It wasn’t your normal pajama party. This one involved rocks, brooms and women yelling “harder.”
The weekend saw the return of the Women’s Bonspiel to the Howe Sound Curling Club (HSCC). Squads from as far away as Parksville curled and partied the night away in their pajamas.
“I think the bonspiel was a blast,” said the HSCC’s Hilary Fisher. “The theme of pajama party was a lot of fun and everyone got into the spirit of it at the Saturday night party. The curling competition was high and there were two out-of-town teams who were here to practice on our ice since the HSCC is hosting the regional senior women's playdowns on Jan. 18 to 20.”
Despite the stiff competition from out of town, Squamish resident Kristen Fewster and her team won the A division by beating Lynne Noble’s team on Sunday (Nov. 25). Fewster is no stranger to competition herself, as she plays on a team based in Prince George that has qualified for the B.C. playdowns in January.
“It’s hard to know whether to characterize this as an upset victory or not, since Kristen is also a provincial-level curler,” said event organizer Arlene Morrison. “But there was a tendency to earlier expect the Lynne Nobel team to overwhelm all local competition.”
Action started on Friday (Nov. 23) with opening round matches. Winners continued in the A bracket and losers moved on to lower brackets, until the final two teams were left standing. Saturday saw all of the finals in all four brackets set, with Sunday determining the winners.
Carolyn Moore’s team from Parksville took home the B division championship, beating out Karen Vanzealla from the HSCC team. Kathy Smiley and her squad from the Royal City Curling Club grabbed the win in the C division, defeating the HSCC’s Shirley Campbell team. And in an all HSCC battle, Brenda Sims’ team beat Fisher’s for the D division title.
According to Morrison, it was a nice bounce-back year for the event, which hadn’t taken place in the past two years due to a lack of teams registering.
“We certainly intend to take the momentum of this year’s success into next year,” Morrison said.
The next big event at the HSCC will be the men’s bonspiel, which takes place on Jan. 12 and 13. For more information on the club, visit www.howesoundcurl.com.
