100 Mile House Curling Club’s 61st Annual Men’s Bonspiel saw 18 teams in attendance, the most since 2008, including six out of town teams (three from Quesnel, two from Williams Lake and one from Clinton).
While that may be a bit of a surprise to the club, it wasn’t to her, says marketing director Maria Hamilton.
“We’ve been doing a lot of marketing, a lot of social media,” she says. “Sixteen would have been a really good number so 18 was a surprise for sure.”
The event as a whole went very well even though the draw was a bit tricky with 18 teams, she says.
The Junior men’s team from 100 Mile made it to the B final but ultimately lost.
“They’ve been actually winning a lot of our bonspiels. They won the mixed and they’ve won a few years where every time they’re in a bonspiel they seem to win. They’ve been doing really really well. Getting to the B-Final is a great accomplishment for them.
A event
The A event final was contested between Team Dall from Clinton and Team Ney from 100 Mile. Dall got off to a good start with three in the first end but Ney managed to come back, leaving it tied after the fifth end. They each took two and it was once again tied up after the seventh end. On last shot, Duane Ney needed to take one of the stones out with a nose hit to sit shot for the win. But he hit the rock on the side and rolled a bit too far resulting in a Dall win.
B event
The B event saw the 100 Mile junior men’s Team Sikiric face Team Bisaro from Williams Lake. At the start of the game Team Sikiric was able to stay with Team Bisaro with the score at 1-1 after the second end. However, Bisaro started pulling away, scoring two next to Sikiric’s one before pulling ahead with a three-ender. The game ended 7-3 in favour of Team Bisaro.
C event
The C event was fought between Team Mitchell and Team Pratt, both from 100 Mile. The game was fairly tight, being tied after eight ends. In the extra end, Mitchell had two in the house at the final skips’ stones and Mitchell threw a guard up to stop Pratt from bumping his stone up. Pratt tried an in-off but threw a little inside. Mitchell won 8-6.
“I said in my speech at the end of it all, boy 100 Mile better step up. I think it’s awesome. We have very tricky ice. It’s heavy and it’s got some tricks to it but the out of town teams figured it out very [quickly] so good for them. We love it,” says Hamilton.
The bonspiel included one brand new team, where everyone on the team had never curled before. Last year’s new team got into the C Semi- final.
A total of 90 people came out for the dinner cooked by the 100 Mile Curling Club ladies teams, according to Hamilton.
It’s the second year for the doubles league and it’s quite popular, she says and they’re looking at doing a doubles bonspiel. Currently, there are seven entries and the minimum will be 12 with a maximum of 16, according to Hamilton who says they won’t do anything in between.
There was a lot of talk about the doubles bonspiel at the men’s bonspiel, says Hamilton.
She thanks all the volunteers who stepped up and volunteered.
