This past weekend the Mindemoya Curling Club hosted their annual Mixed Bonspiel. Jan McQuay presented the Memorial Jack and Mary McQuay Plaque to the winning team of Glen and Cathy Case and Mike and Dawn Wall. Second place in the first event were Mark and Lynn Love and Todd and Marian Bailey.
The winners of the Second event were Jack White, Melissa Green-White, Angela Johnston and Mike Johnston. Second place were Lew Lanktree, Sherry Forest, Dan Forest and Beth Dykalski.
First place in the Third event were the team of Greg and Janyn Towns and Wayne and Anna Murdoch. The runner-up in the third event was Yvonne Bondi’s team of Sam Bondi, Oscar Jones and Pam Lambert.
Up next for Island bonspiels are the annual Curffle Tournament in Gore Bay this weekend coming March 23-25 which will be followed up by the Little Current Curling Club Ladies Bonspiel the weekend of April 6-8.
The Paralympics have come to an end and it was very successful for Team Canada winning 28 medals overall which is a new record for the Canadian Paralympic Committee. The previous high in the medal count was 19 at the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Games.
The Canadian Wheelchair Curling team of Mark Ideson, Ina Forrest, Dennis Thiessen and Marie Wright won the bronze medal after losing a controversial semi-final against the eventual gold medal winners, China. It was an emotional victory for Team Canada who went 9-2 through the preliminary round. Congratulations to the Canadian wheelchair curling team!
The Women’s World Curling Championships started on Saturday just down road in North Bay. This is an excellent chance to see some world class curling in Northern Ontario. Team Canada is off to a good start at 3-0 and looks to book a spot in the gold medal game on Sunday, March 25 at 3 pm.
You may have noticed since the end of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts that you’ve been hearing about men’s and women’s teams disbanding and players going in different directions, either forming new teams or taking a break from competitive curling. We usually see this “free agent frenzy” in the curling world every four years following the Winter Olympics as teams are getting ready for the next Olympic cycle and a chance at the 2022 Canadian curling trials.
Of note for Northern Ontario: Team Brad Jacobs from Sault Ste. Marie announced they will be staying together for the next four years and Tracey Fleury from Sudbury will now skip a team in Manitoba next season. It will take some time for curling fans to get to know all of the new teams over the next 12 months but should be just as exciting!
