John Epping climbed into first place at the Recharge with Milk Tankard after edging Joe Frans 6-5 during Draw 7 action Wednesday night at the Recharge with Milk Ontario Tankard in Dorchester, Ont.
Epping and his Toronto-based team were able to grind out three one-point victories on “moving day” of the provincial championship tournament to improve to a 5-1 overall record and sit alone at the top of the round-robin standings.
Frans, from St. Thomas, held the hammer to start the game and opened the scoring with a deuce in the first. Epping blanked two consecutive ends before getting his matching pair in the fourth and stole a couple in five to go up 4-2 when Frans’ last shot picked.
Epping maintained the two-point lead after the teams traded singles through the sixth and seventh ends. Frans (3-4) evened it 5-5 with a single in eight and a steal of one in nine but gave up the hammer coming home.
Team Epping kept the house clear during the 10th and made a hit and stick with their final stone to win.
Programming Note: Watch Draw 8 of the Ontario Tankard live Thursday at 2 p.m. ET on Rogers TV Sports+.
Elsewhere, Jon St. Denis (2-5) nailed the angle raise for a single in the 10th to upset Mark Kean 9-8.
Team St. Denis, from Listowel, scored three in the first and stole one in the second to take an early 4-0 lead. The teams exchanged pairs of points in three and four and Kean, from Fenelon Falls, started to mount a comeback with another deuce in five. St. Denis was held to singles in six and eight while Kean earned deuces again in seven and nine to tie it 8-8 heading home.
Kean dropped both of his games Wednesday after starting the tournament winning four straight.
Ottawa’s Ian MacAulay (4-2) knocked off defending champ Greg Balsdon (4-2) with a 9-5 victory. After matching threes in the first and second ends, Team MacAulay pulled away with a deuce in the fourth followed by steals of two in five and one in six to make it 8-3. Team Balsdon, from Hamilton, got back into it with two in the seventh but shook hands after MacAulay added another point in the eighth.
Toronto’s Peter Corner bounced back from a 7-0 loss to Balsdon in the afternoon with a 9-3 win in six ends over Aaron Squires. The two rinks traded deuces to start the game but Corner (4-3) added another pair in the third and cemented his lead scoring three in the fifth and stealing two in the sixth. Squires and his Kitchener-Waterloo team dropped to a 2-4 record.
Colin Dow (4-3) got back on track after losing two consecutive games to win 10-4 over Markdale’s Cory Heggestad (0-6). Dow, from Carp, grabbed a 5-3 lead scoring three in the fifth and, after exchanging singles, stole four in the ninth to bring out the handshakes.
Guelph’s Rob Rumfeldt (3-3) held the bye during the evening draw.
