It was a night of upsets in the Kootenay Savings Super League on Thursday night.
The Bill Van Yzerloo rink suffered its first loss of the season, falling 9-5 to Nathan Small by the score of 9-6. This was a very close game all the way through as Small built up an early 4-1 lead, with an open draw for three in the third end. Van Yzerloo took two points in both the fourth and sixth end to knot the score at 5-5. Small was forced into one point, with a nice draw to the four foot in the seventh to take a precarious 6-5 lead heading into the final frame. That is where both teams went all in to get a victory. Van Yzerloo had a chance to tie with his final stone but hit and rolled out giving Small a steal of three and the victory.
With half of his team away, the Darren Albo squad faced off against Myron Nichol. Albo recruited veteran Ed Wilcox from Fruitvale and he assisted his team with a variety of spectacular shots. Albo jumped out to a big 8-0 lead after only three ends. Nichol was pondering shaking hands but hung around in this game with singles in the fourth and fifth ends and then a huge steal of four in the sixth to narrow the gap to 8-6. Albo got a single in the seventh and ran Nichol out of rocks in the eighth to seal a 9-6 win.
The Ken Fines foursome was on fire on Thursday, as they made very few mistakes and easily beat Rob Ferguson 8-1 after only six ends, ending Ferguson’s seven game winning streak. Fines broke open a 3-1 lead, with steals of two, in both the fourth and fifth ends and never looked back.
The game of the night was Heather Nichol and Bill King locking horns in a very thrilling match. Heather opened up with a nice hit and stick for two in the first end, only to see King come back with an open draw for three in the second end. The teams exchanged singles for the next four ends, to set up the eighth with the teams tied 5-5. Heather tried to bury a rock in the house by going around one of King’s stones in the top 12 foot, but the stone rubbed the rock and laid wide open for King to remove. King threw his last rock a little inside, rubbed the guard, but hit the shot rock to pull out a 6-5 win.
Super League Curling goes at 7 p.m. every Thursday at the Trail Curling Club.