Vernon’s Jim Cotter rink has secured a playoff spot at the 12-team B.C. men’s curling championships in Quesnel.
Cotter, Steve Laycock, Tyrel Griffith and Rick Sawatsky captured the A event qualifier Thursday morning, defeating Jason Montgomery of Victoria 7-5. The Vernon rink scored deuces with hammer in the second, fifth and ninth ends, and ran Montgomery out of rocks in the 10th to go to 3-0. The teams traded single points in the sixth and seventh ends.
The deuce in nine snapped a 5-5 tie for Cotter.
The loss drops Montgomery (2-1) into the B event. Qualifiers from A, B, and two from the C event advance to the page playoff system.
Cotter, who, along with Sawatsky is seeking an eighth provincial championship, improved to 2-0 Wednesday with a 4-2 win over Dean Joanisse of Maple Ridge.
Montgomery advanced to the A final by beating newly crowned Canadian junior men’s champion Tyler Tardi of Langley 7-4. Tardi and his third, Sterling Middleton, became the first curlers in Canadian junior history to win three straight national championships.
Cotter will play the B event win Saturday morning in a semifinal, with the winner advancing to the championship game. The loser will play the winner of the two C event qualifiers matchup.
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At the eight-team B.C. women’s championship, also being played in Quesnel, Vernon’s Kim Slattery fell to 1-3 Thursday with her third straight defeat, a 7-5 setback to Lindsay Hudyma of Vancouver.
Hudyma (2-2) scored the final three points in the ninth and 10th ends, including a deuce with hammer in the ninth to take a 6-5 lead.
Slattery, supported by teammates Alyssa Kyllo, Kelsi Jones and Morgayne Eby, lost her only game Wednesday, falling 6-5 to Corryn Brown of Kamloops.
Down 5-1 at the five-end break, Slattery got back into the match with a single point in six and a steal of one in seven to cut the lead to 5-3. Brown picked up one in eight for a 6-3 lead, and held Slattery to single points in nine and 10.
Slattery faces defending champion Kesa Van Osch of Nanaimo (1-3) Thursday at 7 p.m.
Abbotsford’s Sarah Wark entered play Thursday atop the standings at 3-1. Three rinks were tied for second at 2-1.
The top four teams after the round-robin advance to the page playoff system.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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