by Jeremy Rody
Alo-haw curlers and curling fans! It was a sunny Saturday this past weekend for the Assiginack Curling Club to host their “beach”-themed Ladies’ Bonspiel. It was a one day bonspiel which was a nice break for some of the ladies who have had a long season curling. As one anonymous curler put it, “it’s too hard to go all weekend and then function normally on Monday.” The sacrifices we make for curling, oh what fun! The winners of the 12-team bonspiel were Cathy Case, Ellie Miller, Paulette Glaude and Mandy Case and the runners up were the Nancy Head, Susan Whynott, Carolyn Dearing and Diane Newlands.
The weekend of February 23-24 was the Little Current Curling Club’s Men’s Bonspiel. Sixteen teams took part in a four event battle for the bragging rights. The Jordan Chandler rink claimed the A event prize, Lew Lanktree’s rink were the runners-up after an improbable come from behind victory in the semi-finals. First in the B event was Chris Gordon’s rink from Sudbury and 2nd was Dan Marois’ Gore Bay rink. First in the C event was Glen Case and 2nd was Bob Nahwegabow, both from the Little Current CC. The biggest surprise of the weekend was the Tanner Mulligan rink who started 0-2 and then won three games in a row to win the D event.
The curling was great but may have been overshadowed by the Saturday night minnow races which had everyone in stitches after a few minnows decided they wanted absolutely no part in the evening’s the festivities and refused to cross the finish line.
The Baxter Cup came to end on Tuesday, February 27 as the Espanola Curling Club came to Little Current and managed to hold off the comeback to take the trophy back to Espanola in this 93rd year of competition. Espanola won by 13 points which means Little Current was able to get back a few points, but not enough to retain the coveted Baxter Cup. It was another great year of friendly competition and camaraderie which are the main principles of the event.
The Tim Horton’s Brier has begun in Regina, Saskatchewan. It was only a few weeks ago that Team Jacobs qualified for the Brier by winning the Provincials in Little Current in an exciting final game against Tanner Horgan’s rink. Team Jacobs brought Tanner as their fifth to the Brier and got him into a game in the 9th end to throw third stones over the weekend. Good on Team Jacobs and Ryan Fry for getting Tanner into the game to get some Brier experience.
Tip of Week: If you want to get an edge on the opposing team, pay attention to what the ice is doing early in the game. One side of the sheet might have more curl, the other might be running straight. If your opponent is having a hard time with one side or the other, make them throw on that side and you should be able to force some misses and steal some points.
