Team Craig was hoping to make it back-to-back provincial masters curling titles but fell just one point shy at the 2025 B.C. Master Men's Curling Championships Feb. 19 to 23 at the Golden Ears Winter Club in Maple Ridge.
Craig, whose team of third: Ron Schmidt, second: Tony Anslow, and lead: Victor Gamble, was first overall in both 2022 and 2024 placed second this year.
The team based out of the Duncan Curling Club's Glen Harper Curling Centre started off the tournament with a 5-4 victory over Trail's Myron Nichol before being handed a win in their second draw due to a forfeit.
In the rink's third draw they met the Frank O'Driscoll-led team from Victoria/Cloverdale/New Westminster in what would be a preview of the final match. Craig got the better of O'Driscoll, and hung on to an 8-7 victory to keep their win streak alive.
From there, Craig had convincing 10-5 and 9-5 wins over Victoria's Geoff Davis and Surrey's Mike Weir respectively before sneaking past Maple Ridge's Gary Mitchell 8-7.
In their semi-final match, Craig put on a show, scoring three in the fourth end to beat Maple Ridge's Paul Dunkin 7-1.
In the final against O'Driscoll, Craig's rink fell 5-4 to take second place, missing out on qualifying for the 2025 Canadian Masters Curling Championships March 30 to April 6 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
Earlier in the month, the Duncan Curling Club's Team Thorington won the Pacific Coast Masters Curling Association's Zone 1 women's championship to advance to the 60+ PCMCA provincials in Langley later this month.
"Our Pacific Coast Masters Curling Association (PCMCA) team of myself (skip), Susanne Atagi (third), Lorrie Bell-Wiles (second) and Joni Leduc (lead) are thrilled to be representing Zone 1 at the masters' provincial playdowns," Thorington said.
The team won the title by defeating the Derry team from Kerry Park. All four players have attended the finals in previous years but in different positions and with different teams.
"The ladies work as a team, supporting each other and laughing when things go wrong," Thorington noted. "The chemistry they generate is awesome."
