Richard steals his way to 2010 Brier
Richmond, BC (February 8, 2010) – Kelowna’s Jeff Richard, Tom Shypitka, Tyler Orme and Chris Anderson captured the 2010 Canadian Direct Insurance BC Men’s Curling Championship presented by Kal-Tire crown yesterday at the Vernon Curling Club.
Richard started the week slowly at the bottom of the pack with a 1-3 record after day two, but reeled off eight consecutive wins to take top spot and a trip to the Brier held in Halifax, March 6-14, 2010.
Richard faced the 2009 champion, Sean Geall from the Royal City Curling Club in Sunday’s championship match. Geall earned his spot in the final by winning the page playoff 1 vs. 2 game over Kelowna’s Bob Ursel. Richard took the longer road by first winning the quarter-final by beating Bert Gretzinger 5-3 and then stole 2 points in Saturday’s semi-final extra-end match against Ursel. Richard continued his stealing ways against Geall in a nail-biter final.
Although Richard controlled the play during the first half of the game, he trailed 5-3 at the 5th end break. Geall gained momentum in the second half with many predicting a repeat win. The New Westminster squad narrowly missed a double-takeout for the win in the last end which was followed by a double-takeout from Richard to force an extra-end. The returning champs kept the end open leaving Richard a draw to the top eight-foot to sit two counters. The Richard stone picked up debris at the top of the house but managed to still sit second shot and leaving Geall an open draw to half of the eight for a trip to Halifax. The final rock looked on course with the sweepers lightly cleaning it but it continued to slide as it entered the house. Strong sweeping behind the tee-line from Richard third, Tom Skypitka carried the rock just inches too far leaving Richard shot stone and crowning him the new BC champion. The final score was 9-8.
Meanwhile, Jeff Richard’s sister (Jeanna Schraeder) lost out at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Ontario. Schraeder and skip Kelly Scott lost 6-4 in the quarter-final against Ontario’s Krista McCarville. Returning champion, Jennifer Jones went on to defeat PEI’s Kathy O’Rourke in an extra-end to win her third consecutive national title.
