Both B.C. rinks have qualified for the championship pool Thursday, Dec. 7, at the 2023 Everest Canadian Senior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships at the Vernon Curling Club.
Wes Craig and his Duncan quartet improved to 4-1 Wednesday afternoon with a 9-1 victory over Peter Mackey of Nunavut to clinch a spot in the championship round out of Pool B. Craig wrapped up the round-robin Wednesday night against Ron Rosengren of Northern Ontario.
Rosengren was still in the hunt for one of the four spots out of Pool B into the championship pool at 2-3. Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island, sit at 3-2.
Saskatchewan’s Bruce Korte (6-0) clinched top spot out of the pool.
Manitoba and Nova Scotia (each 4-1), and Quebec (4-2) clinched spots out of Pool A. New Brunswick (3-2) had a chance to join them with a win in the final draw of the preliminary round Wednesday at 6 p.m. Ontario is 3-3.
On the women’s side, Diane Gushulak of New Westminster locked up a championship spot out of Pool A with a 9-2, six-end victory over New Brunswick’s Shelly Graham (1-5) Wednesday afternoon. Gushulak (4-1) finished preliminary round play Wednesday night against Pam Osborne of Newfoundland and Labrador (1-4). The B.C. champs had won four in a row entering the game.
Nancy Martin of Saskatchewan joined men’s counterpart Korte at 6-0 with a hard-fought 6-5, extra end victory over Alberta’s Atina Ford Johnston (4-2). Martin is trying to win the province’s sixth straight Canadian senior women’s title.
The Northwest Territories (2-3) grabbed the fourth and final spot out of the pool.
Teams carry over their preliminary round records into the championship pool Thursday and Friday, where they will play the four rinks from the other pool. Top four teams advance to the playoffs in each draw.
Play goes Thursday at 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 8:30 p.m. Friday’s draws are at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The semifinals in both events are at 8:30 a.m. Saturday. The men’s championship and bronze-medal game will be played at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, followed by the women’s gold- and bronze-medal games at 3:30 p.m.
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