100 Mile House Blind Curling team had a successful and enjoyable time at the 12th Annual Canadian Visually Impaired Curling Championships (CVICC) held in Ottawa, Feb. 7-12.
This is the second time the team has attended the national event, this time coming in fifth.
Lori Fry says the rules are slightly different at the Nationals from Provincials and the Western championships, so the 100 Mile House Blind Curling team had to borrow two players, Bill Mah from Kelowna and Rob Camozzi from Vancouver.
The team’s first draw was against the reigning national champions, Team Canada. Fry says they took them to an extra end, but as text-book curling goes, the team with the last rock often takes the victory as did Team Canada.
Fry adds they were getting a reputation as draw re-schedulers because they took the game into the ninth end so many times.
“We went into the ninth end with Team Canada, so that pushed the schedule up about 15 minutes, Fry says, adding “day 2 began the same way where Team British Columbia challenged Team Newfoundland into an exciting ninth-end finish, but losing after the opposing hammer was thrown.”
Overall, Team B.C. won two games, tied two and lost two; however, the ties were broken and resulted in a two-win, four-loss record for a fifth-place finish.
“Our team, along with our “borrowed” members, was a perfect fit. Of course, there are some ups-and-downs during the championship, but it was mostly constant laughter.”
Fry says this year’s outcome was an improvement over Team B.C.’s 0-6 record at the 2014 CVICC event.
This Team B.C. squad was considered to have the lowest amount of combined vision of all the teams in attendance based on the B1, B2 and B3 vision loss ratings. Team BC does not have a B3 player while some teams have up to two B3s as allowed within the rules.
As a result, Team B.C. is very pleased with their efforts and the overall outcome, she adds.
“We pay our entrance fee, $5,000, and the Canadian Council of the Blind pays the balance.
“We raised the money in 100 Mile House; our thanks to the community for all its support.”
A new Team Canada was crowned – Team Ontario from Kitchener/Waterloo. B.C. will be represented by Team Kelowna at the 2017 CVICC.
