Provincials to be held in Little Current
MANITOULIN—Fighting the pressure and desire to play at home for the 2018 Traveler’s Northern Ontario Men’s Curling championships, being held in Little Current, the local Jordan Chandler Rink has qualified.
“Oh yeah, it was a little more stressful trying to qualify for the provincials with it being held on the Island-and being part of the (Traveler’s) organizing committee,” stated Mr. Chandler this past Sunday evening. And on top of that, his rink dropped its opening game of the 2018 Men’s West Qualifier held in Hearst this past weekend. With the opening game loss, 6-5, they had to win their next two games to qualify, but they won the next two games and finished second in the five team field.
There were a total of five teams at the West qualifier, with three of the five rinks qualifying for the Northern Ontario provincials. “Three made it out, our team and two from Thunder Bay,” Mr. Chandler told the Recorder. His team is made up of vice Sandy MacEwan, second Luke Quimet and lead Lee Toner.
“We’ve made it to the Northern Ontario playdowns the past five years,” Mr. Chandler told the Recorder. “We are really looking forward to playing in Little Current at the Northern Ontario provincials. “It is generating a lot of excitement, and will help bring younger curlers in.”
“Everything is going well (for the Traveler’s) there is a lot of excitement in the community and from community sponsors-which has been overwhelming, more than we had expected. Ticket sales have been good, in fact we are ahead of our projects,” said Mr. Chandler, noting Crystal Morra is the organizing committee chair and has “been doing a great job.”
Thus far, the Brad Jacobs rink of Sault Ste. Marie, the Tanner Horgan Rink, the Chandler rink, the Dylan Johnston and Colin Koivula rinks, both based out of Thunder Bay, have qualified for the Northern Ontario Travelers Men’s championship. Three more rinks will qualify in upcoming events.
