Skip to content

Curling: Buchy takes zone playdown

The Tom Buchy rink from Kimberley is off to another B.C. Men’s Curling championship.

The Tom Buchy rink from Kimberley is off to another B.C. Men’s Curling championship after winning the Kootenay Zone playdown on Sunday in Nelson.

The Buchy foursome, consisting of skip Buchy, third Dave Stephenson, second Dave Toffolo, and lead Darren Will, went undefeated in the five-team tournament, culminating in a 6-3 win over the Rob Ferguson rink on Sunday morning.

“It was a great weekend,” Buchy told the Nelson Star. “We were here a couple weeks ago and struggled a bit. This time we seemed to get a better feel of it.

Bushy jumped out to a 3-1 lead after stealing one in the third end and another in the fourth. After a scoreless fifth, Ferguson would get one back, but Buchy counted two in the seventh and traded singles before shaking hands at the end of the ninth and a 6-3 Bushy victory.

“We managed to get the rocks in the right places. We got an early lead, stole a couple singles and got a few breaks. Everybody was pretty solid,” he said.

Buchy finished fourth at the Men’s provincials the past two years, and was a bronze medal winner as skip for his Kimberley team at the B.C. Mixed Curling championship last year. His mixed team has represented B.C. three times at the national mixed championship.

For the second year in a row, the Ferguson rink came up just short. The team made up of  skip Rob Ferguson,  third Brian LeMoel, second Joey Ferguson, and lead Marcus Partridge started strong, beating the Myron Nichol rink from Castlegar 6-4, before falling to Buchy on Saturday 5-3. Ferguson rebounded however, and took down the Rob Norbert foursome from Trail, before losing again to Buchy in the final.

The B.C. Men’s Curling championship goes in Vernon, Feb. 3-8.