Fall Bonspiel A Winner by Rick Lomore

The 2007 bonspiel season in Pembroke got off to a great start this last weekend. Teams, 28 of them, from Pembroke, Deep River, Arnprior and the Ottawa area spent 4 days vying for top spot in the annual Fall Cashspiel. When the last rock had come to a standstill 4 teams were replete with honours and cash in the various divisions of the spiel.

 First bragging rights went to the undefeated crew lead by Dwayne Lowe from Carleton Place. Dwayne and his vice, Blake Wimperis, second Gord Pringle and lead Lyman Gardiner went undefeated to take the “A” division, sponsored by Dave Trautrim Buildex-Tmbr-Mart. Ironically it was Dave Trautrim, Stephen Alles, Mike Nixon and Steven Trautrim who were runner-up to Dwayne.

 In the “B” division, it was a local team lead by Paul Bourne with vice Ziggy Geson, second Dale Martin and lead Tyler Martin taking first place, with another set of locals- Marcel Jonckheere, Dan Stoddart, Doug Ferguson and Caroline Jonckheere- getting the silver medal.

 “C” division honours went to an Ottawa Granite team composed of Frank Kinahan at skip, vice Ted Weagle, second Oleg Zadorozny and lead Beth Zadorozny, while the runner-ups were another out of town team lead by Barb Kelly.

 Finally in “D”  division, another local team- skip Scott Alberts, vice Jeff Olfert, second Chris Trotter and lead Penny Neal- defeated the Arnprior crew of Dave Chesworth.

Thanks go out to Carl Zieroth who works long hours to put this bonspiel together, along with dedicated helpers Bill Wilson and Steve Gorsky, Barb McDowell and her crew of volunteers in the kitchen, and Mark Lawrence and Dave Steele who had keen, consistent ice ready from the first rock thrown to the last.

In other curling news from around the country, Alberta came out on top over Ontario in the Canadian Mixed Championships that recently concluded in Calgary. Brantford was the scene this last weekend of two high profile events. Glenn Howard’s crew from the Coldwater Curling Club walked away with $13000 and the win in the McDonald Invitational while Julie Hastings of the Bayview Country Club earned $6000 as the winner of the Sun Life Invitational.

Locally, all leagues are moving along in fine fashion. The Valley Super League starts action Tuesday night on several fronts around the region.