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."
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, from Castlegar, is led by Susan Hicks.
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 foursome.
The B.C. Scotties is Jan. 14-20 in Cloverdale. The B.C. championship will determine the province's representative in the national Scotties, Feb. 16-24 in Kingston, Ont.
