Kelowna rink, skipped by Geall, bound for the Brier

Daily Courier Staff

The third time proved to be the charm for Sean Geall and his Kelowna Curling Club teammates, defeating defending champion Jim Cotter’s Okanagan-based rink 9-7 in the final of the B.C. men’s curling championship in Parksville on Sunday.

Geall, who scored two points in the 11th end to prevail in the back-and-forth affair, advances to represent B.C. at this year’s Brier in Regina from March 3-11.

Prior to that, Geall lost twice to Cotter — 7-6 in the A-event qualifier on Thursday, then 6-2 in the 1-2 Page playoff on Saturday.

Cotter, who hails from Vernon and teams with Kelowna products Tyrel Griffith and Rick Sawatsky — plus Catlin Schneider from Saskatchewan in place of John Morris, who is off to the Olympics in mixed doubles — had been a perfect 4-0 at provincials in cruising through the A-event.

Geall, along with the Kelowna trio of Jeff Richard (third), Andrew Nerpin (second) and Dave Harper (lead), won the B-event on Friday with an 8-3 victory over Brent Pierce of New Westminster.

After losing the 1-2 showdown to Cotter, Geall bounced back to beat Victoria’s Jason Montgomery 6-5 in Sunday morning’s semifinal.

In the final, Cotter opened the scoring in the second end and led until Geall managed three points in the ninth end and put on the finishing touches in the 11th.

Cotter had been staying ahead with leads of 1-0, 3-1, 4-3 and 6-4 through eight ends.

Geall finished with a 6-2 record at provincials, with his only losses coming against Cotter.

Richard provided plenty of experience as the 2010 B.C. champion.

Four of the 12 teams at the provincial event featured players from Kelowna, including the Chris Baier team with Adam Cseke, Matt Tolley and Cal Jackson. Also hailing from Kelowna was Brendan Willis, the third for Grant Dezura’s rink out of Maple Ridge.

Penticton also had a presence, with Wylie Eden skipping a team from the Penticton Curling Club that featured Sean Matheson, Jason Larence and Tyler Jaeger.

There was also a second team from Vernon, skipped by Mark Longworth with Michael Longworth, Rob Nobert and John Slattery.