The 38th annual Crown of Curling is set to begin this morning at the Kamloops Curling Club.
A total of 43 teams are scheduled to compete for the $65,000 purse, according to the World Curling Tour’s website, 20 of them on the men’s side. The action begins this morning at 8 o’clock, with other draws scheduled for 11:15 a.m., 2:30, 5:45 and 9 p.m.
There also are draws all day Saturday and Sunday, with the playoffs scheduled for Monday. The finals are set to go Monday at 3:30 p.m.
Allison MacInnes, who won the women’s event last year, is back. MacInnes, from Kamloops, is curling with her sister, Grace MacInnes, along with Diane Gushulak and Amanda Guido.
The 2009 provincial champion and 2010 Crown runner-up, Marla Mallett of New Westminster, also is back, and Kelley Law’s New Westminster rink looks to be strong as well.
Karla Thompson, a semifinalist last year, is skipping a Kamloops rink of Roberta Kuhn, Christen Wilson and Kristen Gentile. Also, Brenda Garvey of Kamloops is playing on Patti Knezevic’s Prince George rink.
There also will be nine international teams, including 2008 Crown champion Miyean Kim of Korea and Russian rinks skipped by Liudmilla Privivkova and Olga Zyablikova. Bingyu Wang, a former world champion (2009) and 2010 Olympic bronze-medalist from China, also has signed up, as has Switzerland’s Michele Jaeggi.
There also are plenty of competitive teams in the men’s draw, although Bob Ursel’s rink that won last year isn’t back.
There are, however, eight Kamloops rinks looking to get their names on the trophy, including those skipped by Stan Boone, Dennis Graber, Kevin Ihlen, Grant Olsen, Tobin Senum, Mike Smith, Darren Nelson and Brent Yamada.
Yamada and Graber — who was curling on a rink skipped by Rick Folk — made the quarterfinals last year. Yamada also made the playoffs at provincials in Vernon in February.
Bryan Miki of New Westminster, who won the Crown in 2007, is in the field this year, as is Neil Dangerfield of Victoria, who lost in the provincial final in February.
Other rinks to watch are Makato Tsuruga of Japan, Randie Shen of Chinese Taipei, Chang-Min Kim of Korea and Andrey Drozdov of Russia.
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Today’s and Saturday’s draws are scheduled for 8 and 11:15 p.m., 2:30, 5:45 and 9 p.m. Sunday’s draws are to start at 9 a.m., 12:30, 3:45 and 7 p.m.
The Monday quarterfinals are at 9 a.m., with the semifinals at 12:15 p.m., and the finals at 3:30 p.m.
