PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
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Brandon's Terry McNamee keeps the eagle eye on the action during the morning draw at the Safeway Championship in Neepawa. McNamee beat former teammate Brendan Taylor 10–5.
NEEPAWA — The Brandon Curling Club is 2-for-2 at the Safeway Championship.
Both teams from the club — skipped by Rob Fowler and Terry McNamee —are one win away from reaching the playoff round of the provincial men’s curling championship. Fowler made it to today’s A-side qualifiers with a 9-4 win over Neepawa’s Jerry Chudley while McNamee doubled up his former third, Brendan Taylor, 10-5.
McNamee — and his team of third Steve Irwin, second Travis Taylor and lead Travis Saban — is proud of being part of the successful Wheat City duo, but knows there’s still a lot of curling left this week.
"It’s big for Brandon," he said. "I don’t think there’s been two from Brandon there for years. We still have some work left."
While both teams made it through their morning draws with wins, they had to battle through adversity to do so.
After a blanked first end, McNamee gave up four in the second to dig himself an early hole. However, he replied with a three spot and stole four points during the next three ends to take control of the game.
Fowler — who plays with Allan Lyburn, Richard Daneault and Derek Samagalski — gave up an early deuce and was forced to play a wide-side double in the fifth end to avoid giving up a steal and the lead. He ended up scoring two to take a 5-3 lead and cruised after that.
"We definitely played a good game," said Fowler, who will meet Sean Grassie today. "We picked up momentum as the game went on. Those guys basically came out and played a perfect first end to get two and it took a little while to get the scoreboard turned around, but they made a lot of good shots and they made us work out there."
McNamee will play Steen Sigurdson at 8:30 a.m. Sigurdson upset former Brandonite William Lyburn 9-8 in an extra end Thursday morning.
The other A-side qualifying games feature former Brandonite Mike McEwen — who defeated Jared Kolomaya 10-6 on Thursday — taking on Dennis Bohn, and top-seed Jeff Stoughton playing Dave Elias. Elias knocked Dauphin’s Rae Kujanpaa to the B-side of the draw with a 12-6 win on Thursday. Stoughton beat Trevor Loreth 9-2.
Lyburn, the fourth seed, admitted his team got off to a slow start, falling behind 5-1 after three ends. They bounced back with a 10-3 win over Virden’s Graham Freeman in the afternoon to stay alive in the B-side of the draw.
» cjaster@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition February 8, 2013
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