In Canadian country music icon Shania Twain’s hometown, things can only go up from here for the Salmon Arm-Vernon curling team skipped by Kaiden Beck.
Beck, of Salmon Arm, who throws third stones, third Nolan Blaeser of Vernon (throwing skip rocks), and the front end of Nolan Beck of Salmon Arm (Kaiden’s brother) and Koen Hampshire of Vernon, has started 0-2 at the 2023 Canadian U18 National Championships in Timmins, Ont.
The B.C. champs dropped to 0-2 with their only game of Monday, Feb. 6, losing a 5-2 decision to New Brunswick #1, skipped by Timothy Marin of St. John. The Marin rink is 3-0.
Trailing 2-1 after five ends of the eight-end match, Marin took control of the game by scoring four in the sixth end.
The Beck quartet began the nationals Sunday, Feb. 5, falling 8-3 to Zachary Davies of Okotoks and the Alberta No. 2 team, which is also at 3-0.
Leading 4-2 after three ends, and with last shot, Davies stole single points in the fourth and fifth ends for a 6-2 lead. Beck’s team got one back in the sixth but Davies and company forced handshakes with a deuce in the seventh end.
The Okanagan-Shuswap team returns to action Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 6:30 a.m. Pacific when they’ll take on Simon Perry of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador (1-2 as of Monday afternoon).
Team Beck qualified for the Canadians by winning the provincial title on Dec. 30, 2022 in Richmond with a 10-5 win over Adrian Tam of Richmond, who earned a spot at the nationals as the B.C. No. 2 rink.
Tam is also 0-2, having lost 8-0 to PEI and 8-2 to Ontario No. 1.
The B.C. rinks are in the same pool and play each other at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Tuesday, Feb. 7.
Teams are separated into three pools of seven teams and will play a round-robin schedule within each pool. Twelve teams advance to the playoffs for an opportunity to win a gold medal on Feb. 11.
Live-streaming coverage of the 2022 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships will be available on Curling Canada +, Curling Canada’s new streaming platform. You can access the broadcast schedule by CLICKING HERE.
Draw scores/standings will be immediately available on Curling Canada’s scoring website.
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