Off the Broom - News from the Kincardine Curling Club

The Grey-Bruce Senior Men’s league is still hard at it. Port Elgin hosted its spiel Jan. 31, with two Kincardine teams attending. Peter Kirkpatrick and his team of Art Doughty, Bob Urie and Jim Roberts, went 0-2 on the early draw, while the late draw was just the opposite for the team of Gene Gillespie, Mark Luckhardt, Glyn Pinkney and Richard Emmerton who went 2-0 for a second-place finish and a mere quarter point out of the first-place  position.

Feb. 7, skipper Jim Roberts with Mark Luckhardt, Glyn Pinkney and Richard Emmerton, went 1-1 in Allenford and managed a fourth-place finish in the late draw.

Shelley Henderson, Doug Dechene, Jen Showalter and Mark Luckhardt took part in the Walkerton mixed bonspiel, as did Gene and Brenda Gillespie with Larry and Gerry Maxfield. Shelley has been busy as she also took a team to the Belmore ladies bonspiel. Not winners but the raffle table was full to overflowing with great  prizes.

It is great to see some of the smaller communities getting back into hosting bonspiels and from all reports, Belmore was a great time. On the other hand, there were a couple of teams from our club ready to participate in the Goderich mixed spiel which was cancelled due to lack of teams.

Our own mixed bonspiel was held Feb. 24. According to co-ordinator Erin Simmons, this is the first time in five years that we have had a full slate of 16 teams. The early draw winners were Gene and Brenda Gillespie with Richard and Pat Emmerton, who defeated the team of Anne Burton, Noel and Gail MacIntosh and Frank Paquet. This game was a squeaker - it was tied and went to a draw to the button. Guess you can figure out who missed her draw and who made his! Placing third, were Shelley Henderson, Doug Dechene, Linda Humphries and Brad Scalon. Other teams were headed up by Dale Smith, Russell Lee, Barb Kester, Tim Moriarty and Mark Luckhardt.

Late draw winner was the Paris team of Scott and Michele Roberts, Carol and Randy Cain. In the final game, they gave a little lesson to the second-place finishers, Craig Milburn, Jen Lawrie, Todd and Tammy Thompson. Placing third, was Jason Rolson of Elmira and his team of Margaret Nanninga, Ben Larson and Jennifer Rolson.  Rounding out the late draw, were Laura Haight and her trio of guys, the VanGeest team skippered by young Grayson VanGeest, Peter Newton, the Hamiltons and Kyle Simmons. 

There was only one problem with this bonspiel - there were no scheduled ice people. Thankfully, the fabulous five stepped up and took over. Thanks so much to Dale, Noel, Frank, Larry and Russell. Your efforts were so very much appreciated.
 
Congratulations to the Al Hutchinson team of Paisley which is heading to the Canadian Masters Championship in B.C. come April, and representing the Province of Ontario. Curling with Al, were Don Shane of Hanover, Gary Cobean of Paisley and our very own Les Shane. Rumour has it that Don has suffered a broken wrist from a fall on the ice. Hopefully, that will be healed in time to head west.

This is a national championship that these guys are competing in, and apparently, they are receiving absolutely no funding to attend—paying for everything out of their own pocket. I would bet that those curlers attending the Brier in Regina this week have their expenses paid. Shame on both the OCA and the CCA! There is a fund-raiser Wednesday, March 7, from 5-8 p.m., at Boston Pizza in Kincardine. The team will be there serving food and drinks so let’s all make an effort to attend.

One other team that will be travelling to B.C. is the Northern Ontario team skipped by none other than Al Hackner so you can see the fellows are in for some pretty good competition. Best of luck, guys, and it would be wonderful to see you win a Canadian championship. Go get 'em!
 
And finally, who would have “thunk-it” that the great Canadian curlers we sent to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang would falter like they did. Only goes to prove that the rest of the world is catching up to us. And it isn’t that they didn’t give their all, but it just wasn’t quite enough this time.