One of Westlock’s longest running bonspiels took place last weekend at the Servus Curling Centre, with the Hugh Clark rink rising to the top of 32 teams from across the region.
The Town and Country Bonspiel has been around in one form or another since the 1960s, says Westlock Curling Club president Paula Clark as it used to be called the Farmer’s Bonspiel.
“Basically, the farmers would come in and usually get a businessman to curl with them, but then it got changed. You have your farmers, your country, who would come in and curl with people from the town.”
The bonspiel seems to be getting more popular every year, drawing a wide array of teams, with varying skill levels. Clark is thrilled with this year’s turnout.
“I was full before Christmas. I phoned at the beginning of December just to kind of remind everybody and I didn’t have to phone anyone back, so that was really good,” said Clark, adding that there were four teams left on the waiting list this year.
“You can come with whoever you can get together. It’s lots of fun and everyone kind of evens themselves out. We’ve got some good competitive teams and even a group from Edmonton, from the Keg, that has never curled before.”
Event finals were held Sunday afternoon with the Hugh Clark rink of Peter Yeung, Terry Cunningham and Dave Montgomery taking the ‘A’ event, which was sponsored by Westlock Ford.
The ‘B’ event went to the Cam Ray rink of Ray, Irvine Reidford, Gene Schmaus, and Jim Rasmussen and was sponsored by Westlock Motors.
The Terry Sheehan rink of Sheehan, Pauline Ruxton, Mark Melzer and Grace Feheley claimed the Brown’s Chrysler sponsored ‘C’ event.
Finally, the Emily Clark rink of Erin Wiese, Kyle Hanson and Colin Decker won the ‘D’ event, sponsored by Sunnie Valley Farms.
Next up is the Open Mixed Bonspiel Feb. 2-4 and Clark is hoping for at least 24 teams for that bonspiel and spots are filling up fast.
