Three Royal City Curling Club rinks have secured berths into this season’s B.C. men’s curling championships.
The Dean Joanisse rink of third Mike Johnson, second Paul Cseke and lead John Cullen earned the first qualifing berth to the B.C. championships, winning the A event final with a 6-3 win over Grant Dezura of Golden Ears at the Lower Mainland playdowns at the Royal City Curling Club Dec. 6 to 8.
Tied 3-3 after six ends, Joanisse took only his second lead of the A event final, lying two in the eighth end, before running Dezura out of rocks in a one-rock steal in the ninth.
In the A event semifinals, Joanisse scored a big three-point ninth end to nip John Molendyk of Vancouver to advance to the final. Dezura knocked off Burnaby’s Brent Pierce 7-1 in the other semi.
Joanisse, a two-time B.C. men’s champion from Victoria, also needed a two-point 10th end over clubmate Rick Pughe to coninue on in the A event.
In the B event final, Dezura met Pierce again, scoring four in the sixth end and four more in the eighth to qualify for the B.C.’s.
Pierce took the long road to the provincials, playing eight games in the three-day competition held at the Royal City Curling Club.
The Pierce rink of skip Sean Geall, third Pierce, second Sebastien Robillard and lead Mark Olson blanked Pughe 8-0 in the C event, before winning the final Lower Mainland berth 8-4 over clubmate Ken McArdle, scoring three in the fourth end, two more in the seventh and another deuce in the ninth.
All three qualifiers will join Royal City skip Andrew Bilesky, who earned an automatic berth into the B.C.s as the winner of last year’s tournament.
In January, curlers have one last chance to compete for four open berths to the B.C.s at Salmon Arm.
The B.C. men’s championships will be played in Vancouver Feb. 5 to 9.
