Bill Fisher was hoping to catch a break that might have extended his time on the ice Thursday afternoon at Nanaimo Curling Club.
Down by one to Wes Craig and his Victoria rink in the 10th end and holding last-shot advantage, Fisher needed a hit-and-stick that could have scored two and lifted him to his first win at the B.C. senior men's provincial curling championship. Instead, Fisher missed the shot and Craig counted one more to lock up an 8-6 victory.
It was yet another tough defeat for the Prince George Golf and Curling Club skip, whose record dropped to 0-5. Fisher and his team of third Dave Johnston, second Darrell Cosh and lead Lyle Hensrud went on to face Myron Nichol of Castlegar in the late draw Thursday. The score was unavailable at presstime.
Fisher will finish out the tournament this morning with a final round-robin game against Rob Ferguson of Trail.
Fisher began Tuesday with a pair of losses to New Westminster opponents, 6-3 to Doug Meger, and 8-3 to Ken Watson. Fisher came up just shy on Wednesday, losing 5-4 to Brian Gessner of Richmond, then lost a 7-6 decision to former men's world champion Rick Folk of Kelowna.
Folk, Meger and Watson were part of a three-team logjam atop the standings with 4-1 records heading into the late draw Thursday. Craig and Gessner were next in line at 3-2, followed by Ferguson and Nichol, each with 1-4 records.
The second- and third-place teams meet in a semifinal game tonight at 7:30. The winners advance to the final against the first-place team, set for Saturday at 2 p.m.
