SUDBURY—A Sudbury curler with strong family ties to Manitoulin Island, especially the Gore Bay area, and his rink have qualified for the Canadian Senior Men’s Curling Championships.
Robbie Gordon’s Sudbury Curling Club rink, which includes Ron Henderson, Dion Dumontelle and Doug Hong, won the Northern Ontario Curling Association Men’s Championships held at the Kenora Curling Club, January 25-29.
“We defeated the Ron Rosengren rink (of the Port Arthur Curling Club) in the final to finish 8-0 to win,” Mr. Gordon told the Recorder last Friday.
“We played in last year’s nationals in Nova Scotia, ending up with a 5-4 (five wins, four losses) record,” said Mr. Gordon. “We didn’t play badly, but didn’t play as well as we had hoped to.”
This is the sixth year Mr. Gordon’s rink has played together.
Team Gordon, along with being the defending senior men’s Northern Ontario champions, having represented Northern Ontario in Digby, Nova Scotia in March 2016, also represented the region in 2012 (Abbotsford) and 2014 (Yellowknife).
Gordon joined the senior men’s bonspiel six years go after curling 27 times in the Northern Ontario Brier and representing the region twice (2004, 2006) at the Canadian Men’s championship.
“We still have family on the Island,” said Mr. Gordon, whose parents were Ian Gordon and is Barbara (McCannell) Gordon. His grandparents were Ron and Lizzie Gordon, who ran Gordon’s Lodge in Gore Bay for many years. Robbie Gordon spent many of his summers as a youngster in Gore Bay.
“It is so hard to predict how we will play at the nationals,” continued Mr. Gordon. “We’ve had a couple of really good goes in the seniors, but there are a lot of good teams taking part.”
Mr. Gordon and his rink will now play in the National Championships taking place in Fredericton, March 18-25.
