The Curling season is officially over for another year.
On Wednesday, April 4th, the Club had its year-end dinner, the Spring meeting and the final champion games.
Members began gathering shortly after 5:00 in the afternoon for a pre-dinner drink, a chat and a visit. At 6:00 the president, Chris Knight, said a few words of welcome and started people going to the serving table. The dinner was a Chinese buffet provided by the Golden Dragon Restaurant. The food was delicious and, of course, plentiful. There were between 60 and 70 diners at the feast. The guests of honour were Reg McLeod, Evans Harrison, Gary Allan and Peter Purvis who had been curling at our club for fifty years. All in all it was a wonderful meal.
At 7:00 p.m. the President called the room to order and started the Spring meeting with an assemblage of members larger than we have seen in recent years. Six members of the executive were presented and reported on their areas of responsibility for the year's activities. There were some necessary capital expenditures with the purchase of an electric motor for the compressor and a scraper for the ice; in financial terms the club is in better shape than it was a year ago with a modest sum of money over expenses; there were some successful curling events and activities to report; and, in total, the year was successful and a lot of fun.
At 8:00 p.m. it was time for the championship games.
Championship Match
The regular season league play finished on March 22nd. At that point all the teams who had curled through the season were arranged in sequence according to the total points they had accumulated through the year. Then, on Monday, March 26th, a round robin series was started to determine a club champion.
The Monday night curlers began the round robin matches with eleven teams. After two rounds of play on March 26th and 28th, the teams of Doug Connelly, Chris Moore, Yoshio Imahori and Paul Elliot were still in the running. These met on April 2nd. Yoshio and Moore came away winners. These two teams came back to the ice on April 4th and, after a hard fought match Chris Moore's team came away as the winners of the Monday night curling series.
The Thursday night curlers began their round robin on March 27th. The winners of the first five games continued in the 'A' league. The losers moved to the 'B' league. It was the teams of Bernie Deabreu and Ken Deugau who competed to be the top of the 'A' league. These teams met on April 3rd. Deugau's team emerged the victor. Deabreu's team moved to the 'B'. The 'B' league played three rounds on March 29, April 2nd, and April 3rd. In the end Leo Buckley's foursome was the winner of the 'B' league to this point. Buckley and Deabreu met at the late draw on April 3rd to decide who would move on to the championship match. At the end of the evening Leo Buckley's team moved on to play Ken Deugau's team on April 4th. The April 4th match was close from the beginning. It was clear that both teams were evenly matched. In the end, however Leo Buckley emerged the winner. He and his team claim the title of Club Champions for 2007.
A Dying Gasp
There were many who naturally assumed that with the closing dinner and the championship games the curling season was over. Not so, said the seniors. Since the ice was still available and the weather was cool the seniors came out to curl on Thursday, April 5th. There were 29 curlers out on Thursday and there were two draws. There weren't enough to full four rinks, but there were certainly enough for two. And there was a last opportunity to throw rocks at houses and try as best we could to make sense of the ridges and vales of the last of the curling ice that would soon be gone for the summer.
This is the last Curling Club column for this season. Thank you for your attention and your comments. Everyone seems to agree that this column was a good idea and worth the effort. Look for us when Curling season rolls around again.