The playoffs are set at the Valley First Crown of Curling, and Kamloops rinks are in the thick of it.

Three Kamloops rinks have qualified for the Crown playoffs, which run today at the Kamloops Curling Club. The quarterfinals will start at 9 a.m., followed by semifinals at 12:15 p.m. The championship finals are scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Two Kamloops rinks qualified out of the A event - Allison MacInnes, in the women's competition, and Scott DeCap, in the men's.

MacInnes beat New Westminster's Kirsten Fox 8-2 in a Saturday A final, while DeCap needed an extra end to defeat Ken McArdle of New Westminster 7-6 in another A final.

MacInnes curls with Grace MacInnes, Diane Gushulak and Jacalyn Brown; DeCap's rink features third Ron Douglas, second John Maskiewich and lead Grant Olsen.

Mike Smith's rink got on a roll, winning four straight and a B spot after losing its opener. The Kamloops crew, which includes Smith, Brad Thompson and Darren Nelson, won B games over Seattle's Mark Johnson and Steve Birklid, Surrey's Ken Watson and McArdle.

Brent Yamada, the other Kamloops team on the men's side, lost out in the C draw, as did the Kamloops female rinks of Corryn Brown and Lori Olsen.

Brandi Tinkler, whose rink includes Kamloops' Ashley Nordin, also lost out, while Roberta Kuhn, whose Vernon rink has Karla Thompson of Kamloops at third, lost in a C semifinal.

Other female qualifiers were Cloverdale's Marla Mallett and Winnipeg's Kerri Einarson, who won A events, B winners Victorya Moiseeva of Russia, Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse and a Korean team skipped by Eun Jung Kim, and C winners Lene Nielsen of Denmark and China's Bingyu Wang.

On the men's side, joining DeCap and Smith in the playoffs are Brent Pierce and Sean Geall, both of New Westminster, Calgary's Steve Petryk, Edmonton's Jamie King Vernon's Trevor Perepolkin and Neil Dangerfield of Victoria.