Joey Payeur
It was close but no cigar for two local curling rinks over the weekend.
Hailey Beaudry and Chris Silver both fell one game short of making the semi-finals at the Tim Hortons Bantam curling provincial championships in Sault Ste. Marie, each finishing in a tie for fourth with 3-4 records.
Beaudry and her crew of third Nicole Hartlin, second Erin Tomalty, and co-leads Tory and Anika Beaudry needed to run the table to at least force a tie-breaker after losing a crucial 5-4 decision to Katie Rutledge of the Soo on Friday afternoon.
The Fort crew pulled out an 8-7 win that night against Emma Landry (New Liskeard) to stay alive.
But a 10-3 loss in seven ends to Tiana Gaudry (Thunder Bay) on Saturday morning took Beaudry’s fate out of her own hands.
The locals then blasted Hayley Horton (Blind River) 9-1 in four ends in Saturday afternoon’s final round-robin draw.
But Rutledge ended Beaudry’s hopes with an 8-6 victory over Cassidy Romyn (Sioux Lookout) to end up third at 4-3, thus eliminating those at 3-4, including Beaudry, Gaudry, and Romyn.
Megan Smith (Sudbury) captured the girls’ crown yesterday with a 5-4 win over Rutledge in the final.
In boys’ action, Silver and his team of third Reece Jones, second Kurt McGuire, and lead Jason Bazylewski almost fought their way back into the playoff mix after dropping their third-straight game Friday afternoon by a count of 7-4 to Sam Cull (Sudbury).
The Fort contingent downed Christopher Perozak (Thunder Bay) 7-4 on Friday night.
Then they evened their record with a 9-5 win Saturday morning over hometown favourite Brendan Acorn to tie him and Perozak at 3-3 heading into the final round-robin draw.
But the schedule did not go Silver’s way as he needed to beat the undefeated Sudbury foursome, skipped by Tanner Horgan, to clinch a tie-breaker berth against the winner between Acorn and Perozak.
Instead, Horgan blitzed Silver 8-1 in five ends while Acorn doubled Perozak 8-4 to grab third place.
That turned out to be a huge win as Acorn eventually got into the final, where he beat Horgan 6-5 yesterday to claim the title.
Beaudry and Silver now will turn their attention to the NorWOSSA curling showdown Feb. 23-24 in Sioux Lookout.
