That's why they play the games — Thomson rink upset at Kootenay zones

By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily

On paper the Fred Thomson rink looked like one of the teams that would book a ticket to the B.C. Men’s Curling Championships.

But when the final rock was played, it was Nelson’s Thomson, third Don Freschi of Trail, second Rob Norbert of Castlegar and Nelson lead Barry Marsh on the outside looking in at the Men’s Kootenay Curling Playdown this past weekend in the Bavarian City.

Thomson lost to Tom Buchy of Kimberley in the first qualifier 9-7 Sunday before dropping the second qualifier 7-6 to Cranbrook’s Tom Shypitka.

Both Buchy and Shypitka now represent the zone at the Canadian Direct Insurance B.C. Men’s Curling Championship Feb. 6-12, 2012 at the Parksville Curling Club.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” Thomson told The Nelson Daily Tuesday. “We thought going in, as did most people, that (Tom) Buchy and our rink would be the two top teams.”

Which is why the games are played.

The Buchy rink proved to almost unstoppable on home ice. The Kimberley skip twice defeated Thomson, the latter coming in the first qualifier Sunday.

Deuces, including the pivotal tenth end, in four ends proved to be enough to power Buchy to the two-rock win.

“It was a war out there,” Thomson explained. “There were lots of good shots by both teams but in the tenth Tom played it really well, guarding (shot rock) with three or four guards.”

“In the end I really didn’t even have a shot,” Thomson added.

The loss dropped Thomson into the second qualifier against Shypitka.

A mistake in the second opened the door for the Cranbrook skip to score four en route to the one-shot win.

“We were up 2-0 and decided to go for the steal,” said Thomson. “We tried to freeze up to his rock but my shot never curled and they had a wide open hit for four.”

“We made the decision as a team to go for it,” Thomson added. “Sometimes it works out great but when it doesn’t . . ..”

There’s another shot at making the provincial meet coming January.

However, Freschi has a previous engagement forcing the team to miss the regional final in Kelowna.

“We knew going in we were not going to attend the back door playdown,” Thomson said.

The backdoor open bonspiel determines the final four spots in the 16-team field.

Already confirmed to be in Parksville are defending B.C. champ, Jim Cotter of Vernon and CTR leader Brent Pierce of New Westminster.

Also advancing to the B.C.’s are former B.C. champ Shawn Geall, Buchy and Brian Windsor.

EXTRA END: The Nelson rink of skip Brent Pihowich, third Nando Salviulo, second Jamie Tedesco and lead Greg Kinder finished 2-3 during the Kootenay zones. Pihowich lost to Thomson and Rob Ferguson of Trail. . . .The Ferguson rink lost to Tom Shypitka in the C Final. The Ferguson rink includes third Brian LeMoel, second Joey Ferguson and lead Justin Kitcher. . . . The Myron Nichol rink of Castlegar also finished 2-3 and was eliminated by Shypitka. The rink includes third Garry Beaudry of Nelson, second Stewart Higgins and lead Rob Babiarz.

sports@thenelsondaily.com