February 11…Bridgewater’s Brian Rafuse will make his second trip to the Canadian men’s curling championship after defeating Shawn Adams of Halifax, 4-3 in the final Sunday at the Wolfville Curling Club.

It came down to a last rock draw in the 10th end by Rafuse…and he made it, scoring a deuce to claim the Keith’s Tankard.

The 52-year-old skip, who is also the reigning provincial Seniors champion, enjoyed a banner week, going 7-1 in the 16-team triple knockout.  

After Scott Saunders of Halifax had won the A event, Rafuse, the number 7 seed, took the B event, while Doug MacKenzie and Adams qualified for the playoffs on the C side.

Rafuse defeated Saunders, 4-3 in a match-up of A and B winners, to advance to the final.  Meanwhile, Adams, a three-time provincial men’s champion, the 2005 Brier runner-up and the number one seed, had a much tougher road.   He first defeated MacKenzie, 10-5, then eliminated Saunders, 7-6 in an extra end, before losing to Rafuse.

Rafuse skipped in the 1996 Labatt Brier, going 5-6 in Kamloops.  Third Curt Palmer will be making his third Brier appearance, after playing third for Rafuse in 1996, then third for Mark Kehoe last year in Hamilton.

Second Alan Darragh is a Brier veteran, with four previous appearances, all as skip for Nova Scotia, in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1990, while lead Dave Slauenwhite was the second for Rafuse in 1996.

Nova Scotia has won three Briers…the inaugural one in 1927 (Murray Macneill), in 1951 (Don Oyler) and in 2004 in Saskatoon with Mark Dacey.

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