BC hopes to finish with a record 500 at the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian Men’s Curling Championships in Calgary.
Team Laycock, with Steve Laycock from Saskatoon on the vault, Vernon’s Jim Cotter, who threw fourth stones, and the Kelowna front end of lead Rick Sawatsky and second Andrew Nerpin improved in the preliminary round on Wednesday March 10th 10-5 to 2-4 win in nine endings against Gregory Skauge of the Northwest Territories (1-5).
BC will play against Jason Gunnlaugson from Manitoba (5-1) and Brendan Bottcher from Alberta (4-2) on Thursday March 11th.
There was a goal at each end of the BC-NWT matchup. Skauge scored a goal in the first and the teams traded deuces on the second and third ends.
Laycock’s ice rink scored three points in their fourth game and took a 5-3 lead that they would not be without.
Skauge got one in fifth, but BC responded with a single in six and a steal of two in seventh for an 8-4 advantage. The Territories conceded after BC completed another tackle on the ninth end.
While a goal was scored at each end in the Laycock-Skauge match, Brad Edwards only needed single points at three ends to bring Manitoba’s Jason Gunnlaugson a 3-0 defeat, the first defeat for the Prairie squad. Gunnlaugson is 5-1 while Edwards’ ice rink in Northern Ontario improved to 5-2 with his fourth straight win.
Wayne Middaugh’s Ontario Wild Card rink improved to 5-1 with a 7-6 win over New Brunswick’s James Grattan, who forced the extra end by scoring hammer third in tenth place. Grattan is 4-3.
Losing the last three Brier Finals, Bottcher only took eight ends to beat Manitoba’s wild card rink Mike McEwen 9-3. McEwen is 2-4.
In Pool B the wild card rink of four-time champion Kevin Koe from Calgary is 6-0. John Epping from Ontario, Matt Dunstone from Saskatchewan and the defending Team Canada of Brier champion Brad Gushue from Newfoundland / Labrador are all 4: 2. Michael Fournier from Quebec is 4-3.
The four best ice rinks in both pools reach the championship round on Friday and carry their round robin records with them.
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roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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