The Kootanay Savings Super League is up and running again for another season, with 10 strong teams in the mix.
Back are Team Darrin Albo, Team Desiree Borsato after a one year hiatus, Team Ken Fines, Team McKenzie Remax skipped by Deane Horning, Team Brian Lemoel, Team Myron Nichol, Team Nathan Small, Team Nando Salviulo, Team Bill vanYzerloo and newcomer Team Les Lepine.
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There were two games this past week to start the season, with the first game scores as follows: Lemoel beat McKenzie Remax 9-5, Small beat Borsato 7-2, Salviulo, with the early shot of the year, a spectacular double raise take-out leading to a steal of six, clobbered Lepine 12-2, vanYzerloo beat Albo 6-1 and Nichol beat Fines 8-4.
Team McKenzie Remax, skipped by Horning, faced off against Team Fines, starting strong with a deuce in the first, followed by three straights single steals. Skip Fines got on the board with a deuce in five, held Horning to a single in six, then scored another deuce in seven to get within two. Team McKenzie Remax shut the door in the eighth, running Fines out of rocks to preserve a 6-4 win.
With Brian Lemoel away this game, Marcus Partridge stepped up to skip against Team Desiree Borsato. Team Lemoel stole one in the first, but everything went the ladies way in the second, leading to a huge five-ender followed by a steal of two in the third for an early 7-1 leadwhile breezing their way to a 10-4 win.
Team Les Lepine were in tough against Team Myron Nichol, but started quickly with a deuce in the first, then held Nichol to a single in the second. Momentum turned in Team Nichol’s favour with a steal of two in the third. Team Lepine could only manage single points with their hammer in the fourth and sixth ends, while Team Nichol managed to score deuces in the fifth and seventh leading to running their opposition out of rocks in the eighth, and a 7-4 Nichol victory.
Wide open hits have been Skip Darrin Albo’s Achilles heal this young seasonand contributed to Team Salviulo stealing the first two ends, and a 3-0 lead. Albo stopped the bleeding with a nice draw to the four-foot in the third, then reeled off three straight single steals to be up 4-3 after six. Skip Salviulo manufactured a nice deuce in seven, but his last rocked over-curled in eight, crashing a guard, to give Albo a 6-5 win without having to throw his last rock.
A couple of heavyweights went toe-to-toe in the final game of the night, with Team Nathan Small going against Team Bill vanYzerloo. Team Small forced vanYzerloo to one in the first, then saw his last rock draw come up short for only one in the second. vanYzerloo blanked the third, then put up a field goal in the fourth when both of Small’s draws over-curled, crashing on guards. Skip Nathan got his draw weight back, hitting the four-foot in the fifth, then looked to take control of the game in the sixth. He was laying six before Skip Bill made a nice last rock come around tap for his one, to save control of the game, on their way to a hard fought 5-3 vanYzerloo win.
The Kootenay Savings Super League goes every Thursday in the Trail Curling Rink at 7 p.m. Spectators are welcome.
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