From the Hack
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Are you already tired of watching curling on TV? We certainly have had a large dose of coverage over the last two weeks.
Brad Gushue and his young team had a number of games televised. I was hoping to see him win that final since Koe had beaten Howard. It did come down to the final shot and Koe made that perfect hit and roll to take the title. Once again, it’s good to see the young new teams having some success over the ‘old’ teams like Howard, Stoughton and Martin. Mark Kean’s team did well on the weekend and is becoming one of the familiar up and coming teams. It will be interesting to see which team will survive another grueling week of curling at the Roar of the Rings. As the announcers have been saying it will come down to which team has the best week because all eight teams are capable of wearing our Canadian colours and representing us at the Olympics.
We’ve had lots going on at the Tillsonburg Curling Club as well with several of the first draws wrapping up. In the Men’s Thursday night league Dave Ireland with Winston Cull, Jamie Sinden, and Richard Cox went unbeaten to win the first draw. There are lots of new faces in this league with four full sheets of curlers.
In the Ladies Thursday afternoon league the first draw sponsored by Verne’s Carpet One was won by Tina VanderWallen-Howey and her team of Helen Cull, Marilyn Dykxhoorn and Trudy Trepanier. Tina and her team were undefeated in the draw. In second place was Dorell Clark with Ann Sangster, Ruby Withington and Marion Pratt. Once again a big thank you goes out to our sponsor Verne’s Carpet One who have been awarding the trophy for 38 years! Thanks to Regine and Jean for convening the draw.
In the Ladies Tuesday evening draw sponsored by Indigo Lounge, Shirley Ireland was the winner along with her team of Yonna DiLella, Marian Muth and Marilynn Smith. Shirley’s team also came through the draw undefeated. Kelly Spencer of Indigo Lounge was on hand to award her trophy and to encourage curlers to try their programs and have lunch at the café. Thanks to the skips for all the goodies.
Coming up this week the club will be hosting the Ontario Curling Association Pepsi Junior Men’s and Women’s Zone 15 Playdowns. This is usually some pretty good curling (these young curlers are fearless) and people are welcome to watch the games. You’ll have to check the club for times as when writing this the draw was not set yet.
The Tuesday afternoon Mixed League is a go but they are still looking for more curlers to fill out their teams. Teams are on the ice at 1 p.m. and it’s a friendly league!
The Rec League has been going for five weeks already and this is my first look at the teams and how they are doing. Chuggernauts top the scoresheet, undefeated to date. Rock U isn’t too far back and then there’s a bit of a gap to get the next two teams Sheet Disturbers and surprisingly Domino’s Delights in 3rd and 4th positions. Tied for 5th are On the Rocks and Rock On, and just two points behind tied for 6th are Hot Rocks, Mixed Bags and Rockbusters. That top tier of teams is fairly tight on points and it will be interesting to watch how they sort out once they have games against each other.
The next tier of teams is led by Sheet Stains with T-Liners (go team!) sitting in the middle 11th spot on the score sheet. Only 3.5 points separate Mighty Stone Chuckers, Barn Flies, Sweep This, Bandits and Wipe-Out to complete the second tier.
In the bottom tier of teams, Rolling Stones leads the way with The Grumpies only a half point behind. Odds and Ends, Rolling Rocks, The Flintstones are also not far behind with team Misfits surprisingly at the bottom of the list. Misfits should be called the Away Team!
Last but not least the equipment shop at the club has been taken over by Ben Hiscock and Tina VanderWallen-Howey of the Board of Directors. The shop carries everything you need for curling and will also order items for you if needed. Recently they sold club jackets and the first order is in ready for pick-up, there will be another order placed if you want to make a purchase for Christmas. They have a number of brooms in stock for $89 and one especially for those who can’t sweep really hard called the Norway broom, which will help your sweeping be more effective (I might have to get one of those!). See Ben or Tina when they are at the club or give them a call and they will come in to the club. There are some good sales on now and regular prices are lower than those found in London.
As I sign off I’d like to give a shout out to Justin McBride and Linda Kamps who are both recovering from bad ankle/leg breaks and who I’m sure would rather be curling. Heal fast! Curling rocks!