By Wayne Venos
The "A" final of the 100 Mile House Curling Club's Men's Bonspiel was like a shoot out at the O.K. Corral.
The Bill Lim foursome rode into town from Prince George and proceeded to take the measure of the other men's rinks entered in the 57th annual bonspiel, Jan. 15-17.
Last year's winner of the "A" event, the Denis Gosselin rink of 100 Mile, may have set their sights on repeating, but soon had their hopes shattered.
Bill Lim's outlaws came out of the curling club's famous Wick n' Roll Lounge firing granite rocks instead of bullets and rode off into a snowstorm with the coveted "A" trophy.
They started out slowly against Gosselin, but made very few mistakes, and by scoring four points in the sixth end, left no doubt about who was the better rink this day. The final score was 8-1, but what made their skip Bill Lim so proud was that this was their regular Monday Men's League team and not an all-star rink put together to ambush the local curlers.
Also curling for the Prince George boys were Don Martin (third), Chad St. Peter (second) and Mike Walch (lead). Even though they finished second, Gosselin's team of Duane Ney throwing skip rocks, Denis (third), Steve Cole (second) and Scott Sato (lead), will certainly be heard from in the future.
The "B" event was contested by two local rinks, who have a history of facing each other in regular league playoffs. John Atkinson gave Ed Ney's rink their only loss in league play last year and the table was set for an interesting game.
Atkinson's rink stole the hammer from Ney in the first end and then continued toward their furious attack throughout the rest of the game. It seemed that every time Ed's boy's would have the makings of a big end, John' s crew would rain on their parade.
The final score was 5-1 in favor of Atkinson, who seems to be thriving from his recent marriage to Char over the Christmas holidays. He attributed his victory to the good ice and tasty food provided by the club ladies and the hard work of his rink.
Curling for the winners were Atkinson (skip), Bob Berke (third), Kelly Powell (second) and Wayne Venos (lead). Never giving up were Ed Ney (skip), Bill Pratt (third), Gordon Smith (second) and Cameron Bird (lead).
The "C" final was the most closely contested of all three with 100 Mile and Williams Lake rinks involved. Although Dustin Leduc's boys held the lead for most of the game, they just could not seal the deal at the end.
Ron Bisaro's rink from Williams Lake used a change in strategy by their skip to turn a certain loss into victory. Not doing so well with their takeout game, they turned to a draw strategy, which made the difference.
Scoring two in the last end ended a successful bonspiel for the Bisaro boys, who rejoiced in their 8-7 win. Ron attributed his rink's play to his constant swearing at them, but since he told me this with a twinkle in his eye, I know this is just another curling story.
Bisaro (skip), Bill Garratt (third), Moe Monita (second) and John Hoyrup (lead), had nothing but nice things to say about Dustin Leduc (skip), Mike Kreschuk (third), Jim Kirby (second) and Mark Stanley (lead).
It was a well run bonspiel and all the men curlers would like to thank the ladies for the excellent food provided and for the ice makers for the superb conditions enjoyed all weekend.
Wayne Venos is a spokesperson for the 100 Mile House Curling Club.