It was another solid showing for local curlers Jacob and Tanner Horgan and the Brendan Boettcher rink (also includes lead Geoff Walker as the Alberta-based team secured one of the two "A" qualifier spots up for grabs at the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard earlier this month, advancing to the semi-finals before being eliminated by the American quartet skipped by Danny Casper.

Team Boettcher opened play with a 9-3 win over Colten Steele (Fredericton, New Brunswick), edging the Scottish rink of Kyle Waddell 5-4 in game two. A third consecutive win, 7-3 over Jordon McDonald of Winnipeg (Manitoba) propelled Boettcher and company into the eight-team playoff bracket (32 teams were entered in all).

Up 8-4 after six ends, the Boettcher / Horgan / Walker conglomerate held on for an 8-7 win over the Italian foursome led by Joel Retornaz before falling to the eventual bonspiel champs, with Casper upending McDonald 9-5 in the final.

Other teams with local ties included the Jordan Chandler rink based out of Little Current (Landan Rooney, Connor Lawes, Nathan Kim) which had no luck out of the gate versus the Swiss tandem of Marco Hoesli (8-3 loss) and Kim Schwaller (4-3), sent to the sidelines by the Waterloo crew that features Kibo Mulima throwing last rocks.

The Sudbury rink of Kira Brunton, Jamie Smith, Mia Toner and Lauren Rajala faced an awfully tough draw in Oakville, posting a 1-3 record and missing out on the playoffs.

Team Brunton fell to Chelsea Principi of Niagara Falls (7-3) before facing Alina Paetz of Switzerland in the "B" bracket, beaten 6-4 by the European side. Their hopes were kept alive thanks to an 8-3 win over Breanna Rozon (Brantford, ON) before the locals were again overtaken by a Swiss entry, losing an 8-5 decision to Corrie Huerlimann.

One final bit of local content in the form of lead Clara Dissanayake as the Lo-Ellen Park graduate throws first stones for Brooklyn Ideson. Team Ideson dropped their first two encounters, rebounded with a pair of victories in the "C" bracket but were defeated two steps shy of earning a qualifying berth in the playoffs.

Ideson, Dissanayake and team are back in action this week, taking part in the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic while the Sudbury quintet of Sandy MacEwan, Dustin Montpellier, Olivier Bonin-Ducharme, Lee Toner and Luc Ouimet open their run of five bonspield leading into provincials in January, travelling to Ottawa for the Capital Fall Open (Sept 24th - 27th).