For the second straight year, the Buchy rink finished in fourth place at provincial playdowns, falling short in the three-four playoff quarterfinal over the weekend in Vancouver.
Despite a tough start, the team—consisting of Tom Buchy, Fred Thomson, Dave Toffolo and Darren Will—peaked on Friday with three straight wins that put them into playoffs.
However, their opponents, led by Jason Montgomery out of the Duncan Curling Club, curled very well on the way to a 9-1 win to end the Buchy run.
“They get up three after the first end and just couldn’t get it back,” said Buchy. “It was just one of those games where no matter what you do, nothing seems to go right.”
The Montgomery rink eventually lost to John Morris in the final, who won the right to represent B.C. at the Brier men’s national curling championship.
It was a bit of a roller coaster to start the provincial championship on Wednesday, with a 10-4 loss to Neil Dangerfield out of Victoria, before rebounding with a win at the same score over the Bill Cameron rink out of Prince George.
In their only draw on Thursday, the Buchy rink was defeated 8-2 by Grant Dezura out of Maple Ridge after giving up a devastating four points in the fifth end.
However, their luck seemed to change on Friday, as they rattled off three wins in a row.
“We had a great Friday, the guys played fantastic, had a few breaks and just overall, played really well that day,” said Buchy.
“…We managed to get on a roll, we won three in a row, beat DeCap, Joanisse and Yamada to qualify [for playoffs].”
It started with an 8-5 win over Kamloops’ Scott DeCap, as the Buchy rink scored a triple in the final end to pick up the win.
Next up was a 8-6 defeat of Dean Joanisse, representing the host club, as the Buchy rink led 7-6 in the eighth end—stealing a single in the ninth to wrap up the draw.
Also out of Kamloops, a team skipped by Brent Yamada fell to the Buchy squad 10-4, with the Kimberley crew scoring triples in the third, fifth and eighth ends on the road to victory.
That win streak was enough to put them into the playoff running.
“Your goal is to make the playoffs, but ideally, the one-two game is great, because it gives you two lives, but making the playoffs, you know you’re in there,” said Buchy.