Twenty foursomes gathered at the Hope Curling Club on the weekend for the annual Mixed Bonspiel, the final event of the season.
Eight teams were from out of town and former RCMP Staff Sgt. Ed Hill and his wife Joy came over from Gibson’s to join Tom and Denise DeSorcy. DeSorcy’s rink lost out to Leighton Warner in the B semi-final.
“Registrations have been down a bit on all of our bonspiels this year,” said club iceman Roman Petryk.
“But that’s happening at rinks down in the Lower Mainland and in smaller towns in the Interior. For four sheets, 32 teams is (an ideal) number to have.”
Friendly family feuds were a bit of a theme on the weekend. Lou and Wendy Kraszlany played against their daughter Ashley in the opening game on Friday. Ashley’s Warner rink lost that match — but went on to win the B event, over Jim Kinnear of Port Moody. Rosalee Floyd and Curtis Limb were also on Warner’s team.
“I didn’t see the B final, but I heard it came right down to Leighton’s last rock,” said Petryk.
Tammy Shield and her team beat her dad Al Trick’s rink in the A semi-final and went on to win the A event.
Glenn Riddell skipped the winner, with help from Brenda Gilroy and Tammy and her husband Seamus Shields. Craig Traun skipped the runner-up, backed by Deb McKinney, Wade Brind and Kris Lebedoff.
“We won our first game but lost our second and we got bumped to the long side of the C event,” said Petryk, who was assisted by Shirley Trick, Aki Medley and Truls Asdal.
“We had to curl three games in a row on Sunday!”
In the end, they were running out of gas and the Reed Golos’ team of Sarah Golos, Jordan Romano and Cindy Bushey prevailed to handily take the C event.
“This is the last week, so we’ll be turning the ice plant off after Thursday night,” added Petryk.