It was lucky weekend for Bill Fisher and his curling foursome.
The Fisher rink won the 86th annual Kelly Cup at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club on Sunday beating Cory Eberle's team 6-4 in the final
"I'm three times a champion since I turned 50, it's pretty cool," said the 58 year old after getting hugs from his daughter and grandchildren. "There is life after 50. It's pretty neat to compete in a lifelong sport and still be competitive with younger fellows."
Fisher also won the Kelly Cup in 2007 and 2009.
His teammates, third Mike Gallagher and second Geof Magrath, have each won the cup four times - three times with Fisher - while lead Wayne Colliss was a rookie winner. The luck for the Fisher team started early in the Feb. 23 to 26 event as Gallagher went home with a 50/50 pot while Colliss had a chance to draw to the button for $50,000. Unfortunately he came up a bit short.
"We were pretty happy to be in the final, the guys we played are really great guys and if they'd won I would have been happy for them," said Fisher. "I'm happier we won."
The Eberle rink consisted of third Ron Vanderstar, second Lyle Hensrud and lead Len Vanderstar - all of whom represented the north at the B.C. men's playdowns in Parksville along with Cory's brother Wade.
Despite lots of rocks in play throughout the final neither team managed more than a single each end and there were no blanks.
"Anybody could've broke the game wide open with a big end, but it didn't happen," said Fisher. "It was just one of those things."
After being forced to one Fisher stole a point in the second end for the 2-0 lead, but Eberle scored singles in the next three ends for the 3-2 advantage. The teams traded singles in six, seven and eight to head to the ninth end tied at 4-4. Eberle was light with his draw in nine giving up a steal to trail 5-4 heading to the final end.
"The key was, for us, not getting down on ourselves," said Fisher. "We had our struggles and missed some shots but we didn't get down on ourselves and kept plugging away."
In the 10th end with one Fisher blue as shot rock and four yellow stones scattered throughout the house, Fisher's guard slid a little too far into the house, but the three-time champ didn't panic.
"When it's out of your hands it doesn't matter," he said.
Foregoing the opportunity for the tap up to score one and force an extra end, Eberle said he has not regrets going for the risker hit for the double takeout.
"We wanted to get our deuce and finish it," said Eberle. "We didn't want to go to the extra end because they would've had hammer.
"The shot prior to that was pretty much the exact same shot and it went straight while this one over curled a bit," he added.
When things started Thursday 29 teams had the chance to add some bling to their fingers but by Saturday night only eight teams remained with a shot at winning gold rings.
Brian Bailey, Garnet Boese, Mark Christy, Bill Lim, Bud Burbee, Wilf Peckham where the other teams to make it to the Kelly Cup while the rest of the field battled it out in the traditional men's bonspiel.
Eberle and Fisher dropped Boese and Lim to earn semifinal berths Sunday morning against Christy and Bailey, respectively. The second for the Christy rink was Wade Eberle. Cory said it was a tight good match but they were able to steal one in the final end to advance to the final.
Wilf Peckham was curling in his 66th consecutive Kelly Cup. The combined age of Peckham and his team is greater than 300 years.
