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Royal City rinks claim second at u18s

For a pair of Royal City Curling Club rinks, the run for the roses ended up falling just short. Two teams representing the New West club ended up second at the 2019 B.C. under-18 curling championships in Victoria last week.

For a pair of Royal City Curling Club rinks, the run for the roses ended up falling just short.

Two teams representing the New West club ended up second at the 2019 B.C. under-18 curling championships in Victoria last week.

Team Sato, coming off a gold medal win at the Canada Winter Games, were unable to stop Team Colwell of Vernon, Kamloops and Invermere in a 9-4 decision in the boys final.

The Sato team includes skip Hayato Sato, third Joshua Miki, second Dawson Ballard and lead Troy Chong of Burnaby.

The New West rink led 2-0 into the third end after scoring a pair in the top of the first. However, Colwell nailed two in the third and fourth ends for a 4-2 advantage. Scratching back, Sato pulled even with single points in both the fifth and sixth rounds, but the Vernon crew went ahead with a point in the seventh and closed with four in the eighth.

Sato had advanced to the final with the best record in the round robin, going 6-1, with the clinching win coming in a convincing 8-4 doubling of Cowan on the final test. In that win, the Royal City squad led off with four big points in the first, then tacked on three more in the third to grab an impressive 7-1 lead early.

Their lone loss came in the sixth game of the round robin, when fellow Royal City team Duncan-Wu snuck out a 3-2 victory, where the underdogs tallied two points in the top of the eighth then blanked Sato in the bottom side for the win.

After a 5-2 round robin record, Duncan-Wu had one shot to move onward but were eliminated 5-2 by Team Deane of Delta’s Tunnel Town.

The Duncan-Wu team, which also calls Port Moody home, features skip Alex Duncan-Wu, third Kazune Fei, second Matthew Fenton, fifth Adam Fenton and lead Daniel Deng.

On the girls side, Team Taylor put in their best effort but were waylaid 10-2 by Kimberley’s Team Buchy in the final.

The Royal City-Tunnel Town joint team, which includes skip Jensen Taylor, third Meredith Cole, second Keira McCoy and lead Chelsea Taylor, traded points with their rivals until the fourth end when Buchy stole two and added five in the sixth to finish it.

Team Taylor’s run to the podium in Juan de Fuca included a 5-2 record in round-robin play to finish in a three-way tie for first at the eight-rink event. After being slotted third due to head-to-head scoring, Taylor posted an impressive come-from-behind 6-5 win over Vancouver Island’s Team Douglas to the final. Down 5-3 after seven ends, Taylor scored a pair in the eighth to tie the game and cashed in the game-winning point in the ninth.

In their previous encounter with Buchy during the round robin portion, the New West team briefly rallied to take a 3-2 lead in the seventh, only to see the Kimberley crew tie it in the eighth and add three more in the ninth.