A pair of curling rinks from Grand Forks are aiming to capture their respective provincial titles.
Vern Best and his Over 60 rink and Norm Arnott and his Over 70 rink will be representing Zone 1 (Kootenays) at the provincial finals in Nanaimo, B.C. from March 5 to 8.
It won’t be easy, according to Best, whose rink defeated a rink from Trail to make the provincials in the zone playdowns.
“We don’t normally play against these guys and there are some very good teams and usually in seniors, the curling is better than what people think it is,” explained Best. “There’s going to be strong competition, you’re going to have to curl to win.”
He said if his rink curls, it will have a good shot at winning the provincials.
“We have the players here to curl in Grand Forks, we have good shooters and there’s no reason why we can’t,” said Best.
For Arnott’s rink, it played off in Grand Forks beating another local team and then a Castlegar rink to earn its ticket to Nanaimo.
“Gordie Shimzu is our third, Lawrence Valentine’s our second and Eddie Watamaniuk is our lead and they all throw pretty good rocks,” explained Arnott, who didn’t want to forecast how his rink would do in Nanaimo.
“It’s pretty hard to say. You don’t know what the other teams are going to be like but I think our chances are as good as anyone else,” he said.
For Doug Large, president of the Grand Forks Curling Club retirees, a good contingent is representing the area.
“I feel they can win it all. I think they’re as good as anybody else and they’re really good curlers that have been at it for years,” Large said. I think we have a good chance.”