to 12-0, dating back to regional and northern playdown. "I let the boys take it in and they did it."
Team deConinck Smith's second Chris Haichert has an injured and bandaged finger and deConinck Smith said he is likely able to sweep 70 to 75 per cent and credited his sweepers after the game for completing the shot.
The A-event winners, will play in the page playoff against the winner of Bitz and Simmons, who will meet in the B-final Saturday at 9 a.m.
Bitz dropped to the B-event and faced Shawn Joyce, who was in his third draw of the day playing the B-semi final at 8 p.m. Friday. Bitz couldn't recover from the A-final loss and fell 7-1 in seven ends. Joyce scored three in the first, stole one in the second, third and fourth and two in the sixth to earn the win.
Simmons was in action in the last draw Friday and beat Bryden to move on the play Bitz after running Bryden out of rocks in the 10th end and winning 4-7.
With the A-event completed and two teams remaining in the B-event, the teams will continue to play for the final three playoff spots Saturday as well as the page playoff game and C-qualifier game.
Eliminated from action Friday was the Jordison rink, which lost their third straight game. The third loss came against the Mike Eberle rink10-7 in the 8 a.m. draw. Team Jordison, who were making their first Tankard appearance, also suffered losses to Simmons and Darren Camm earlier in the week.
Another first time Tankard skip, Derek Gaudreau, was also eliminated Friday morning after losing 7-5 to Terry Marteniuk. Team Gaudreau lost to Brad Law and Bitz earlier in the week.
At noon, Brent Gedak was eliminated falling 9-5 to Mark Herbert. Gedak beat Joyce before losing to Bryden and Brad Law earlier in the week.
Team Marteniuk lost their third game of the week on the final rock, as they fell 8-7 to Camm in the 4 p.m. draw. Marteniuk lost to Bryden and Joyce and eliminated Gaudreau before being eliminated by Camm.
The Moulding rink was also eliminated at 4 p.m. after losing 8-0 to Brian Humble. Moulding beat Law and lost three straight to Bitz, Joyce and Humble.
In the 8 p.m. draw Team Eberle and Team Law were close after five ends with a 3-2 score. In the sixth, Law hit for five and eliminated Eberle with an 8-2 win. Eberle lost to deConinck Smith and Lane before knocking out Jordison and eventually eliminated from their first Tankard by Law in six ends.
The final draw of the day wrapped up after 11 p.m. in an extra end. Herbert made a beautiful draw to force the extra, but Lane made a double take out to earned the 7-5 win and stay alive in the C-event and end Herbert's run.
Herbert beat Lane 5-2 in his first game of the Tankard, but lost to deConinck Smith and Camm. They beat Gedak, but had their provincial run cut short by Team Lane.
