Aron Herrick was all too familiar with his opponent heading into Friday night’s tiebreaker at the Vernon Curling Club.
The Vernon skip curled alongside Kamloops’ Brent Yamada for three years in the 90s, and now he was battling him for a chance to advance to the playoffs of the Canada Direct Insurance B.C. Men’s Curling Championships.
Yamada, backed by third Corey Sauer, second Darin Gerow and lead Lance Yamada, delivered a nose-hit double to count a single point in an extra end to brush back Herrick 8-7.
“I know the whole team really well – great guys and real gentlemen on the ice. And unfortunately they’re really good shooters too,” smiled Herrick, playing his third game of the day.
Both teams, who finished the 10-team round-robin at 4-5, played conservative to start, each recording a single point in the first four ends. They then began trading deuces before Herrick cracked three points in the eighth end to take his first lead.
Yamada restored his lead with a deuce in nine and Herrick forced the extra end with a single in 10.
Herrick, with support from third Tobin Senum, second Marc Fillion and lead Jason Wizniak, grounded another familiar face in his Friday afternoon tiebreaker, stopping Darren Heath 9-6.
Trailing 6-2 at the break, Heath (4-5) turned it on in the second half and started chipping away at the lead with deuces in six and eight.
With third Dave Belway, second Ryan LeDrew and lead Darrell (Heavy D) Houston, Heath nested a pair of nice comearound draws in the ninth, but Herrick nudged one of them back just enough with the final stone to earn a single.
In the 10th end, Herrick stole one after he left Heath with a near impossible raise double by guarding his shot stone.
“We just got down early. We tried plugging away and came back good at the end, but one shot shy,” said Heath. “You need a few breaks on your side to win.
“We were playing really, really well at the start (of the wee), but we had a couple bad games…and things got away from us. We should have controlled our own destiny better, but we still made the tiebreaker which is kudos to my team.”
Added Herrick: “We had a nice lead there but Darren and the boys started picking it up as the game went on and made some good shots down the stretch to keep the game close.”
This year’s journey to provincials has been a memorable one said Herrick, a father of three.
“Coming through four straight at regionals was a bit unexpected and then we got off to a hot start at the beginning of this week going 4-1. It could have just as easily been 1-4. We ended up stealing three of the games, having to come from behind to win them.”
The Herrick rink started Friday with an 11-5 loss to Vernon’s Jim Cotter, who went undefeated at 9-0.
Cotter counted triples in three and five, and then put the game away with a four-ender in seven.
In Friday night’s 1-versus-2 page playoff, Cotter allowed a single steal in the final end to fall 5-4 to Victoria’s Neil Dangerfield (7-2).
Cotter, with third Ken Maskiewich, second Kevin Folk and lead Rick Sawatsky, faced a draw to the button around a guard on his final stone, but had too much weight.
Yamada met defending B.C. champion Jeff Richard of Kelowna (7-2) in the 3-versus-4 playoff Saturday at noon, the winner advancing to meet Cotter in a semifinal. The winner of that battles Dangerfield in the championship game today (3 p.m.).
