1979 Macdonald Lassies Championship

The 1979 Macdonald Lassies Championship, the Canadian women's curling championship was held February 25 to March 2, 1979, at the Town of Mount Royal Arena in Mount Royal, Quebec. This was the last women's championship to be sponsored by Macdonald Tobacco and also the first event to feature a playoff.

Team British Columbia, who was skipped by Lindsay Sparkes won the event by defeating Manitoba 7–4 in the final after also finishing first in the round robin with an 8–2 record. This was BC's fourth championship overall and the second skipped by Sparkes, who also won in. The Sparkes rink also went on to represent Canada in the inaugural Women's World Curling Championship, the 1979 Royal Bank of Scotland World Women's Curling Championship which they lost in the semifinal to eventual champion Switzerland.

Event Summary
Through the first eight draws of the tournament, British Columbia was sitting at the top of the standings with an unbeaten record of 7–0, Nova Scotia and Quebec were tied for second with 6–2 records, while Newfoundland sat at 5–2, Alberta right behind at 5–3, and Manitoba (who started 1–3) and Saskatchewan both sitting at 4–3.

Draw 9 saw the playoff situation become clearer. Manitoba handed BC their first loss of the tournament 5–4, Quebec defeated Newfoundland 5–4, both Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia cruised to victory in their matchups while Alberta drew a bye. With two draws remaining, there was a good chance that at least one tiebreaker would be required but also a chance that tiebreakers wouldn't be needed to determine playoff spots.

Unknown at the time, the penultimate draw (Draw 10) early on Friday would be the beginning of a long day for several teams. Newfoundland would defeat BC 9–8 while Saskatchewan and Manitoba were both victorious as well. Alberta defeated Nova Scotia 9–1 in only six ends and Quebec drew a bye. Alberta's victory guaranteed that a tiebreaker playoff would be required as Nova Scotia drew a bye in the final draw. Heading into the final draw of round robin play, two very important matchups were on the horizon with the BC/Quebec matchup winner getting a direct bye into the final and the loser joining Nova Scotia and the Alberta/Saskatchewan winner in the tiebreakers with the loser of Alberta/Saskatchewan being eliminated. Newfoundland and Manitoba would both need to win in order to be in the tiebreaker playoff as well.

The final draw would see BC would clinch a spot in the final with a 6–3 win over Quebec while Saskatchewan eliminated Alberta from contention with a back-and-forth 11–9 victory. With both Newfoundland and Manitoba cruising to victories, this meant that Manitoba, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan were all tied for second place with 7–3 records requiring three tiebreaker games to determine two semifinal berths.

The tiebreaker matchups would feature Newfoundland vs. Quebec and Nova Scotia vs. Manitoba. The Nova Scotia/Manitoba winner received one semifinal spot while Saskatchewan would play the Newfoundland/Quebec winner for the other semifinal berth.

In the first round of tiebreakers Thursday evening, Newfoundland jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two ends in their game against Quebec and never looked back for a commanding 9–3 victory in nine ends while Manitoba scored three in the fifth to take command in an 8–5 victory over Nova Scotia to advance to the semifinal. The second round of tiebreakers late Thursday night saw a high-scoring affair between Saskatchewan and Newfoundland. Despite playing their fourth game of the day and trailing 10-8 after eight ends, Newfoundland scored three in the ninth to take the lead and stole one in the tenth for good measure and advance to the semifinal with a 12–10 victory.

The four games the previous day would end up taking a toll on Newfoundland in their semifinal matchup with Manitoba as Manitoba controlled the game early and dominated the tired Newfoundland rink 10–2 and meet BC in the final for their eighth win in a row after starting 1–3. The final would see BC dominate Manitoba for a 7–4 victory in nine ends as BC led 5–1 after the halfway point and 7–2 after seven ends. The victory gave Sparkes her second title and a spot in the inaugural women's world curling championships.

Teams
The teams are listed as follows:

Round Robin standings
Final Round Robin standings

Round Robin results
Source:

Draw 1
Sunday, February 25

Draw 2
Sunday, February 25

Draw 3
Monday, February 26

Draw 4
Monday, February 26

Draw 5
Tuesday, February 27

Draw 6
Tuesday, February 27

Draw 7
Tuesday, February 27

Draw 8
Wednesday, February 28

Draw 9
Wednesday, February 28

Draw 10
Thursday, March 1

Draw 11
Thursday, March 1

Tiebreakers
Five teams were tied for second, therefore there were three tiebreakers. The two remaining teams advanced to the semifinal.

Round 1
Thursday, March 1, 6:30 pm

Round 2
Thursday, March 1, 10:00 pm

Semifinal
Friday, March 2, 9:00 am

Final
Friday, March 2, 2:00 pm