Canadian curlers rock
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Well the Olympic flame was burning brightly at the Tillsonburg Curling Club on the weekend as the Kelsey’s Rec League Bonspiel took place at the club.
With flags flying representing many countries the spiel was a great conclusion to a week of wonderful results happening in Sochi. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new that both Canadian Olympic teams turned golden against all odds and left many countries thinking: “what do we have to do to beat Canada?”
At the club it wasn’t that easy- with representation from several Lich-ten-stein teams, a Jamaican team, a Lord of the Rings team and New Zealand, the club was rocking! In the end after several positive substance test results, the team from Monaco, who also represented the drug control unit, were the overall winners (hmmm I wonder if they disqualified their opposition) and took the gold medal at the top of the podium, with team Sweden coming in for the silver and Team Ireland No. 1 filling out the roster for the bronze.
A rousing Canadian national anthem was sung by all the curlers as the medal ceremony took place (the only one we all knew!) A great Kelsey’s sponsored spiel once again, with 14 different countries competing for the trophy rights. Lindee DeClercq won the piggy draw and Bill Gofton the 50/50. Lorna and Darryl and Marianne are to be hugely thanked for all their work with their creative decorating and organizing of the spiel.
Often the Rec League Bonspiel is a good indication of the teams which will do well in the Rec League Playoff round but I’m not so sure this year as the teams were so mixed up it’s hard to tell what will happen. With that kind of thinking in place however the Flintstones as team Sweden should be looking good, members from team Misfits took gold and should do well, plus much of team Ireland was from the Mighty Stone Chucker team and they should fare well in their playoff round if the bonspiel is any indicator. Mind you that’s a big “if”. The final week of season play is this week with playoffs starting next week so teams will be tiered into their playoff rounds and we wish good luck to all the teams.
A number of teams have been on the bonspiel trail again. Walt Kleer took a team back to the Plattsville Men’s spiel and came away with the trophy as top team of the day. Walt had Randy DeClercq, Frank VanDeSlyke and Gerald Sandham with him to take the win. Les Peter and his team of Randy DeClercq, Paul Belcher and Adam Brown took second place in their draw at the Norwich Men’s Open bringing home some great steaks.
In the local club Tier 55 Event held on February 7 with 16 teams from all over the area competing Ron McLemman of the London Curling Club finished in first overall; Geoff Clays of St. Marys was second and Neil Desborough another 2 game-winner from Ingersoll was third. The Bob Zettler rink was the only 2-game winner on the second draw; Dave Ireland, Ed Muth, Bill Young and Henry Balder took 2nd place and Greig Manson with Win Cull, Gerald Sandham and Paul Belcher finished in 3rd.
In the Ladies Evening final draw sponsored by Autoneum, the Gail Harris team of Yonna DiLella, Marilynn Smith and Heather Benton finished in first place. The draw was very close and decided on the final evening of curling.
In the Ontario Curling Association’s Bantam Mixed Zone Playdowns held in Simcoe last week our T.C.C. bantam team of skip Lindee DeClercq, vice Kevin Arnel, second Adele Mitchell and lead Jayden King lost their first game to Brantford, won their second game with Paris handily and then needed to beat the Brantford team twice in order to move on to Regionals as only one team would advance. Up 2 coming home with the hammer the Brantford team was sitting with 3 corner biters counting all Tillsonburg needed was full twelve foot to force a third and final game. Unfortunately Lindee’s rock was heavy leaving Brantford with a steal of 3 to move on to Regionals.
Coach Ken Patterson was very pleased with the way this young team performed on the weekend especially since this was the first time they played competitively together. The future looks good for Junior curling in Tillsonburg.
As we come down from our gold medal high this week the club is very busy with bonspiels all week. The women of the club begin the week hosting the Bronze Broom Bonspiel on Monday and Tuesday. That spiel is followed by the Good Redden Klosler Community Service Bonspiel on Wednesday and then the Men’s Open Bonspiel hosted by Crompton’s Home Hardware on Saturday, March 1st.
Saturday will also see the beginning of the Tim Hortons Brier from Kamloops BC which has some ‘old’ standbys like Stoughton for Manitoba, Gushue for Newfoundland and Koe (who beat Martin) for Alberta and then some newcomers like Bice for Ontario, and Morris heading up the Cotter rink for BC in the mix. Also the World Junior Championships begin on Wednesday from Flims, Switzerland but we won’t see anything but the finals I believe. I’m sure the Canadian Junior teams will have a target on their backs after the Olympic results but we hope they finish in the medal round as well. Canadian curlers rock!