If not for one shot, Monte Marshall and his teammates might have qualified for provincials.

In the tenth end of their B-side quarter-final against Murray McEachern, Marshall was tied 5-5 with their Regina opponents. Marshall had a chance at winning with his last shot, by drawing around the guard set up by McEachern, but the rock was a little too light and didn't make it.

Of course, there's no such thing as a error-free curling match. But what galls Marshall is that, had they won the match, his team would have had a pretty good shot at winning the 'B' side and qualifying for provincials for the first time.

"We curled really well, and if we'd have won that third game in the 'B,' we'd be sitting pretty good," said Marshall.

Both Marshall and the Jim Nikolejsin rink of Weyburn were denied a victory this weekend at the Southern Men's Playdowns, which were held from Thursday to Sunday at the Caledonian Curling Club in Regina.

Jim Nikolejsin, who played with Rod Finney, Mac Speir and Bob Smith, said missing a few key shots here and there ultimately cost his team the championship.

"You get in that level, you can't miss, because the other team is going to make them," he said. "Even half-shots hurt you in that type of competition."

The Marshall rink, which included Garnet Hart, Rob Travis and Sean Wallace, hit a run of bad luck in their very first game. Playing against Jamie Schneider, who went on to win one of the 'C' qualifiers, the Marshall rink held their Regina opponents to a 1-0 lead for most of the game.

In the ninth end, however, Marshall was drawn to tie the game up 1-1, but his last rock "picked up hair" and came up short, he said. That allowed Schneider to steal three points and win 4-0.

"The shot was there It just had a bad break," said Marshall.

Moved into the 'B' side, Marshall won their next two games, defeating Jeff Mosley 8-3 and Mark Lane 8-5. They then lost that fateful match to McEachern and were moved into the 'C' event.

Meanwhile, the Nikolejsin rink found themselves in the 'C' event after losing their first two games.

They opened the 'A' side on a downer, losing their first match to Gordon Crone 9-7. Pushed into the 'B' side, they were dumped 7-3 by Robert Keating and dropped again into the 'C' event.

They were down but not out, however. Nikolejsin fought back and defeated Trevor Thomlinson 6-5, pushing them in the 'C' side quarter-final.

There, they faced the Marshall rink and defeated them 6-4, eliminating Marshall from the Southern Men's Playdowns.

This last victory pushed the Nikolejsin rink into the C-side semi-final, where they faced Daryl Williamson. They lost 9-2.

Neither Weyburn rinks have made it to provincials as teams, though both have made it into the Southern Men's Playdowns a number of times, including the 2002 event in Weyburn. One member of Nikolejsin's team, Rod Finney, has appeared at provincials while curling with the Obst brothers.

Although they lost, both skips were sounding positive about the weekend.

"It was a really good experience," said Marshall, noting the hospitality at this year's Southerns was excellent, and the competition was top-notch.

"Every team there is pretty equal, other than Pat Simmons and maybe (Joel) Jordison I thought everyone else was pretty equal," he said.