For this year’s Howe Sound Curling Club mixed bonspiel, the Laurie Knopp rink won the women’s bracket, while Don Dorosh and his colleagues took top spot among the men.
The club has held bonspiels regularly since the club formed in 1985, although combining the men’s and women’s events on the same weekend was a new thing this year.
“It works out quite well. It’s a lot of fun,” said men’s organizer Hal Hughson.
In the finals Sunday afternoon, Knopp’s rink defeated Cindy Cardiff’s rink 7-5. In the second division finals, which were held at the same time Sunday afternoon, Team Murray beat Team Sims 7-4.
For the men, Dorosh bested Al Hoyrup’s rink by a score of five skins to three. In the second division playoffs, Team DiMarzo rink won six skins to Team Hurford’s two.
In the women’s matches, the teams compete for traditional points in each end.
“We just play regular curling in round robin,” said organizer Alma Lewis.
In the men’s game, the teams vie for skins. The team with the hammer, or last shot, has to win by two to gain a skin, while the other has to steal a point. If neither is successful – for example, if the team with the hammer wins by only one – the skin carries over, which can mean a lot of the skins can be had for the taking as the match goes on.
“It’s not like just getting points on the end,” Hughson said. “It just makes it a little more interesting to play…. It starts to become more of a chess match.”
The Howe Sound Curling Club decided to combine the men’s and women’s events on the same weekend, in part, because it has been harder to attract clubs from communities in the Lower Mainland where they might be competing in other events.
“It’s been hard over the last few years to get out-of-town teams,” Lewis said.
“There’s just so many bonspiels in other places.”
In the past, the club has had teams travel up for the event. “Previous years, we’ve had Vancouver, New Westminister, Coquitlam… mostly down in the Vancouver area,” Hughson said.
By combining the men’s and women’s events, it spreads out the cost of ice time, but it also creates a more festive environment with both men’s and women’s teams on hand to play or to watch other rinks compete.
As far as setting the brackets for the finals, the berths were determined by round-robin play broken into two pools for the men and two for the women.
For the men, the Dorosh rink won the A pool, followed by the DiMarzo, Mitchell and Hughson rinks, while Hoyrup won the B pool, followed by the Hurford, McKay, C-4 Cheekeye and Scott rinks.
Among the women, the Cardiff rink won the A pool, followed by the Sims, Bowcock and Vanzella rinks, while the Knopp team took the B pool slot, although it was tied with the Murray rink on points, followed by the Lowe and Fisher rinks.
