Paul Henderson and his crew pulled off the quadruple on Saturday, becoming the fourth straight Victoria Curling Centre rink to secure a provincial title at the Tim Hortons B.C. Junior Curling Championship.
Henderson and his team of third Duncan Silversides, second Benton Boychuk-Chorney, lead Jacob Zorn, fifth man Tim Henderson and coach Todd Troyer defeated Cody Tanaka of Abbotsford 9-8 at the Parksville Curling Club.
The VCC team — which follows in the footsteps of previous provincial champs and clubmates Josh Hozak, Todd Klymchuk and Cameron de Jong from 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively — now advances to the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Championship in Corner Brook, N.L., from Jan. 24 to Feb. 1.
“Maybe it’s the water or the fresh air,” skip Henderson said of the VCC run. “It’s a great facility with lots of support there.
“The guys played amazing and the opponents, Tanaka, they were making tons of shots,” added Henderson, who played a wide-open affair, with both sides making mistakes throughout.
The Henderson team buckled down at the midway point, breaking open a 5-5 tie.
“At the beginning of the season we decided we were comfortable with rocks in play. We wanted to come out here, win or lose, and play our game. It turned out OK for us,” he said.
A deuce in a sloppily played sixth end gave Henderson and Co. a 7-5 lead before Tanaka allowed steals of one in each of the seventh and eight ends. It was breathing room Henderson would require as his Abbotsford opponent scored two in the ninth to close it to 9-7.
Henderson had to remove one of Tanaka’s two stones in the 10th for the win.
He made the shot and hugged his brother Tim, who played lead in the final, with the joyful words “We’re going to Newfoundland” heard on the broadcast.
Henderson opened with a steal of three in the first end on a jittery Tanaka, but then gave up a steal of three in the third to trail 4-3 before settling in.
In the junior women’s final, after a blank to open the game, Corryn Brown’s Kamloops rink stole singles in each of the second, third, fourth and fifth ends to grab a 4-0 lead at the break, leading to an 8-2 win in nine ends over Sarah Daniels’ team from the Delta Thistle club.
Brown and her rink of third Erin Pincott, second Samantha Fisher and lead Sydney Fraser return to nationals for the second time in three years after winning nationals in 2013.
The Daniels rink, which included Nanaimo’s Marika Van Osch at third, Dezaray Hawes at second and lead Megan Daniels, was the defending champion as the Daniels sisters along with Van Osch formed part of Kalia Van Osch’s 2014 championship rink.
Daniels was undefeated through round-robin play.
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