There were no shaky hands, no vibrating knees. With all his years of curling experience, Gord Duplisse simply pushed out of the hack and made the shot.
Duplisse's hit-and-stick for two points gave his Salmon Arm team an 8-6 extra-end victory against Maple Ridge's Kent LaBerge in Saturday's final game of the B.C. Yukon Command Royal Canadian Legion championship.
Playing at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club, Duplisse sent his final rock off a well-worn path down the middle of the sheet and bumped a buried LaBerge stone out of shot position for the win.
"I could see about two inches of that rock," said the 64-year-old Duplisse. "You've got to do something, and the way the ice is, you can't draw down the middle in the slide path. It's just too tough so I thought, 'Well, I'll try this one,' and it worked. I knew it was on -- one good delivery for an old guy. I've been through this lots of times so it's kind of old hat. It's just lucky when you win one once in a while."
The Legion provincial title was the third for the rink and seventh overall for Duplisse. He and his teammates -- third Randy Jenkins, second Eric Breitkreuz and lead John Danks -- qualified for nationals, which will be held in Hudson, Que., in March.
