FREDERICTON -- Regina’s Randy Bryden is on the cusp of reaching the playoff round at the World Senior Men’s Curling Championship in Fredericton.
Bryden and his Team Canada foursome of third Troy Robinson, second Russ Bryden and lead Chris Semenchuk were once again on the right side of a lopsided score on Tuesday morning, rolling to an 11-2 win over Wales’ Andrew Tanner.
As a result, Canada is now 4-0 and remains the lone unbeaten team in Group A with two games remaining, meaning a spot in the playoffs could be clinched Wednesday morning for the Bryden foursome.
The top two teams from each of the five round robin groups plus the two third-place place teams with the best Draw Shot Challenge record will advance to the qualification round. Canada can finish no worse than a tie for third at this point, though their DSC is in the middle of the pack in the 31-team tournament.
Bryden’s final two round robin games are against teams with losing records, as they face Ireland’s Bill Gray (1-3) at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and the Netherlands’ Bob Bomas (1-2) at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
Canada took little time to get things going against Wales, stealing four in the first end and another in the second for a quick 5-0 lead. Tanner got one back in the third and then picked up a rare steal against Bryden the next end to make it a 5-2 contest, but they’d get no closer as Canada scored four in the fifth and another two in the sixth to bring things to an early end.
It’s the third straight game Bryden has won by six or more points and second in which he’s hit double digits -- Canada opened with a 6-3 extra end win over Belgium’s Stefan Van Dijck on Saturday before downing Portugal’s Vitor Santos 15-2 Sunday and England’s Ken Horton 8-2 on Monday.
Standings in Group A heading into afternoon round robin play are as follows:
Canada (Bryden) 4-0
England (Horton) 3-1
Portugal (Santos) 2-2
Belgium (Van Dijck) 1-2
Netherlands (Bomas) 1-2
Ireland (Gray) 1-3
Wales (Tanner) 1-3
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 .
