Rec League begins final playoff round
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What a busy two weeks of curling, both in our Tillsonburg club with three bonspiels in the works and nationally with the Scotties just finishing and the Brier beginning – as a curler I love it but I’m not sure my housekeeping would be up to par these weeks!!
I can’t let the Scotties go by without a comment, if you read my last FTH you know I was going with the provincial rep Rachel Homan who more than lived up to ‘my’ expectations! My son was watching the Scotties at his club down in Tarrytown, NY, and he and his friends were very impressed with her team’s very focused approach to the game. Though Homan lost to Jennifer Jones (Manitoba) in the round robin, I felt that when she defeated Jones in the 1-2 game there was no looking back for this young team. And now with the national title it’s going to be look out world! They won’t know what has hit them!!
This weekend I watched the opening draws of the Brier and again if you’ve read this column before you know I’m a devoted Howard fan and totally expect to see him in the finals. Right now I would bet that you will see Howard, Stoughton, Martin and N. Ontario’s Jacobs as the final four in playoffs, but who would have expected Martin and his team to be 0-2 going into Sunday night’s draw? Maybe the sleeper team will be the noisy team out of Quebec who are already making a statement! Only time will tell.
The News has already carried articles and pictures of the Bronze Broom and Community Service bonspiel, but I would like to mention the conveners of both bonspiels and compliment the kitchen volunteers. So kudos to Bronze Broom Committee members Betty Tull, Linda Newman, Yonna DiLella and Dorell Clark who organized a great spiel and a big thank you to Chris Appleton of Good Redden and Klosler for convening a very successful Community Service Bonspiel. The club and the community benefit from your efforts and hard work.
Two weeks ago I mentioned the Tier 55 Bonspiel hosted by the club but didn’t have any results. The spiel had been postponed by a week because of the weather and Brian Stephenson forwarded these results to me - the Bob Esseltine rink from St. Thomas on the 1st draw took the overall trophy. Chuck Holstein of Simcoe was second on the 1st draw and Moe Rogers of Ingersoll was third. On the second draw Ernie Vandershott rink from St. Marys skipped his team to a first place finish in front of Tillsonburg’s Brian Stephenson playing with Lang Gehman, George McCune and Harry Dykxhoorn. Conveners Brian and Bill Young would like to thank the local teams who filled in the draws for them.
This past weekend the Men’s Invitational Crompton Home Building Centre Bonspiel saw 16 teams competing for the trophy rights in a spiel that has existed in the club for 55 years under different sponsors with the latest sponsor being Cromptons. The Dave Walsh team of St. Thomas was the early draw and overall trophy winners claiming the Crompton Home Building Centre trophy. Brian Stephenson along with Ken Patterson, Craig Ireland and Joe Louis Oliveira were the second draw winners, but not with enough points to catch the St. Thomas foursome on the early draw. Three other local teams skipped by Les Peter, Daryl Malcolm and Randy DeClercq were also involved in the bonspiel. Walt Kleer should be complimented for convening another excellent event.
On the bonspiel trail my hubby Les took the train to Tarrytown, NY to curl with his son and the team of guys who had come to Tburg for the Tobacco Belt Bonspiel. The spiel is the Men’s McKay Douglas spiel which starts on a Thursday and finishes on a Sunday. The Peter rink had a great start taking wins in their first three games including a win over the current US senior champions. However they would drop the A semifinal to a team in from Denver, Colorado which put them into the E semifinal where they posted another win, and then they faced the NY State Junior Competitive team, defeating them to take the 5th Mahopac Event.
As Jon would say they finished ‘in the jewellery’ accepting some very nice pins for their win. Les appreciated the hospitality and friendship offered up by the Ardsley members and the other teams in the bonspiel. Needless to say Les had a great time!
All leagues of the club have entered into their final draws which also are their club championships – Monday Night Mixed is sponsored by Scotia Bank; Tuesday night ladies are sponsored by ServiceMaster; the Rec League trophies are sponsored by Tillsonburg Travel, The Copper Mug and Domino’s Pizza; Thursday Afternoon Ladies are into their Bert Mooney Championship Trophy Draw and the Thursday Men have sponsor McMullens Machine Shop for their final draw.
Rec League begins its final playoff round robin this Wednesday with double draws every night of playoffs in order to be finished before Easter weekend. As expected after the Rec Bonspiel, the Mixed Bags are in first place about 26 points in front of their closest competitor but you never know what can happen in playoffs.
Surprisingly to me there really hasn’t been much change in the point standings since the beginning of February, with the biggest change coming from Mighty Stone Chuckers moving up from 11th spot to enter the Top 8 as the 8th team replacing Grumpy Old Men who drop a slot to join the second tier of teams.
There is basically no change in the teams in the other two tiers although there was some movement in the standings, like Bandits moving into 11th from 14th. Each tier will play a three-game round robin to get to the finals for their Tier Trophy on Friday, March 22. Good luck to all the teams.
GOLF FUN NIGHT
There will be a golf-themed fun night in the club on Saturday, March 9 – yes, that’s right, golf in the curling club. Look for the poster and get signed in for a good time!
The buy-a-square draw will take place this Friday and there are still a few squares available so get your choice in to win. The Auction Night planned for April 6 is shaping up with about 20 different items already offered for sale including: theatre tickets, golf at The Bridges, copper garden sculptures, original artwork, jewellery, dinner and golf, antique milk bottles, perch fishing and more. Check out the boards at the club to see what we have up for bids and also have a look at what you might be able to offer as well. As soon as possible we will have items listed on the website and will begin taking reserve bids for some of the items on-line. If you would like to donate something for the auction contact us at www.tillsonburgcurlingclub.com or call us at 842-4134 and we’ll get back to you.
See you on the ice! Good curling!