It was an all-Sexsmith sweep at the Boston Pizza Cup Districts this weekend at the Dawson Creek Curling Club.
Sexsmith's Kurt Balderston and Graham Powell earned the two available berths to the Alberta Men's Provincial Championships, Feb. 6-10 at the Leduc Recreation Centre in Leduc, AB.
Balderston took the first seed with an 8-6 A-Final win over his Sexsmith counterpart on Saturday, sending Powell to the B-Final to face Peace River's Ryan Konowalyk. Powell won the B-qualifier 6-4 punching his ticket to provincials.
Balderston concluded the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record. He downed Mark Pillsworth (Grande Prairie) 9-4 in the first round; made quick work of Knowalyk in the quarterfinal 7-0 in seven ends; and reached the final with a 7-6 semifinal nail-biter over Dawson Creek's Mark Heartt.
In Saturday's A-Final, Balderston trailed Powell 3-1 after five ends but scored three in the sixth, and three more in the ninth to lead 7-6 before scoring one in the tenth to clinch the win.
On Sunday, Powell took a 5-4 lead into the tenth end where held off Konowalyk to score one and make it a 6-4 final.
Konowalyk played spoiler to both Dawson Creek rinks competing at Districts. He eliminated the father-son rink of skip Jeff Ginter, son Jason, and Tracy Steinke and his son Jordan, in the second round of the B-side before downing Heartt 8-2 in the quarterfinals.
Fort St. John's Glen Godberson met Knowalyk in the B-semifinal, where Konowalyk advanced easily with a 9-4 nine-end win.
With only two rinks on hand to compete for the district seeds, the Peace Region representatives on the women's side were decided before the tournament started.
Kristie Moore of the Grande Prairie Curling Club and Delia DeJong – another Sexsmith skip – will respresent the Peace at the Alberta Scotties (women's provincials) on Jan. 23-27 in Lethbridge, AB.
Moore and Dejong faced off in a two-game playoff, splitting the series before going to a skills competition shootout to determine the A and B representative at provincials. Moore took the first match 8-6 in nine ends before DeJong handily won the second game 12-2 in just four ends; but it was Moore that came out on top eventually winning the skills segment.
