The fire alarm went off Saturday afternoon at the Archie Browning Sports Centre, clearing the arena, until firefighters gave the OK to return.
A metaphorical fire alarm also went off to clear the building of all but the finalists in the 2024 sa国际传媒 men’s and women’s curling championships, with the women’s final at 9 a.m. and the men’s at 2 p.m. today.
The stakes couldn’t be higher and are the stuff of dreams for curlers. The sa国际传媒 men’s champion will advance to the Brier national championship March 1-10 in Regina and the provincial women’s champion to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts national championship Feb. 16-25 in Calgary.
The semifinals were in progress at press time on Saturday night. Jeff Richard, with a combined Vernon and Royal City rink, was playing Jason Montgomery’s veteran Victoria rink backed by Chris Baier, Miles Craig and Troy Cowan, in the men’s semifinal. The winner was to advance to play the defending champion Victoria Curling Club rink of skip Catlin Schneider, third Sterling Middleton, second Jason Ginter and lead Alex Horvath in this afternoon’s championship game.
“It’s a long week, and anything can happen with a roller-coaster of emotions, but we are confident of our ability to win it when it matters,” Schneider said during the playoff rounds.
Schneider replaced Jacques Gauthier this year as the skip of the defending champion VCC rink after Gauthier joined the heralded Calgary rink of Olympian and two-time world champion Kevin Coe.
“We believe we have the best team here, but it’s about going out and proving it and staying patient. But it is never easy. Everyone is here for a reason. Curling takes patience,” said Schneider.
Schneider beat Richard 6-3 in the A final Saturday morning to advance directly to today’s final. It puts the VCC skip on the doorstep of his fourth Brier after previously playing three times with Saskatchewan champion rinks. But this one would be special because it would be in his hometown of Regina.
“It would be in sa国际传媒 colours, but it would be unreal to play in Regina in the Brier,” Schneider said earlier in the week.
“It is the best curling event every year in the world and an unreal environment,” added Schneider, who was named the all-star third of the 2017 Brier in St. John’s.
“The hype and largeness of it within Canadian curling feels so big. You feel like you’re on top of the world for 10 days.”
Once you’ve felt that, you crave that again and again. Schneider, Horvath, Middleton and Ginter have put themselves one step away from returning to the Brier.
Montgomery’s Victoria rink, a two-time provincial finalist, beat the 2022 champion Brent Pierce rink from Royal City 7-4 in the three-four playoff game to advance to the semifinals.
On the women’s side, Kristen Ryan of Kelowna was playing the Corryn Brown rink of Kamloops in the semifinal, with the winner advancing to meet the Clancy Grandy rink of Vancouver in the final this morning.
Defending champion Grandy moved to an 8-0 record on the week by beating Brown 8-3 in the women’s A final Saturday morning to advance to the championship game while re-directing Brown through the semifinal route. Grandy and Brown met in the 2022 final in Chilliwack.
The unflappable Grandy treats the playoffs no differently than she does the preliminary round: “Round-robin or playoffs, it’s all the same at the end of the day and we do not change anything. We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, stick together, and make our shots. All the training we do is paying off. We trust in all the work and preparation we have put in.”
The youthful Emily Bowles rink of Victoria, backed by Meredith Cole, Gabby Brissette, Mahra Harris, gave it a good run before losing 10-4 to Ryan in the three-four playoff Saturday afternoon.
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