Darren Smale returned to his old stomping grounds at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club and discovered he still knows how to curl.
The 47-year-old son of 1969 Brier finalist Kevin Smale made a last-minute decision to form a team in this weekend's 89th annual Kelly Cup men's tournament and so far it's turned out just fine for the Kamloops resident.
Even though he hadn't tossed a stone in two years.
Backed by an all-Prince George crew of third Byron Gallagher, second Jason Howse and lead Rob Ubleis, Smale jumped to the head of the pack at 3-0 after two days on the ice at PGGCC. Smale will take on John Evans of Terrace (3-0) in an A-event semifinal today at 8 a.m.
Smale started out Thursday night by stealing two in the eighth end to score a 5-3 win over Dave Plant of Quesnel, then on Friday defeated Fred Hofferd of Prince George 5-3 and Brian Purdy of Williams Lake 9-1.
"I threw some rocks Tuesday night when I was in Dawson Creek doing sales calls and came (to Prince George) and turned the lights on in the rink at 9 o'clock, and we started curling Thursday night," said Smale.
"We survived that (first game) and made some great shots and kicked butt in our (Friday) games. We played Thursday at 8:30 at night, and I got to bed at 4 a.m. and then played at 7:30 (Friday) morning and at noon. There hasn't been too much sleep involved."
It would be safe to say, he's probably not alone in that department.
Smale won the Kelly Cup in 2003, while his father was a three-time winner. Kevin Smale, a member of the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame, died at age 72 on Dec. 28, 2013 after a lengthy illness.
Darren lived in Prince George until 1994, when he moved to Kamloops, where he works as a sales rep for a team jersey/jacket distributor.
Chris Moir and Randy Balfour, both off to 3-0 starts, will meet in the other A-semifinal this morning at 8 a.m. The winner advances to the A-final at 2:30 p.m.
The top eight men's teams following today's games advance to the Kelly Cup round, which starts tonight. The single-knockout format will get it down to two teams which meet in the final for the big trophy starting Sunday at 3 p.m.
The Prince George women's bonspiel got underway Friday night. Twenty teams are entered.
