The 2019 B.C. Senior Curling Championships crowned champions from the mid Island.
The combined Kerry Park-Nanaimo rink of Wes Craig, Steve Waatainen, Craig Burton and Keith Clarke won the title on Sunday at the Trail Curling Club.
The Craig rink met another highly touted entry, the Craig Lepine team, in the final and the curlers didn’t leave anyone disappointed, delivering an extra-end thriller to decide the winner.
The Craig team, with Waatainen third, Burton second, and Clarke lead, lost to Lepine in the opening match 4-3 following a circus shot by skip Lepine on his final rock.
It was Craig’s turn in Sunday’s final. Down 4-2 in the eighth, Craig found a port and bumped his own rock into the four-foot to knock out Lepine’s stone, score two and force the extra end.
Perfect rocks from Craig’s third Waatainen buried a stone on the back of the four-foot, leaving Lepine a tough run-back for the win. The rock stayed out and Lepine was thin on the hit, missing the take out-in an exciting 5-4 Craig victory.
The two teams also met in last year’s final with Lepine coming out on top.
The Marilou Richter team from Penticton-Kelowna, with Dawn Everest third, Cindy Curtain second, and Deirdre Riley lead, went undefeated, closing out the tournament with 6-4 victory over Team Sheila Cowan in the women’s final to claim gold.
For Richter, a key moment in the game came in the fourth end, when Cowan was counting two with rocks side-by-side and buried on the button. Somehow skip Marilou Richter found a path and ran her own rock onto the two red stones, moving them just enough to score two and take a 4-1 lead.
However, Cowan battled back scoring two in the the fifth end, and tying the game with a steal in the sixth. Richter scored one in the seventh, and stole the eighth for the victory.
The Richter and Craig teams will head to Chilliwack for the 2019 Canadian Senior Curling Championship, Mar. 22-28.
