The northern and southern senior playdowns were held Feb. 10 to 13 and although their were two local teams at northerns, they will not be competing at provincials in Regina.
Wayne Cubbon, with his Battlefords rink of Wayne Charteris, Stewart Mitchell and Bill Knight had a strong start at the northern playdown in Kamsack, but saw their luck change as the week went on.
Cubbon's rink beat John Krasowski 10-5 in their first match. Cubbon was up heading into the ninth, scored two points in the ninth and stole two in the 10th to move the Battlefords rink forward in the A-event.
Next, Cubbon beat the defending senior champion Brad Heidt by a 7-3 score thanks largely to a four-point seventh end.
In the A semi final, Cubbon's win streak ended at two when Ian Kelln won 9-3.
After dropping to the B-event, the Cubbon rink couldn't get back in the win column and lost two more to be eliminated.
Ed Fusick scored one in the 10th end with the hammer to win 6-5 over Cubbon. That was followed by a 12-8 win for Bob Gill over Cubbon.
The other local rink of Glen Heitt, Darly Eddingfield, Gary Maze and Bart Brown, curling out of Unity, played seven games. Unfortunately they failed to qualify for a provincial berth.
Heitt beat Gordon McLelland 6-2 in the first draw Thursday. Next, Kelln beat Heitt 9-2 knocking the Unity rink down to the B-event.
In the B-event, Heitt won two straight beating Krasowski 4-3 and Andrew Kasakoff 6-5. Eugene Hritzuk beat Heitt 7-2 in the B-event semi final, putting them in a do-or-die position. In the C-event Heitt beat Gill 11-4, but was eliminated by Heidt 9-6 in one of the two C-event qualifiers.
Heidt, Fusick, Hritzuk and Kelln advanced from the north while Ed Bitz, Al Schick, Bill Weppler and Brad Law, who curled in the Tankard in the Battlefords two weeks earlier, qualified from the southern playdown in Maple Creek.
The Affinity CU Senior Men's Provincial Championship begins Tuesday and finishes Feb. 27.
The Affinity CU Senior Women's Provincial Championship will also be played in Regina on the same weekend.
