The B.C. senior curling championships proved so close, yet so far away for the Royal City Curling Club.
Royal City club skips Doug Meger and Brian Gessner both got to the senior men's playoffs, while four-time B.C. champion Kathy Smiley was knocked out in the senior women's tiebreak at the provincial finals held in Kelowna this weekend.
The Meger foursome of third Mike Moss, second Brett Kury and lead John Homenuke made a solid run in the playoff, knocking off Ken Watson of Richmond 6-3 and avenging an earlier loss to Gessner to advance to the men's final.
Meger fell to Gessner 7-2 in the final preliminary draw but got by his Royal City clubmate 7-5 in the semifinal with a four-point ninth end.
The Meger rink then lost to Dennis Graber of Prince George 7-4 in the final. Meger was leading 4-1 at one point after a three-stone sixth end.
But Graber closed the deficit with two in the seventh and then took the lead for good with steals of two in both the eighth and ninth ends.
Gessner's rink, including third Neil Houston, second Greg Monkman and lead John Smiley, had a strong 5-2 showing in the preliminary rounds, including a 10-0 blanking over Watson in the final draw.
Gessner's only losses prior to the playoff were a narrow 6-5 defeat to the eventual champion Graber and a 10-6 setback to Ken McHargue of Sparwood.
In the senior women's final, the Smiley rink of third Kerri Miller, along with 2010 champions Christine Jurgenson and Roselyn Craig at second and lead, respectively, fashioned a 5-2 record through the round robin before falling 9-3 to the eventual playoff runner-up Karen Lepine of Langley in the tiebreak.
Penny Shantz of Nanaimo defeated Lepine 10-9 in the provincial final.
After an opening loss to Sandra Jenkins of Salmon Arm, Smiley ran off four consecutive victories, including a 9-0 win in seven ends over Cheryl Wyatt of Terrace and an 112 win over Marilyn Berry of Invermere. Smiley's other round-robin loss was a 6-3 defeat to Shantz.
In the final draw, Smiley edged Lepine 8-7 in 11 ends.
But Lepine suprised Smiley in the tiebreak, making steals in the fifth, sixth and seventh ends, while claiming a deuce in each of the eighth and ninth ends to unseat the 2009 champion.
