The 2022 AMJ Campbell BC Mixed Curling Championship is underway at the Kimberley Curling Club, with 13 teams from all over the province competing for the provincial title and the opportunity to represent B.C. at Nationals in November.
Blair Jarvis, co-chair for the BC Mixed Curling Championship, said that there are five teams with Kimberley or Cranbrook connections, plus teams from the Island, Vancouver and elsewhere in the Interior.
READ MORE: BC Mixed Curling Championship in Kimberley this week
Getting started on Thursday, March 10 there are three draws a day at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., all qualifying games for the playoffs which take place on Sunday.
“We had a good crowd here yesterday afternoon and evening, it helps having a couple local teams as well, so expecting that attendance will be pretty good,” Jarvis said. “We were’t quite sure whether we were going to be able to have spectators with COVID, so it’s good to see and it’s nice to have a little more atmosphere in the club.”
The action is also being streamed live on the Curl BC YouTube channel.
“It’s great to have the 13 teams here competing and just wanted to give a big shoutout and thanks to the volunteers, we’ve got 35 to 40 people helping us, at the front door, doing time in, keeping the ice in good shape and doing the livestream upstairs for those that come to watch in person, so without them it wouldn’t be possible so it’s great to have that support.”
The Bulletin stopped by on Friday afternoon and captured some of the action from team Buchy’s draw against Team Craig out of Victoria and Duncan.
Buchy represents a legacy of curling in Kimberley — a community itself that fosters tremendous growth and support for the sport.
“It’s a sport that you can do from the time that you’re six or seven years old until the time that you can no longer walk, so you can play it for life,” Jarvis said. “We actually weren’t quite sure how this year was going to go but we’ve got over 230 members here at the club and actually Curl BC told us in January that we had the highest percentage of new registrations of any club in B.C. this winter, so that’s good to see and curling does seem to be growing in Kimberley and we’re happy to see that.”
In the end, it was Team Craig who ultimately came out on top, with a dramatic extra-end victory over Penticton’s Team Tolley, after Team Craig knocked out Team Buchy in a semi final that came down to the very last rock.
paul.rodgers@kimberleybulletin
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