The Bob Ursel rink moved to 5-2 at the Canadian Senior Men’s Curling championship on Thursday, with a resounding win over Alberta’s Ed Lukowich foursome in the Championship pool.
Ursel’s team, made up of Nelson’s Fred Thomson as lead, Trail’s Don Freschi second, and David Stephenson third, scored three in the fifth end to take a 5-2 lead then held on for a big 6-4 win over Lukowich, a two-time Brier winner and 1986 World champion.
With 14 teams competing, the top-eight teams qualified for the championship pool after a six-game round robin in Pools A and B. The seeding pool is comprised of the six teams with the worst records in the round robin.
The win puts Ursel’s Kelowna rink in third spot in the championship pool with Bryan Cochrane from Ontario leading the way with an unblemished record of 7-0, followed by Nova Scotia at 6-1.
In the round-robin pool, after Ursel dropped their match to Quebec to go to 1-1, Team BC won three games in a row, beating New Brunswick 6-3, Nunavut 10-2, and PEI 9-1, before dropping their second match to Nova Scotia’s Al O’Leary team 8-5.
B.C. played the 4-3 Brad Heidt team from Saskatchewan on Thursday but the score was unavailable at press time. Play continues today with Ursel taking on Ontario at 6 a.m. and Manitoba’a Randy Neufeld team at 10 a.m.
On the women’s side the Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta all have identical 6-1 records going into action Thursday afternoon. Diane Foster’s BC rink was relegated to the Seeding Pool after going 2-4 in the round robin.
The top four teams will play in the semifinal and final on Saturday.
