UNITY — Bruce Korte and his Saskatoon Nutana teammates apparently aren’t interested in wasting any time in their quest to repeat as CurlSask senior men’s provincial champions.
Korte and his rink of third Darrell McKee, second Kory Kohuch and lead Rory Golanowski rolled to a 6-1 victory over Regina Callie’s Randy Bryden in the A side final at the championship tournament currently underway in Unity.
It was the third straight win for Korte, even if things were close in the early going against Bryden and his reigning Canadian champion rink of third Troy Robinson, second Russ Bryden and lead Chris Semenchuk on Friday afternoon.
After blanking the first end, Korte picked up one in the second, after which the teams exchanged single points to see Korte leading 2-1 through four. The Saskatoon foursome then stole a pair the next end before adding two more in the sixth, and Bryden would get no closer as Korte claimed the A side title.
Bryden got back on track in the B side semifinal, scoring one in the eighth to defeat Unity’s Robert Bakken 5-4. Bryden will now face Saskatoon Nutana’s Blaine Duncan in the B qualifier final on Saturday morning after Duncan took a 6-1 win over Jeff Hartung in their semifinal.
All four playoff qualifiers will be decided on Saturday, with the B final at 9:30 a.m. followed by the two C event qualifiers at 2 p.m.
The Page playoffs 1-2 game will see the A and B event winners play at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for a spot in the finals, with the two C event winners playing in the 3-4 game for a semifinal berth. The winner there will face the loser of the Page 1-2 game in the semifinal at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by the gold medal game at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Things are also getting down to the nitty gritty in the senior women’s provincial championship, with the first set of semifinalists decided.
Amber Holland and her defending champion foursome of third Jill Shumay, second Sherri Singler and lead Trenna Derdall took a commanding 11-4 win over Saskatoon’s Tracy Streifel in their quarter-final contest, scoring three in the fourth and two in the fifth for a 7-1 lead and then adding four in the seventh to finish things off.
Streifel, third Julie Vandenamaale, second Deanna Miller-Jones and lead Donna Ell then dropped down to the second quarter-final, where they’d fall 8-4 to Yorkton’s Joan McCusker, third Patsy Kuspira, second Bev Fuches and lead Kristina Just.
As a result, Holland and McCusker will now face off during the 9:30 a.m. draw Saturday for a spot in the championship final, while Streifel will take on Regina Highland’s Cathy Inglis, third Candace Newkirk, second Nancy Inglis and lead Deanna Doig in the third quarter-final at 2 p.m.
The winner of that contest will play the loser of Holland and McCusker at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for the other championship berth.
The senior women’s title game is set for 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Be sure to keep an eye on all the action this week at www.curlsask.ca.
