A curling team skipped by Richmond’s Vic Shimizu and including Chilliwack’s Russ Knutson (curling third) has qualified for the B.C. Masters Curling Championship.
Knutson’s team emerged from a Lower Mainland playdown held last weekend at the Mission Curling Club.
There were nine teams in the field and three provincial berths up for grabs.
Knutson and company wasted no time snapping up the A event title with a 5-2 win over John Zwarych (Royal City/Golden Ears), followed by a 7-2 whomping of Vancouver’s Paul Dunkin and a 7-6 triumph over Delta’s Alan Roemer.
The final match was tense in the end as Roemer made a late charge, biting into a 7-3 sixth-end deficit with two in the seventh and one in the eighth.
The news wasn’t as good for an all-Chilliwack rink skipped by Rob Wiens and including Bill Ichton (third), Fred Snooks (second) and Glen Street (lead).
The quartet lost three heartbreaking matches by a combined four points, falling 7-6 to North Vancouver’s Paul Rankin, 7-6 to Bill Rafter (Tunnel Town/Delta/Vancouver/Marpole) and 7-5 to Rankin, again, in the C event bracket.
The B.C. Masters Curling Championship will be held March 5-10 at the Nanaimo Curling Centre.
See curlbc.ca for more.