Friday’s night draw at the Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling’s Meridian Canadian Open saw the biggest roar from the crowd to date at the North Battleford Civic Centre.
That came when Saskatoon’s Steve Laycock punched his ticket into Saturday’s quarter-final after a 7-3 win over Edmonton’s Charley Thomas.
“That was a lot of fun out there tonight, especially with everyone cheering us on,” Laycock said. “I’m not sure if that gave some extra focus, but it couldn’t have hurt us any.”
After losing his first two games of the tournament, Laycock rattled off three straight wins in the ‘C’ bracket and has earned a date with Brad Gushue in Saturday’s quarter-finals.
“We had some momentum last night (with a win over Heath McCormick) and we just built off of that,” Laycock said.
“We had a couple of challenges this morning against (Greg) Balsdon but we worked through it and we had best game of the week for sure here tonight.”
Saskatoon’s Bruce Korte saw his tournament come to an end in disappointing fashion as he suffered a 7-1 loss to Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen in a ‘C’ final.
“The score definitely doesn’t do that game justice,” McEwen, who will play Brad Jacobs in the quarter-finals, said. “They were making some great runbacks and blasting a lot of rocks around.
“Bruce was just an inch away from tying the game in the second end, but we ended up getting a steal of one to take a 3-0 lead. He also had a really tough draw in the fourth end that didn’t work out for them, and that was pretty much the ball game after that.”
Despite the tough loss, the experience in North Battleford was a great one for the Korte rink as they gear up for the Saskatchewan men’s provincial playdowns in Tisdale.
“This has been one of the best curling events that I’ve been a part of,” Team Korte third Kevin Marsh said. “The crowds here have been awesome and we’ve been able to play against some great teams.
“We couldn’t have asked for anything more, except for maybe a win to finish things off.”
The other ‘C’ final saw Edmonton’s Brendan Bottcher knock out reigning world champion Kevin Koe of Calgary by a score of 6-4.
“We got a big three-ender in the first end, which was nice, but you have to remind yourself that there is still seven ends left to play,” Bottcher said.
“The Koe rink is one of the best at grinding ends out and you have to play seven solid ends against them after taking a lead, because you know that they are going to come back with a ton of pressure.”
Bottcher is now gearing up to face Sweden’s Niklas Edin in a quarter-final contest.
The other playoff matchup will see American John Shuster take on John Morris of Vernon, B.C.
The final three berths in the women’s quarter-finals will be decided at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
Those ‘C’ event finals will see Ottawa’s Rachel Homan facing Mississauga’s Jacqueline Harrison, Sudbury’s Tracy Fleury squaring off with Winnipeg’s Michelle Englot and an all-Alberta matchup between Lethbridge’s Casey Scheidegger and Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque.
