The Parksville Curling Club hosted the first bonspiel of the B.C. Junior Curling Tour of 2017.
The Parksville Curl B.C. Tour Cash ’Spiel, held Sept. 8-10, featured 13 men and women’s teams, including current Canadian junior champion and world silver medalist Tyler Tardi, Matthew McCrady, Sarah Daniels and Cierra Fisher.
It was a rare treat for local curling fans as they got to watch the future stars of the sport compete for tour points and cash, playing at a high level.
“Spectators were treated to an outstanding weekend of curling,” said Terry Miller of the Parksville Curling Club.
The Tardi rink of Langley, consisting of Sterling Middleton, Jordan Tardi and Zachary Curtis, was the overwhelming favourite to clinch the gold and, true to form, they did. They were undefeated, winning all their games including the final against the Matthew McCrady rink from Royal City with Brayden Carpenter, Nicholas Umbach and Jacob Umbach.
Finishing in third place was the Vernon rink of Jesse Monette, who beat Nathan Silva of Cloverdale.
In the women’s event, the Sarah Daniels rink of Delta also had a perfect record. In winning the gold, Daniels beat the Kamloops rink of Cierra Fisher. Taking home the bronze was the Comox Valley rink of Gracelyn Richards.
Parsville had two representatives in the spiel — the Ballenas Whalers, led by skip Devin O’Rourke and his crew of Connor Litton, Christian Kevin-Beekman, David Downey and Cole Pletz, and the Parksville/Qualicum Beach rink of skip Brier Pilon, Jackson Marshall, MacKenzie Ellis, Duncan Kjellbotn, and Troy Cowan.
Neither of the locals teams made the playoff round but, Miller said, they gained valuable experience against very experienced competition.