Two longtime curling teammates – one from White Rock, one from Surrey – have added a masters curling championship to their trophy collection.
White Rock’s Doug Meger and Surrey’s Ken Watson – alongside Chilliwack curlers Dale Hockley and Vic Miller – finished first at the 2017 BC Masters Curling Championships last weekend in Cranbrook.
The rink – which curls out of the Chilliwack Curling Club – defeated a hometown rink, Cranbrook’s Team Kent, in the championship game of the event, which was open to curlers 60 years of age and older.
The game – described as “tense” in a Curl BC news release – went to an extra end, where the Fraser Valley team, which is skipped by Watson, scored twice to win 4-2 and claim the gold medal.
In the round-robin, Team Watson finished with a 6-1 win-loss record.
Meger and Watson were no strangers to playing together, having been teammates more than 30 years ago when both men were members of the same 1985 B.C. team that competed at the Brier – men’s curling’s prestigious national championship.
In the women’s draw, Team Klebe – comprised of Chilliwack’s Janet Klebe and Kerri Miller, Rosedale’s Jane Adam and Richmond’s Laurie Shimizu – won the provincial crown.
Other Surrey curlers to compete in Cranbrook included Mike Weir, who was part of Tunnel Town Curling Club’s Team Rafter, and Vicki Smith, who was a second on a Langley/Royal City women’s rink skipped by Gwen Clark.
Team Watson and Team Klebe will now represent B.C. at national masters curling championships in Guelph, Ont. from April 2-9.
Next year’s Canadian Masters Curling Championships will be held closer to home, as they’re set to be jointly hosted by White Rock’s Peace Arch Curling Club and the Cloverdale Curling Club.
Curl BC announced Jan. 30 that the two clubs had won the bid to host the event, which is scheduled for April 1-8, 2018.
“We’re really pleased that the volunteers and staff of Cloverdale and Peace Arch have agreed to collaborate on hosting,” Curl BC CEO Scott Braley said at the time.
“The masters curling champions from across Canada are in for a treat when they visit Surrey… and White Rock.”
For more on the 2018 event, visit www.2018masterscurling.com