Shypitka, Nichol carry Kootenay colours at Tim Horton's Senior's Bonspiel in Trail
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Fred Thomson would like to think all his years of competing in the Trail Curling Club would give his team the edge heading into play Tuesday at the Tim Horton’s B.C. Senior Men’s Championships.
That may be the case, say, at the junior level.
This is the Senior Men’s Division where skips, thirds, seconds and leads have seen more ice than an Eskimo.
“It’s not going to be easy at all,” said Thomson, playing third for the Kootenay’s top seed, the Tom Shypitka rink of Cranbrook.
“I understand (Trail committee) has brought in a different icemaker so he’s probably going to change up the ice somewhat.”
“Plus (our rink) doesn’t see a lot of each other during the year . . . we don’t practice we don’t throw rocks together so I don’t think there will be a whole lot of home ice advantage for us.”
Thomson, is joined by skip Tom Shypitka of Cranbrook, second Don Freschi of Trail and Bill King of Fruitvale.
Three of the members have Brier experience.
So does two of the first two rinks the Shypitka team plays against to open the eight-team spiel — Craig Lepine of Langley and Mel Steffin of New Westminster.
“We feel confident, we have a lot of experience on the team,” Thomson explained. “We can play an aggressive game and if we get up a little bit we have the skills to hopefully keep things pretty clean.”
Day two Team Shypitka meets the other Kootenay rep in the tournament, Castlegar’s Myron Nichol.
Joining Nichol is third Rick Brown, second Terry Kryzcka and lead Rob Babiarz. The Sunflower City rink opens Tuesday against Wes Craig of Victoria and Rick Pughe of New Westminster.
Each team plays two games each day with the top three teams advancing to Saturday’s playoff round. Friday is set aside for tie-breakers.
The top teams automatically gains a spot in Saturday’s final while the second and third squads battle to advance into the championship.
“Playoffs would be ideal, finishing first would be even better,” Thomson explained.
“You might get away with three losses to get into a playoff but four losses and your probably done. If you can go through with one or two losses I think you’ll have a pretty shot at finishing first.”
EXTRA END: The Teresa Hiram rink of Grand Forks is the lone rep for the Kootenays in the Tim Horton’s B.C. Senior Women’s Championships held at the same time as the men’s in Trail. Hiram is joined by third Rhonda Lee Bedard, second Rose Beauchamp and lead Cindy Pettapiece.
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