Final week of curling in Tillsonburg
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This will be the final week of curling at the Tillsonburg Curling Club with most leagues wrapping up their Championship draws or finishing with a night of food and fun!
In the Ladies Past Presidents Bonspiel on Saturday, two teams were tied for high points and no way to break the tie could be found, so they awarded the trophy to both teams. They’ll just have to get an over-sized name plate for the trophy! The winning teams were Betty Tull, Tina VanderWallen-Howey, Olga Patterson; and Linda Newman, Yonna DiLella, Josie DeCloet, and Judie Gale. About 15 past-presidents curled in the event with several others – Marie Niche, Ann Spencer, Fran Tripp, Nancy Warren joining the ladies for lunch. Thanks to the executive for the making the day such a success. A reminder to the Ladies of the club that our closing dinner meeting takes place Thursday, April 10th at 6 p.m. at the Carriage House on Brock Street.
The Mixed ScotiaBank Championship is being tightly contested and it will be the final set of games that will decide the champions. The teams conclude the draw Monday night with some added fun competition and socializing.
The Afternoon Mixed will finish on Tuesday with their draw, happy to have had at least 16 curlers all season and hoping to grow their group next season (I hear warm drinks and homemade cookies are enticements to curl in this league).
Tuesday Night Ladies have three teams who all could end up in first place for the ServiceMaster Ladies Championship Trophy.
The Thursday Afternoon Ladies will complete their Bert Mooney Club Championship on Thursday playing their games in the morning and closing off their season with a potluck lunch and awarding of the trophy and prizes.
The Men will cap off their season with their 'Steak Night' on Thursday.
The Senior Men held an Open House last Wednesday and will have a second one this Wednesday welcoming anyone interested in trying the game and their group to be on hand by 8:30 a.m. to play. The Seniors will finish Friday with their closing lunch after their curling.
Rec League will wrap up its season beginning with the Consolation round on Wednesday and finishing with the Final Trophy draw on Friday night. Facing off for the Tillsonburg Travel Recreational League Championship Trophy are the Mighty Stone Chuckers, who knocked off first place Domino’s Delights by three-quarters of a point, against the Rockbusters who unseated the Chuggernauts in their pool.
In the Copper Mug Division Final, The Grumpies and the Sheet Disturbers held onto first place in their pools and will play for the trophy. In the final for the Domino’s Pizza Division Trophy, Odds and Ends will take on the Rolling Stones. The Consolation Round teams will be decided from the games on Wednesday night with the two high scoring teams meeting in the final on Friday.
Friday night is also the closing Pizza and Wings Night for the Rec League teams with all teams expected to enjoy this last night watching the finals, socializing and putting a good end to the season. Knowing Daryl and Lorna, I’m sure there will be music, games and laughter as well!
Our Junior Rockers will have their Buddy Spiel Saturday at the club, complete with two games of curling, off-ice games, prizes, lunch and a whole lot of fun!
And speaking of fun, the final fun night of the season happens Saturday night with Mini Golf on Ice. Join other club members and help ‘melt the ice’ with this last event. Organizer Bill Young promises lots of prizes with even a car on the list! Close the season with a fun evening, everyone is welcome... but please sign in at the club so they can plan for food, etc. Tee-off at 7:30 p.m.
Why are we so disappointed that Homan and Team Canada ‘won’ the silver medal and not the gold? We really have to revise our thinking to accept that our teams are not infallible… but the back-to-back 3’s really shouldn’t have happened. Canada has one more chance for gold and that’s at the Men’s World Championships which begin March 29th at 7 a.m. with Canada playing Denmark. It will be interesting to see if Koe and his team can stay focused and repeat their 2010 golden performance.
Koe and his team have been the talk of the curling blogs and not because they won the Brier but because of the changing make-up of the team. Brent Laing has already announced he is leaving Team Howard to join Team Koe, with Rycroft leaving and rumours have been flying that Mark Kennedy and Ben Hebert are joining Koe as well. This is interesting because if three of the four original team members stay together they (Koe) will keep the Team Canada spot in the new format for the 2015 Brier, but if Koe opts to take on a whole new team (as he prepares for the next Olympic run) he will give up the guaranteed spot. So the curling shuffle has already begun and by May there could be several surprising teams shaping up – stay tuned!
On the bonspiel trail Randy DeClercq and Les Peter played in a Scotch Doubles tournament at Highland Curling Club in London. In Scotch doubles there is a two-person team playing six rocks for six ends, three apiece, and there is no sweeping (a great event for skips!). Randy and Les took the first prize in the B event. In the Monday Mixed, right after, I noticed that Les’ draw weight was much more consistent. Maybe its something to try for a fun night here.
Congratulations go out to Wayne and Kim Tuck of the Ilderton Curling Club who won the Canadian Mixed Doubles Championship on the weekend and are heading to the World’s in Scotland next month.
And that’s a wrap for me, one more From the Hack with all our champions and hopefully a sunny spring ahead. Curling rocks!