TRURO – It wasn’t the start to the Molson Coors Tankard provincial men’s curling championship hometown boy Peter Burgess was looking for.
Burgess and his rink of mate Craig Burgess, second Jared Bent and lead Todd Burgess, suffered a 6-3 setback to defending Tankard champion Jamie Murphy of Lakeshore Wednesday in the tournament’s opening draw at Truro Curling Club.
The turning point was the sixth end, when the Truro skip missed a shot, allowing Murphy to score three and take a 4-2 lead.
“A stupid miss,” Burgess said. “If we make what we were calling he’s got a difficult shot for two and I overcurled and gave him an easy shot for three and that changed the complexion of the game.”
Burgess got off to a solid start by scoring one in the first before Murphy tied it with a single point in the third. Burgess responded with a point in the fourth before Murphy’s big end.
“We had them chasing a little bit and were dictating play and they got up two,” Burgess said. “Their team, you can’t give them a lead, they’re a really good defending team.”
Burgess managed a single in the seventh to make it a 4-3 game, but Murphy iced the deal with two in the eighth. Murphy said the sixth end was key for his foursome to get off their heels.
“And we just controlled the scoreboard from there,” he said.
In other action Mayflower’s Chad Stevens downed clubmate Ian Juurlink 5-3 while Shea Steele, also of Mayflower, doubled Lakeshore’s Paul Flemming 6-3. Alan O’Leary of CFB Halifax nipped five-time champion Mark Dacey of Mayflower 8-7.
Burgess back in action in tonight’s 6 p.m. draw when he takes on Juurlink.
Truro Daily News reporter Matt Veno will be on site and will continue providing updates via trurodaily.com and on Twitter @tdnmatt.
