It took 36 years for Doug Dalziel to return to the Kelly Cup winners’ circle.
He got there Sunday at Prince George Golf and Curling Club, teaming up with an old friend, 1994 Brier and world champion Gerry Richard, and two much younger rock chuckers – skip Devin Burkitt and third Dustyn Wozny – to defeat Michael Dahms 7-3 in a nine-end final.
“My brother just reminded me, don’t wait 36 years to do it again,” smiled Dalziel. “I hope not. This was an unbelievable week.”
The Burkitt rink had a couple of hiccups in their 11-game run to the championship, but when given a chance to bury Dahms in the seventh end when his rock caught a piece of something abnormal on the ice that caused his in-turn draw to verge right instead left, Burkitt had easy access to draw for three. That wayward pick broke open what had been a close game and Dahms was unable to recover.
“Right out of my hand it started going sideways, not like any other rocks have been going on that spot,” said Dahms, who lost a one-point game in the last end to Burkitt in the B event which put Burkitt into the Kelly Cup round.
Dalziel celebrated his other Kelly Cup win 1983, the year he started curling, teaming up with his brothers Mel and Alton and Brian Mooney to win the big trophy. Dalziel coached Burkitt and Wozny for one year in the junior ranks but has known them a lot longer than that, having coached Burkitt’s sister Fallon for four years when she was a junior.
The Burkitt crew played an unusual strategy during the four-day tournament, leaning on the front-end sweeping abilities of the crafty veterans - 60-year-old Dalziel and 63-year-old Richard - while the two 23-year-olds took on the high-pressure positions throwing late in the order.
“We had a good week, a long one with a lot of games and the guys threw well,” said Burkitt, who has played in five Kelly Cups with Wozny, his junior teammate for three seasons.
“We finally got one,” said Wozny.
Wozny and Burkitt made it to the Kelly Cup round their first year and two years ago lost in the semifinal to Blake King, the eventual champion. They knew their fortunes might take a turn for the better when Dalziel rounded up his fishing buddy Richard to play with them.
Richard played lead for Rick Folk and they made three consecutive Brier appearances from 1993-95, running the table all the way to the world title in 1994.
“It’s awesome,” Wozny said. “He throws great lead rocks - you ask for where you want the rock and he’d put it there.”
Folk has come up from Kelowna to play in the Kelly Cup but for Richard, who also lives in Kelowna, this was his first kick at the can.
“It’s a great event, they do so many things here to make it an upbeat event, with lots of games and lots of history and I got a chance to play with one of my best friends and two great young players coming up into the game,” said Richard. “I’d really like to see them take the game up competitively, I was really impressed with what they did this week.
“They’re a lot younger and they throw the rock a lot straighter than we do and they made the shots.”
Four of their last six games came down to the last shot. After 11 games in less than four days, they were ready for some rest.
“We played a Brier this week,” said Richard.
Dahms missed a nose-hit for three in the third end that turned into a Burkitt steal.
“That one overcurled a bit and they got one out of it, and that was pretty deflating for the team early on but we knew f we kept playing our game and making our shots we’d have a chance in the end,” said Dahms, who skipped a team that includes third James Blanchett, second Chris Calder and lead Matt Gyorfi.
Down by three in the eighth, Dahms had a chance to score two but missed his shot and Burkitt stole another one, which pretty much snuffed any hopes of a comeback. Dahms added one in the ninth and that brought out the handshakes.
Burkitt beat Jeff Ginter of Dawson Creek 7-4 in their semifinal Sunday morning.
Dahms recovered from a 6-1 deficit to Pat Mourad in the Kelly Cup quarterfinal round to win 12-8 and in the semifinal came back from being down 6-1 to Blair Hedden of Quesnel to win 9-8.
Sponsored by Canuck Mechanical, the 92nd Kelly Cup involved 41 teams, including 15 from out of town. Other event final results were as follows: A event: Blaine Black 5 Darren Smale 4; B event: Ginter 7 Burkitt 4; C event: Garnet Boese 6 Mark Carswell 3; D event: Ron Vanderstar (Smithers) 10 Al Wieinsczyk 0; E event: Joe Rea 6 Cale Rusnell 4.
