BOUCHERVILLE, QUE. -- For the first time in three years, there will be a new champion at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship.
Gil Dash and his Moose Jaw Curling Centre foursome of third Marie Wright, second Moose Gibson, lead Darwin Bender and coach Ben Gamble dropped a heartbreaking 5-4 decision to Quebec’s Carl Marquis in the tournament quarter-final in Boucherville, Que. on Friday afternoon.
As a result, Saskatchewan has been eliminated from medal contention after winning the title the previous two seasons when the event was held in Moose Jaw.
That doesn’t little to taint the legacy of the winningest players in nationals history, with Dash and Wright having won five championships previously, with Bender and Gibson each having claimed four.
It was an up-and-down week for the Dash foursome, as they finished the round robin with a 3-2 record and needed wins in their final two games to lock down a playoff spot.
Saskatchewan 1 started the tournament with a 7-5 win over New Brunswick’s Michael Fitzgerald before losing a couple of close contests by 5-4 scores to British Columbia’s Marney Smithies and Alberta’s Martin Purvis.
That put Dash in a must win situation and he’d get the job done in the final two games, downing Quebec’s Luc Hamel 7-3 and Ontario’s Shauna Petrie 10-5 to finish with a 3-2 record and in fourth place in Pool A.
That sent Saskatchewan into the quarter-final against Marquis, who was coming off a solid week to top Pool B with a 4-1 record.
Things were back and forth in that contest, with Quebec scoring one in the second and stealing another in the third for a 2-0 edge before Dash took the lead with three in the fourth. The teams then exchanged deuces the next two ends to give Saskatchewan a 5-4 lead heading into the final two ends.
There, Dash would successfully hold Marquis to one in the seventh, but would be unable to use the hammer to pick up a point in the final end and would fall by one.
The Saskatchewan 2 team out of the Saskatoon Sutherland didn’t have as much luck, as Pete Andrews, third Mark Kennedy, second Stephen Draude, lead Ashley Baerg and coach Peter Kennedy finished with a 1-4 record and in sixth place in Pool B.
Andrews opened the tournament with a couple of close games, falling 9-8 to Newfoundland’s Dennis Thiessen before taking a 7-6 win over perennial title contender Doug Dean out of Northern Ontario. Things didn’t go as well the rest of the way for Sask 2, though, as they fell 9-4 to Marquis, 8-4 to Nova Scotia’s Laughlin Rutt and 9-6 to B.C.’s Rick Robinson to close out the round robin.
Andrews will close out the tournament on Saturday at 8 a.m. when they face New Brunswick in the 11-12th placement game.
