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Curlers return from provincials

It was a tough weekend for a Williams Lake curling rink competing at the B.C. Senior Men’s Curling Championship Feb. 11-17 in Trail.
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Williams Lake’s (from left) Ian Lanki

It was a tough weekend for a Williams Lake curling rink competing at the Tim Hortons B.C. Senior Men’s Curling Championship Feb. 11-17 in Trail.

Co-skips Ken Teskey and Ron Bisaro, and Ken Kvist (second) and Ian Lanki (lead) played seven games in the round robin, losing all seven.

Teskey skipped the first two games and Bisaro skipped the final five draws.

Bisaro said a lot of the games were close and went to 10 ends, but the consistency of the other teams was too much to overcome.

“It was a really good experience,” Bisaro said. “Every team is solid from lead to skip. They just do not miss important shots and it would be nice to play at this level on a regular basis. It would really improve our game.”

The first-place team from the round robin automatically advanced to the final, while the second- and third-place teams and all tiebreakers were played on Feb. 16.

This year’s senior men’s curling champions were the Craig Lepine rink, of Langley, who knocked off Tom Shypitka’s Cranbrook rink, 5-2, in the final. The senior men’s bronze medalists were team Myron Nichol from the Castlegar Curling Club.

Of the eight teams competing at the provincial championships one was from Vancouver Island, three were from the Lower Mainland, one was from the Okanagan, one was from the Kootenays, one was from Trail and one was from the North.

Teskey’s rink qualified by winning a regional zone playdown held in Williams Lake in January. Teskey added the provincials were a great learning experience for his rink.

“A lot of these players play a high level of competition on a weekly basis,” Teskey said. “They have coaches and some have played in the Brier before.”

Lepine’s rink will now travel to Prince Edward Island to play for the National Championship in March.