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Defending championship teams win bye to finals
Both defending championship teams in the 2020 BC Men’s Curling Championship and Scotties BC Women’s Curling Championships have won byes to today’s finals after coming out on top in the Page playoffs on Saturday.
Defending BC Scotties champions Team Wark will face either Team Brown or Team Daniels in the finals at Cranbrook’s Western Financial Place. If they can repeat last year’s performance, the Abbotsford team of skip Sarah Wark, third Kristen Pilote, second Carley Sandwith and lead Jen Rusnell, as well as coach Rick Fewster, will be pleased.
Sarah Wark said: “We had a great time last year. It was my first time (at the national Scotties), it was amazing and I would love to go back more than anything.”
In men’s play, defending champions Team Cotter, from Vernon and Kelowna curling clubs, with skip Jim Cotter, third Steve Laycock, second Andrew Nerpin and lead Rick Sawatsky defeated fellow Vernon curlers Team Longworth 7-3 after nine ends.
Laycock said that the team would be looking to keep their game plan going. “We didn’t adjust to the ice as quickly as we wanted to that game so we would like to do a little bit better job of that but as far as game plan we’re pretty happy with that, we’ve executed pretty good, especially in the second half.”
The men’s final goes ahead at 2 p.m.
Team Tardi, the youngest team on the men’s side, will be the semis for the first time and are now guaranteed at least a medal. But skip Tyler Tardi, third Sterling Middleton, second Jordan Tardi, lead Alex Horvath and coach Paul Tardi will first have to get past Team Longworth, one of the most experienced teams in the field, to make the final.
After the team knocked out Victoria’s Team Montgomery 7-2 in the Page 3-4 game, Middleton said: “We’re feeling pretty good. We kind of dropped a couple of games early on in the triple knockout so we had our back up against the wall the last couple of games but I feel like we’re kind of building momentum now and everything’s starting to come together.”
Team Daniels from Delta Thistle dispatched Team Richards from Kelowna and Victoria 10-5 in the Page 3-4 game. The team is made up of skip Sarah Daniels, third Kayla MacMillan, second Holly Horvat, lead Sarah Loken and coach Katie Witt.
Sarah Daniels said: “This is the first ladies’ provincial for the three of us so it’s just really awesome to be in the playoffs to begin with and to be coming home with a medal no matter what is just top of our list for the season this year so anything more than this is just extra.”
The women’s semi-finals and men’s and women’s finals will go ahead tonight at 6 p.m. Pacific (7 p.m. MST) be broadcast on CHEK and streamed at cbc.ca/sports/.
e-KNOW file photo by Tammy Oates
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