Next stop, the Brier and Scotties. If you have to ask beyond those two words, then clearly you aren’t a curling fan.
The 2023 B.C. championships open today in Chilliwack in men’s and women’s to decide this province’s representatives to the Tim Hortons Brier Canadian men’s championship March 3-12 in London, Ont., and women’s Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championship tournament Feb. 17-26 in Kamloops.
“These two championships are our flagship events,” Scott Braley, CEO of Curl B.C., said in a statement.
A raft of Island players will be vying for the B.C. crowns among the 12 men’s teams and eight women’s rinks that have qualified for the provincial tournament.
The last chance qualifiers took place last month in Delta with the Victoria Curling Club team of skip Jason Montgomery, third Chris Baier, second Miles Craig and lead William Duggan taking the top placing to book their spot on the men’s side in Chilliwack this week. Montgomery has twice made it to the B.C. championship game and is in the mix as a favourite to again reach the final.
Also qualifying out of Delta tournament was Dean Joanisse. Although he now skips a Golden Ears Winter Club team, Joanisse is best remembered for his Victoria curling years as a two-time Brier competitor and 2001 and 2007 B.C. champion and 1989 Canadian junior champion. Also qualifying out of the Delta tournament was the combined Comox Valley and Royal City team of skip Adam Fenton, third Alex Duncan-Wu, second Chris Parkinson and lead Matthew Fenton.
Not the least coming out of the Delta qualifier, however, was the Jim Cotter dynasty rink from the Okanagan, which has had an astonishing 10 Brier appearances and a runner-up finish in the Olympic trials for Sochi 2014. The third for the Cotter rink is two-time B.C. junior champion Corey Chester of Victoria.
Already qualified through the B.C. Curling Tour standings is the rink from Victoria skipped by Cameron de Jong, the former B.C. junior men’s champion and B.C. mixed champion. De Jong will be backed by third Matthew Tolley, second Erik Colwell and lead John Slattery.
The combined Victoria and Kamloops rink of skip Taylor Reese-Hansen, third Megan McGillivray, second Cierra Fisher and lead Sydney Brilz advanced from the women’s side of the last-chance qualifier in Delta. Also qualifying was former Victoria curler Sarah Wark, the 2019 B.C. women’s champion, who now skips an Abbotsford rink.
Pre-qualified because of their 1-2 ranking in the women’s B.C. Curling Tour standings are two highly-fancied Victoria rinks — Diane Gushulak and Shawna Jensen. The B.C. Tour-leading Gushulak rink has Brett Richards skipping, Blaine De Jager as third, Alyssa Kyllo as second and four-time Scottie’s veteran Gushulak as the lead. The B.C. Tour second-place rink has Jensen skipping with Layna Pohlod third, Sarah Wong second and Amanda Wong the lead.
Last year’s B.C. men’s champions, veteran Brent Pierce of Royal City, has received an automatic berth. The defending women’s provincial champion, five-time Canadian champion and two-time world champion Mary Anne Arsenault of Kelowna Curling Club, is not competing this year.
The B.C. tournament runs through Sunday in Chilliwack. The semifinals and finals will be broadcast on CHEK-TV.
