Two Victoria teams have earned the final berths for the 2016 Canadian Direct Insurance B.C. Men’s Curling Championship in Nelson next month.
The event, which takes place from Feb. 10 to 14, will feature 16 men’s teams vying for the chance to represent B.C. at the Tim Hortons Brier in Ottawa.
Two Vancouver Island teams, Team Montgomery and Team Jackson qualified. They were joined by Team House from Richmond to complete the field.
Team Montgomery were the first to qualify by capturing the A event with three straight wins. The team, of skip Jason Montgomery, third Miles Craig, second Cameron De Jong, and lead Dave McGarry, represent Victoria Curling Centre. Two of the team members (Montgomery and Craig) hail from Shawnigan Lake and also curl at Duncan Curling Club.
Team Jackson, also from Victoria Curling Centre, grabbed the second spot with their only loss against Team Montgomery. Skipped by Glen Jackson, the team also features third Andrew Komlodi, second Corey Chester and lead Joel Cave.
The teams were among seven teams that travelled to Salmon Arm Jan. 8 to 10 to take part in the final open playdown to lock up their trip to the B.C. championship.
Ten teams had previously qualified at regional playdowns in December. In addition, Team Cotter, from Kelowna/Vernon, earned a trip back to provincials as the defending champions, along with the top two CTRS (Canadian Team Ranking System) points winners, Team Joanisse and Team Geall (both from Royal City Curling Club).