The team of Rylan Young, Jen Briscoe, Curtis Briscoe and Ashley Derbowka were the winners of the Burntwood Curling Club’s mixed bonspiel Jan. 24-25.
The overall champs defeated Sam Antila, Courtney Reeves, Alex Sutherland and Pam Antila in the championship game.
Sheri Horning, Claude Hykawy, Sherri Alexander and Mark Pitre won the B event, while Grant Brown, Tami Bodnaryk, Guy Bodnaryk and Kamryn Brown were the C event winners. The D event title went to Troy Millar, Patti Baird-Millar, Doug Sime and Tracy Tomchuk.
Eleven teams were registered in the bonspiel this year, says the curling club’s Sam Antila, the same number as in 2019. The event was played over two days, wrapping up Saturday evening.
“People seemed to like that,” Antila said. “Everyone enjoyed themselves.”
The two-day format will likely be used for the upcoming ladies bonspiel, which begins Feb. 21, and the men’s bonspiel that starts March 6, unless there are more teams entered than can be accommodated within that schedule.
In addition to the team of Briscoe, Horning, Reeves and Brooke Graham that is currently competing at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s provincial championships in Rivers – they were winless in their first four games – the Burntwood Curling Club team of Shaun Parsons, Kevin Parsons, Bronston Jonasson and jim Davidson is competing in the Viterra men’s provincials that begin Feb. 4 in Winnipeg, while Antila, Hykawy, Alex Sutherland and Curtis Ross will compete at the seniors provincials in Morris.
Membership is up by one to 223 people at the curling club this year, which includes about 20 junior curlers. There eight teams each in the Monday doubles and Tuesday ladies league, four in the Wednesday night open league, 18 in the Thursday night men’s league and at least 24 in the Friday night mixed league, and Antila says the Little Rocks program to introduce kids to curling is going well.
“We have a really good leader for that,” he said.
Recent problems with the club’s ice plant are being addressed and fundraising is going well, with a New Year’s Eve raffle selling out of tickets and three more fish fry Mondays to go this year – one on Feb. 3, with another in March and the final one in April. The fish fry Mondays run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., are open to everybody and the cost is $20 a plate.
“We get a lot of support in the community,” Antila says, adding that the club has a good base of volunteers, including Sutherland, who was a finalist for the Curling Canada volunteer of the year award. “We’re really fortunate in that regard."
