The home team may have gotten off to a slow start but the Ontario mixed and senior mixed curling championships overall have kicked off with a bang.

The Brokerlink Mixed Provincial Championship and the Senior Mixed Provincial Championship officially opened Wednesday night at the Quinte Curling Club.

Led in by the traditional piper, 90 curlers from across Ontario, including a team from the host club, were officially welcomed to the Bay of Quinte by local officials and curling fans.

Mayor Taso Christopher was on hand to welcome the curlers and guests to the city and to urge them to take some time to see all the city has to offer during their time here.

Master of Ceremonies Boyd Sullivan also welcomed the visitors, telling them, “You are all winners regardless of what happens on the scoreboard because you are here competing in a provincial championship.”

The opening ceremonies also included greetings from Quinte Curling Club vice president Barry Mitchell and from MPP Todd Smith’s office, as well as greetings from Curling Ontario.

On the ice, two visiting teams were less than friendly guests to local representative Dave Collyer from Quinte Curling Club representing this region in the mixed championships.

Collyer, who team includes Sherri-Lynn Collyer at vice, Mike Collyer at second and Kendra Lafleur at lead, lost a tough opening game 5-3 to Jonathan Beuk before dropping a 7-2 decision to Don Bowser of Thornhill in game two.

Beuk from Cataraqui Golf and Country Club, made a long angle raise in the second end to take a steal away and score three to make the difference in game one for Collyer.

In game two, the Bowser team stole their way to the win with steals in the third, fourth and seventh ends to drop Collyer to 0-2. The team of Daniell Inglis, Sean Harrison, and Lauren Harrison won this title, and the national title, last year under skip Mike Anderson.

Bowser, Beuk and Wayne Tuck ended the first day at 2-0 to sit atop the standings. Bowser and Beuk face off against each other Thursday at 1 p.m. while Collyer takes on John Bolton of Lindsay Curling Club. Tuck, the 2017 champion, takes on Cory Heggestad of Royal Canadian Curling Club and Damien Villard of Galt Curling Club faces Catherine Auld of Dundas Valley.

In the night draw, Collyer faces off against Villard, while Tuck and Beuk square off. Bowser plays Heggestand and Bolton plays Auld.

In the senior mixed, Rob Lobel of Thornhill, J.P Lachance of Rideau and and Paul Madden also of Rideau sit at 2-0. The third draw goes at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Check out schedules and read more about this event.