News Elite 10

Over the following 10 days, we’ll be taking a look at all of the teams set to compete in the Elite 10. First up: Team Bottcher.

TEAM BOTTCHER

SKIP	THIRD	SECOND	LEAD
Brendan Bottcher	Tom Appelman	Bradley Thiessen	Karrick Martin

Hometown: Edmonton, AB
Curling Club: Saville Community Sports Centre
World Curling Tour year-to-date OOM: 13th
Twitter: @TeamBottcher

Team Bottcher have qualified for the playoffs at two Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling events this season. They made the quarterfinals at the season-opening Tour Challenge (Tier 1) in Paradise, N.L., in September with a 3-1 round robin record. Bottcher faced provincial rival Kevin Koe of Calgary and held the hammer coming home tied but gave up a steal to fall 7-6 to the eventual champion.

Bradley Thiessen won the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship this season representing Alberta. The tournament took place the same week as the National and University of Alberta skip Thomas Scoffin filled in for Thiessen at second on Team Bottcher during the Pinty’s GSOC event.

Bottcher bounced back into the playoffs at the Meridian Canadian Open in Yorkton, Sask., in December. After slipping into the C side of the triple knockout preliminary round, Bottcher qualified with a 9-6 win over six-time Pinty’s GSOC champion Mike McEwen. Bottcher lost 6-2 in the quarterfinals to Brad Gushue.

Elsewhere on tour this season, Team Bottcher were finalists at the HDF Insurance Shoot-Out and Direct Horizontal Drilling Fall Classic events. They were also semifinalists at the Boston Pizza Cup, the Alberta men’s provincial championship.

Bottcher, the 2012 world junior champion, had a breakout year on the Pinty’s GSOC circuit last season reaching the semifinals at all three events his team competed in. This will be their first time competing in the Elite 10 event.

The Elite 10 runs March 17-20 at the Q Centre at West Shore Parks & Recreation in Victoria.