Kelowna’s Bob Ursel rink placed fourth out of 14 teams in its first appearance at the Canadian senior men’s curling championship in Digby, Nova Scotia.
Ursel, third Dave Stephenson, Don Freschi and Fred Thomson made it to the bronze medal game Saturday before falling 7-5 to Nova Scotia’s Alan O’Leary.
Nova Scotia stole two in the seventh end for a 7-4 lead, then hung on for the win over the Kelowna Curling Club foursome.
Ursel, who posted a 7-3 overall record, suffered a narrow defeat in the semi-finals, 6-5 to Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane.
The B.C. champs had the hammer coming home in the eighth end but gave up a steal of one to settle for fourth place.
Ontario went on to win the gold medal, defeating Manitoba 6-3.
Ursel—the 1985 world junior champ and a three-time B.C. men’s champ—earned the right to represent the province thanks to the Kelowna rink’s win last month at the B.C. seniors championship in Richmond.
The B.C. women’s champs, also based out of the Kelowna Curling Club, went 4-5 at the nationals in Nova Scotia and finished out of the playoffs.
Skipped by White Rock’s Diane Foster, the rink also features Kelowna’s Leeanne Ursel, Cindy Curtain from Penticton and Vernon’s Sherry Heath.
Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones won the gold medal on the women’s side, defeating Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson 5-2 in the final.
