It was nearly a golden weekend on home ice for Team Bowles at the B.C. U18 Women’s Curling Championships, hosted by the Delta Thistle Curling Club in North Delta.
Skipped by North Delta’s Emily Bowles, the hometown team fell 6-3 to Team Richards in Sunday’s gold medal game. Both teams will represent British Columbia at next month’s U18 Canadian Championships in Timmons, ON.
The Bowles rink also features Tunnel Town Curling Club’s Meredith Cole (third) and Keira McCoy (second), along with Royal City Curling Club’s Chelsea Taylor.
Bowles opened the championships with a 9-2 loss to Team Wheatcroft, then split a pair of matches, defeating Team Hafeli 5-4 and falling 7-5 to Team Rempel. The 1-2 record meant the girls needed to sweep their final two round-robin games Friday to stay in playoff contention.
They did just that, rallying to defeat Team Richards 6-5, thanks to four in the sixth end and a single in the eighth. Team Bowles then cruised to a 9-1 win over Team Wong, scoring three in the fifth and seventh ends.
The girls had not only earned a playoff spot, but also prevailed through a complicated tiebreaker thanks to four teams finishing with identical 3-2 records. That earned them a direct berth to championship game.
Richards finished second overall and slipped past Team Wheatcroft 5-4 in the semis.
The final saw Richards overcame a 1-0 deficit with three in the third then broke a 3-3 deadlock with two more in the fifth.
Bowles is part of a big North Delta curling family that includes her sisters Elizabeth and Kate, along with cousins Taylor and Morgan that came through Delta Thistle’s junior program.
The U18 Nationals are slatted to take place Feb. 14 to 20.
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