Lucas Punkari
While a lack of teams (16) forced organizers to cut the annual Fort Frances men’s bonspiel to a two-day event, the action still was tight on all six sheets on Friday and Saturday.
In the ‘A’ final, Adam Bolen took home his first title with an 8-3 win over Greg Gustafson in seven ends.
“This is probably my sixth or seventh time competing in this, and I had won the ‘B’ and ‘C’ events but never the ‘A’,” Bolen noted.
“It’s great to win it finally, especially to do it with a good group of guys, as well, so it was really a lot of fun,” he added.
Bolen, who was joined by third Grant Swire, second Gord Hoskins, and lead Rich Macedon, scored three in the sixth end to break open what had been a tightly-contested match up to that point.
And until Bolen’s stones in the seventh, things weren’t looking good for his team as Gustafson was lying four.
But Bolen was able to get a stone in the four foot to sit shot. And when Gustafson’s run-back attempt failed, the title was his.
“That sort of thing happened a couple times this weekend,” Bolen joked about his rink’s rough start to the seventh end.
“The boys had a lot confidence in me, probably more than I had in myself, and I was able to make the right shots when it counted,” he reasoned.
Meanwhile, the ‘B’ final saw Raymond Roy earn a convincing 6-1 win over Dan McFayden in four ends, with a steal of three in the third proving to be the decisive blow.
“Dan was a tad heavy on his final draw there, and if he had made that, it would of been a 2-2 game, which would have been a big difference,” Roy remarked.
Playing second for Roy was Sheldon Wettig of Brandon, Man., who competed against Roy at last year’s Dominion Club Championships.
“It was nice to both play with him and see him again,” Roy noted.
“He’s been to the World University Games so he brings a really high skill level to the game,” Roy added.
In what was a rematch of last year’s ‘A’ final, Tom Mayer’s foursome from International Falls defeated Ken McKinnon 8-3 in seven ends to take home the ‘C’ crown.
“He beat us last year so it was a chance for us to get one back tonight,” Mayer said.
“We were down 3-0 after the second, so I think the key for us was to get those three points right back in the very next end, otherwise we would have been right out of the game,” he admitted.
Rounding out the finals on Saturday was the “Steak event,” which is similar to a skins format, where the game came down to an extra-end draw to the button between Rob Gushulak and Rich Peri to determine the winner.
Peri’s draw ended up sliding farther than he expected as it came to rest in the back of the 12-foot. But when Gushulak’s draw ended up being light, Peri was assured of the victory.
“I was getting a little nervous there, to be honest,” Peri joked.
“I though my shot was okay, but it ended up skidding to the back of the house
“But Rob’s shot ended up not making the house so I was able to win that way,” he explained.
