A second straight BC Senior Ladies curling title wasn't in the cards this year for Parksville skip Penny Shantz, but you can bet the local banker will be back for another run next year.
Shantz, who became the second Oceanside skip in consecutive years to win the BC Senior Ladies last year, took a new team to the BC's this year, which were held in Trail. The team finished out of the playoffs this time around with a record of 3-4 and part of a three-way tie for fourth place in the eight team showdown. Only the top three teams advanced to Sunday's finals.
"You cant win them all -- it wasn't our week," said Shantz, a veteran of high level ladies curling. "We didn't make the playoffs so I came home Saturday -- I got out of Dodge.
"Really good competition," she said of this year's field. "I think it was even better than last year. This year out of the eight teams six or seven were contenders."
The Lepine rink out of Langley knocked off the Ridgway rink out of Nanaimo 9-5 in the final to take the title and advance to the Canadian Senior Curling Championships being held in PEI.
Lepine and Ridgway advanced the playoffs with one loss apiece, and Jones Walker, made up of Penny's team from last year, was the other team to qualify with two losses.
Ridgway's only loss was to the Shantz rink in round robin action.
Shantz and company beat the Lepine rink in the final last year, "so she was really hungry."
Lepine's husband Craig skipped the winning rink on the Men's side.
In an interesting sidebar, Shantz curls with the Ridgway team in the Parksville Curling Club's Wednesday night cash league.
"Back in December they were still thinking of even entering (the BC's) and I told them they'd be crazy if they didn't. It was so much fun to watch them, they were on a roll and just came up a game short, but they're true ambassadors for the sport. It was exciting."
Also worth noting is that Karen Lepine's third, Lorraine Jeffries from Port Alberni, was with QB skip Lynne Noble when her team won the BC Senior Ladies two years ago.
"It tells you there's lots of really good senior ladies curlers around here," said Shantz.