OLDS — Rob Armitage was ice-cold Saturday, in more ways than one.
The Red Deer skip misfired badly in the first two ends and his squad never recovered in a chilly Sportsplex, falling 10-3 to Brent Bawel of Calgary in a C-event qualifier of the provincial men’s curling championship.
“I kind of stunk,” said Armitage, who coughed up a steal of four on the second end when he missed a draw with his final stone. “I think they expected a big crowd for the draw because the building was cold. That meant the ice was way straight. I mis-iced the shot a fair bit, although that had nothing to do with the miss.”
Armitage had a shot for two in the opening end, but took too much ice and gave up a stolen single point.
“I kind of fell asleep out there and paid for it,” he said. “We were down a bunch early (5-0 after two ends and 8-1 after four) and then we were forced to take big chances every end.”
Trailing 10-2 after seven frames, the Red Deer foursome, consisting also of third Shaun Meachem and front-enders Trevor Sparks and Doug Stambaugh, scored one in the eighth and then conceded.
“It was a good week,” said Armitage, whose squad finished with a 4-3 record. “We were in real tough. Even if we had won this game, we were going to have to win two more without hammer and choice of rocks. Against guys like (Kevin) Koe and (Randy) Ferbey, that wasn’t going to be easy.”
In other action on Saturday, Ted Appelman of Edmonton edged Warren Hassal of Lloydminster 8-7 in the other C qualifier, then beat Bawel 8-6 in a championship semifinal Saturday night.
Meanwhile, Koe defeated Ferbey 10-8 in a semifinal Saturday and advanced to today’s 2 p.m. championship game against either Ferbey or Appelman, who were slated to play at 9:30 a.m. today.