Former champions on the mens’ and ladies’ sides opened Sunday’s play strongly at the Lounsbury Junior Provincial Curling Championship at Moncton’s Curling Beausejour.

Two-time mens’ champion Jon Rennie had little trouble winning his two games today, beating Josh Pye 9-6 and Evan MacKnight 11-2, while defending ladies’ champion Ashley Howard thrashed Jennifer Armstrong 10-2.

In both his games, Rennie, who curls out of the Riverside Curling Club in Rothesay, put big numbers up early.In the evening draw against the Capital Winter Club`s MacKnight, Rennie lit up the scoreboard in the second end, making an easy hit to take 5. He barely let MacKnight get a point in edgewise after that, calmly making his shots while forcing the Fredericton team to try difficult shots that rarely succeeded. After flashinghis last stone in the seventh end, a take-out attempt, MacKnight conceded the game.

The most exciting game of the evening, though, was between Capital’s Dmitri Makrides and Riverside’s Josh Pye. Pye jumped out to a 6-2 lead by the fifth-end break and, judging by the way the teams were playing, seemed certain to win.

Makrides then found an extra gear, making nearly all the draws and hits they needed to make, while leaving Pye with very difficult run-backs and double takeouts that, ultimately, were never quite as perfect as they had to be. Makrides stole the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth ends, tying the game at six heading into the last end.

Makrides’ fourth Kelly Harris was heavy on his final stone, though, allowing Pye an easy draw to the four-foot to win 7-6.

In the evening’s other games, Zac Blanchard (Thistle-St. Andrews) made a spectacular hit for five in the sixth en route to a 9-5 win over Andrew Trites (Sackville) and Scott Babin’s rink (Dalhousie) struggled to find its form all evening in an 8-2 loss to Josh Barry (Fredericton Curling Club\Riverside).

In the day’s first draw against Pye, Rennie took three in the second end and had a 5-2 lead after four ends. Though Pye’s team rallied late to come within a point, Rennie took two in the final end to win to clinch victory.

In other afternoon action, Babin beat Blanchard 7-6 in 11 ends, MacKnight downed Makrides 9-5, and Josh Barry topped Trites 9-7.

In the day’s lone ladies’ draw, Howard (Capital) started slowly against Riverside’s Armstrong, the 2008 runner-up. After swapping scores through four ends, Howard calmly drew for three in the fifth end to take a commanding 6-2 lead. Armstrong got unlucky in the sixth, overcurling on her final shot to allow a steal of one. Unfortunately, she had no one to blame but herself for throwing her final draw attempt in the seventh through the rings. Howard stole three and took the game 10-2.

Last year’s  runner-up Brittani Jeans (Gage) had a tougher opening draw against clubmate Tyler Parmiter. After jumping out to a 4-1 lead through four ends, Jeans saw her lead evaporate thanks to a series of critical draws by Parmiter, including a tight shot to the eight-foot though traffic in the tenth to tie the game.  Jeans then seemed to have lost the game in the extra end when her first shot took out her own shot stone and raised Parmiter into scoring position. The miscue insured that the house would be wide open for Jeans’s last rock: a cool draw to the four-foot. She made it and took the game 7-6.

Elsewhere, Jessica Daigle (Thistle) downed Kaleigh Barry (Fredericton) 8-2 and Cathlia Ward (Capital) beat hometown team Sarah Ronalds (Beausejour) 7-4.

Ladies’ play in the triple-knockout competition continues Monday at 8:15 AM with all eight teams still in action. In the top section, Howard (1-0) takes on Daigle (1-0) and Ward (1-0) tackles Jeans (1-0), while in the middle section Kaleigh Barry (0-1) plays Armstrong (0-1) and Ronalds (0-1) plays Parmiter. A second ladies’ draw will go at 4:00 PM, with a berth in Wednesday’s championship bracket at stake.

The men resume at 11:45 tomorrow with Rennie (2-0) and Josh Barry (2-0) battling for a spot in Wednesday’s play and four 1-1 teams playing to avoid a second loss: Blanchard vs. MacKnight and Pye vs. Babin. The two 0-2 teams – Trites and Makrides – are idle until the second mens’ draw at 7:30 PM.