Wes Craig’s rink plowed through his early competition at the 2024 Canadian Masters Curling Championships in Saguenay, Quebec.
The famed Cowichan curler and his rink of third Ron Schmidt (Courtenay), second Tony Anslow (Victoria), and lead Victor Gamble (Duncan) had five wins in a row before his first loss in pool play, besting Northwest Territories 8-3, Yukon 12-2, Northern Ontario 8-2, Quebec Team 2 8-1, and New Brunswick 10-4, but losing 9-5 to Saskatchewan.
The 5-1 record advanced Craig’s rink to the championship pool, where they beat Manitoba 10-4 to start. Craig’s rink fell 5-2 to Ontario and 7-4 to Quebec Team 1 before beating Newfoundland and Labrador 9-8 to place among the top four teams in the pool and moving on to the elimination round.
A crushing 9-5 loss to Saskatchewan forced the Craig rink to the bronze medal match where they were once again beaten by Quebec Team 1, this time by an 8-2 score to finish just outside the medals at fourth overall.
In other curling news, Cowichan product Carley Hardie and her University of Calgary women’s team placed second in the Alberta U21 provincials which qualified them for the U21 Canadians from March 24-31 in Fort McMurray.
There, Hardie’s Team Alberta placed second in their pool with a 5-2 record, which was good enough to advance to the playoffs where they beat Manitoba 9-3 in the quarter finals but lost to Nova Scotia (MacNutt) in the semifinal, pushing them to the bronze medal game. Team Alberta played Team Nova Scotia (Blades) and beat them 7-3.
Hardie grew up curling at the Glen Harper Curling Centre in Duncan.