The Richmond Curling Club must have felt a whole lot like home to Ron Schmidt.
His Comox Valley Curling Club rink dominated men’s play at the 17th annual Pacific International Cup, capped by a 7-3 win over Australia on Sunday to capture overall honours. Schmidt’s crew went 9-0 over the five-day event — also earning the opportunity to represent B.C. at the Traveler’s Curling Club Championships next fall in Kelowna.
They did that with a 9-4 win against Kerry Park’s Randy Zinkiew rink in an all-Island B.C. Club Challenge final which took place hours earlier.
Australia skip Matt Panoussi was already guaranteed his best PIC finish before the men’s championship game had even started.
His rink did that by going 6-1 in pool play, then producing a 10-3 victory on Sunday morning over Yukon representative Tyler Williams to surpass a bronze medal effort back in 2010. Panoussi set the tone of the international final by jumping out to a huge 8-0 lead after just two ends.
The gold medal match-up was also all but decided in the early going when Schmidt struck for four in the second end and added two more in the third to open up a 6-1 lead and never looked back.
Founded back in 1998, the PIC celebrates grassroots club curling around the world. The competition is divided up into two divisions — B.C. and International — and features four days of round-robin play to set up championship Sunday. The B.C. and International winners then crossover for a one game playoff to determine the overall men’s and women’s champions.
Alaska teen Cora Farrell proved to be the story on the women’s side. The 16-year-old skipped her rink to first place in International pool with a 6-1 record, then won a 6-5 nail-biter over California. Her run to the overall title was complete with a 5-2 win over PIC veteran Kim Jonsson of Campbell River — a two-time past champion and seven-time participant.
Jonsson still had plenty to celebrate. Her 6-5 triumph over Nanaimo in the B.C. Challenge final sends her team to the club nationals as well in Kelowna.
The loss in the B.C. final ended quite a come back for Heather Lindsay-Lecuyer’s Nanaimo Curling Club foursome. They looked down and out after an 0-3 start to round-robin play before roaring back with seven straight victories to climb back into championship contention. The run was highlighted by a 7-4 tiebreaker win over Vernon to slip into Sunday morning’s B.C. semi-final game where they defeated Cloverdale 9-5 to set the stage for an all-Island final.
The improbable run nearly continued as Lindsay-Lecuyer stole one in the eighth to set up an extra end where Jonsson’s rink finally prevailed.
RCC’s own Rob Dennis rink just missed out of a playoff spot, finishing one game back of third place Langley. It came down to his final round-robin match-up where Dennis dropped a 7-4 decision to Cody Tanaka’s Tunnel Town rink to just miss out on a potential Saturday night tiebreaker.
The PIC also serves as a fundraiser for Spinal Cord Injury B.C. This year’s event generated over $6,500 through a silent auction of items generously donated by sponsors.
