Ceremonial bonspiel celebrates graduated curlers

December 21, 2017 · 0 Comments

By Shellee Morning
King Curling Club
King Curling’s newly formed Instructional League for beginners celebrated their graduation in true “curler’s spirit” Friday night with a fun bonspiel.
Back in October, 27 enthusiastic, never-before curlers registered for an eight-week learn to curl program. Course director Julie Oakley was hoping eight new members would join, but with a full house, five coaches were needed to accommodate the group.
Safety and basic curling skills were introduced at first, then the understanding of the slide from the hack and the curl of the rock along with the importance and skill of sweeping. The closing weeks’ sessions were the introduction of game play, and finally to experience typical bonspiel action.
To commemorate their graduation, all four sheets were engaged as the rookies and “soon-to-be” future curling stars took to the ice in a six-end custom formatted spiel. Teams would play in old-fashion style with the object of getting their rock closest to the button, but after each end completed, a sealed envelope would reveal that end’s scoring instruction. One particular end saw the teams having to count the rock closest to the button but switch the colour and give the point to the other team. As always, the hurry hard crew knows how to have fun and coaching this new group of curlers made that part of the game easy.
“The program was a huge success mainly because we made it fun and introduced the social part of the game,” Coach Karl Davis said. “They certainly were an enthusiastic group.”
Down at ice level, there was a lot of talk among the players about joining one of the club’s leagues for the second half of the season, as well as continued interest for when the next learn-to-curl program will be offered.
“They caught on to the social aspect of the game very, very quickly,” Barb Davis said, adding she enjoyed working with a great group of people. Paul Clark decided to join because his wife said she wanted to learn to curl, so he thought “I will too.”
After the spiel, members enjoyed the social side of the game with snacks and prizes for everyone. Congratulation speeches followed, with an admirable “special” thank you by Scott Steward on behalf of all of the new curlers towards their coaches; Bob Belcher, Julie and Brennan Oakley and Karl and Barb Davis.
Friday Social crowns first half champions
Second draw on the Friday schedule included the championship playoff round for the first half Friday Social League.
The featured game included Schomberg’s own The Scottish Nook owner and team Skip Gerald Duffy against veteran curler Skip Peter Wasylikw.
The first couple of ends were close, as Team Wasylikw (including Fiorenzo Gagliardi as vice, Karel Span at second and Tannis Sherwood at lead) had a three-point advantage after two ends. Skip Duffy, unfortunately missing most of his regular season team, managed a point in the third to keep it close, but in the fourth, team Wasylikw was left the chance to draw for three more and jumped to a 6-1 lead. The fifth looked a little more promising for Duffy, with one buried, but after superior sweeping by the Duffy front end, the second point was not to be and the game was conceded 6-2. Handshakes were offered and the Title for champion was granted to Team Wasylikw.
Wednesday Round 1 playoff
Game one for the Wednesday social league wrapped up in true competitive fashion.
Draw 1 saw Team Wasylkiw trounce Team Bloom 10-3 and they will rank in second place.
Team Welch played a solid game for their playoff opener, even though Welch prefers yellow stones and had to play with red. They earned a five-point end mid-way for a 9-2 lead. The game eventually led to 10-4 win over Team Broadhurst and they will sit in first place heading into their second playoff round.
Late draw action featured Clark versus Jackson and after a slow start Clark would take over with a score of 7-3.
Charlie Pringle (aka Santa Claus) removed Skip Nick Power from his “nice list to the naughty list” after Power scorched them 10-3.
The game between Teams Lee and Sowerby was tight and stressful right down to the last rock, to which Skip Patrick Lee was quoted as saying “I’d like to re-live my last shot” after a miniscule mistake allowed Sowerby to claim victory.