A broken ice plant wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits at the Barrhead Curling Rink over the weekend when more than 100 curlers and curling fans descended on Barrhead for the ladies bonspiel.
The bonspiel was originally planned to run Friday evening and all day Saturday, but the final two rounds were postponed until Sunday afternoon after the ice plant broke down at around 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Never ones to admit defeat prematurely, the curlers managed to get in two draws after the ice plant stopped working, finally suspending play when the ice deteriorated to the point it was unplayable, said curling club vice president Grant Balen.
That meant all that was left to play on Sunday were the semifinals and finals.
In the ‘A’ final, Marge Jones from Barrhead took on Athabasca’s Cathie Creaser. When all was said and done, the game lasted only six ends when Creaser conceded defeat after falling behind 10-2, handing the ‘A’ championship to Jones and her rink of Sandy Holowaychuk, Kelsey McCracken and Kim Luciuk.
After the match, Holowaychuk said the competition the whole weekend was very even.
“There were lots of good teams here,” she said, adding that despite the score, the final could have gone either way.
“It could have been anyone’s game,” she said. “We got lucky on some of our shots.”
In the ‘D’ final, also held on Sunday, Charlene Luberda from Stony Plain emerged victorious.
Thanks to the ice plant breaking down, the ‘B’ and ‘C’ championships were not contested on the ice, Balen said. In both cases, at least one team had prior commitments for Sunday, and so those winners were determined via playing cards.
Thanks to their prowess at the table, Bev Topola’s rink from Athabasca won the ‘B’ division, while Barrhead’s Jennifer Kalmbach took home the ‘C’ division championship.
Overall, Balen said the entire weekend went well.
“I didn’t hear anything negative from anyone,” he said. “Obviously, if the ice had been OK the whole time, things would have gone better.”
Balen added if it wasn’t for the work of ice maker Terry Bowman, who got the ice back up to snuff after the ice plant was repaired, things may not have ended as well as they did.
The next major event at the curling rink is the men’s bonspiel scheduled for March 2-4.
