Introducing women’s teams to the Town and Country bonspiel last week ended up bringing a total of 32 rinks to Ponoka, and a ton of fun.
Of the 32 teams, 24 were men’s teams and eight women’s teams, said co-organizer Sean Brake. Seeing a strong showing proved to organizers that adding the women’s teams to the list is something they should continue in the future.
As for the bonspiel, Ponoka had two men’s teams make it to the B finals and a Ponoka women’s team made it to the women’s A finals.
At the women’s A finals, Ponoka girls lost 8-7 against a patient and steady Lacombe rink. At the outset of the final match, Ponoka looked like they had a clear win being up 6-2 after the second end, but Lacombe managed a slow, yet steady upward pace after each end, gaining one or two each time. Ponoka played a risky game by playing less guards, explained skip Nikki Smith.
“Sometimes when you have more guards, that’s when you lose points but it kind of worked in the opposite way for us today,” said Smith.
Lacombe built up the ends in a way enough to secure several valuable points that ended up working in their favour. They also had the hammer on the last end. Smith’s rink missed a couple important hits on the last end, which hurt their chances at winning.
“The more they built up, it made me a little more nervous about it. By the end, it meant we would have had to make every shot, which we didn’t,” said Smith.
Making it to the A finals was a fun experience. She is pleased with how well the team worked over the course of the week.
As for the men’s B finals, skips Kevin Bresee and Clayton Morrow went head to head for a fun match up. The final score was a close 7-6 with Bresee’s rink taking it. The game was a close one. Both skips having curled against each other for many years, they enjoyed the camaraderie of the of the bonspiel and Morrow suggests being able to see old friends is one of the best parts of the bonspiel.
Bresee was pleased with the overall performance of the week and he knew it was going to be a close match. “If you stay in front of it you usually have something.”
“If I made the split on the last shot, we were going an extra end,” said Morrow.
He added the competition is good for the entire cub and he enjoyed being part of it.
Results:
Women’s:
A Event - Team Bonnie Nielson
B Event - Team Laurie Bresee
C Event - Team Deb Rangen
Men’s:
A Event - Team Martin Sherrer
B Event - Team Kevin Bresee
C Event - Team Graeme Rice