A qualifying event for the B.C. Scotties Tournament of Hearts women's provincial curling championship will be held in Vernon instead of Prince George.
The qualifier was originally scheduled for Friday to Sunday at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club but Curl B.C. moved it to Vernon because no P.G. or northern region teams had entered. Tracey Jones, curling coordinator at the PGGCC, is disappointed the bonspiel has been relocated but can't argue with the logic behind the decision.
"We definitely wanted to hold it here and it's too bad it's getting moved, but I understand completely why," she said.
"Apparently the teams that were going to be traveling to Prince George had phoned Curl B.C. and asked them if they could move it to a central location, just because it costs more money to get to Prince George. So there was a cost involved and they made the decision based on what made sense for the competitors."
Curl B.C. finalized its decision last Friday. Jones said moving the qualifier to Vernon won't result in a financial loss for the PGGCC because there was no rental fee for using the facility.
"And we never actually shuffled anybody out [so we could hold it here]," Jones said. "That was obviously a concern of Curl B.C. and they took that into consideration when they moved it. They had asked us if there were any costs that we had incurred and there were none."
In Vernon, three teams will compete for the final two spots in the B.C. Scotties. Two rinks -- skipped by Kirsten Fox and Lori Olsen -- are from the Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster. The other, led by Susan Hicks, is from Castlegar.
The qualifier will be the last of three. At the previous playdowns for provincial berths, Patti Knezevic's Prince George foursome locked up a spot and so did Simone Groundwater's Williams Lake rink.
Knezevic's team includes Kristen Fewster, Jen Rusnell and Rhonda Camozzi. Falon Burkitt is the fifth player and Rick Fewster is the coach.
Other teams that have already earned the right to throw rocks in the B.C. Scotties are skipped by: Kelly Scott (Kelowna); Marla Mallett (Cloverdale); Marilou Richter (New Westminster); Roberta Kuhn (Vernon); Allison MacInnes (Abbotsford); and Pat Sanders (Victoria). Scott is the three-time defending champion and has national and world titles to her credit.
The B.C. Scotties is Jan. 14-20 in Cloverdale and will determine the province's representative in the national Scotties, Feb. 16-24 in Kingston, Ont.
