Richmond Curling Club’s Team Neighbour, Darryl Neighbour (Richmond), Bob MacDonald (Tsawassen), Gary Cormack (Surrey) and Janice Ing (Vancouver) took gold at the 2019 BC Wheelchair Curling Championship held in Langley Sunday, with a 9-3 victory over Team Austgarden in the final game at the Langley curling club.
“We just made most of our shots, and we had the pressure on them the whole time,” Neighbour said.
Team Neighbour progressed straight to the final at Langley Curling Centre after winning both of their round robin games.
Silver went to the recently-formed Team Austgarden, Gerry Austgarden (Kelowna), Rick Robinson (Surrey), Tracy Boyd (Langley) and Marney Smithies (Delta).
“We were just kind of put together for the provincial playdowns,” Austgarden said.
“I’m really happy with the results.”
He said the team was looking forward to playing in the Canadian championships and hoped to get some more games in before then.
Bronze went to Quesnel’s Team Duddy of Alison Duddy, Frank LaBounty, Ellis Tull, Vince Miele.
It was the second year in a row that Langley Curling Centre has played host to the wheelchair provincials.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Langley plays host again to wheelchair curling provincials
Thanks to new Curling Canada rules, both team Neighbour and Team Austgarden will be going to the 2019 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Boucherville, Quebec from April 26 to May 1.
This season, Curling Canada is piloting a 14-team championship.
It includes teams from 10 member associations committed to sending a team (of which BC is one), a host team, and the top three ranked teams from 2018.
Since BC won bronze at the 2018 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship, the top two teams from the 2019 championship are going to Montreal.
All of the skips in the three teams were former BC and Canadian champions. Neighbour, Austgarden and Duddy have all won the BC Wheelchair Curling Championships various times over the last 14 years.
They also have experience playing together on the same team, most recently winning the 2015 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship along with Frank LaBounty.
In addition, Neighbour is a two-time world champion (2009, 2011) and he, Austgarden and Cormack have all won Paralympic gold (Austgarden and Cormack in 2006, Neighbour in 2010).
