Bonot Curling

It was anything but a happy ending in Bryan Bonot’s quest for the provincial senior men’s curling title last week at the Granite Club in North Bay.
The Stratton-based rink, including third Terry Lee, second Ron Martinuk, and lead Ted Stewart, finished last with a 1-4 record in the six-team event.
It was their worst finish in three appearances at the provincials.
Surrendering points in the final end proved costly in their first two games—7-6 losses to Gary Ball (Thunder Bay) and Chucker Ross (Sudbury) to open action last Thursday.
“In those two games we were tied coming home,” said Lee. “They managed to get the key hits. Those losses were tough.”
Bonot dropped two more games—to Bill McKelvey (Kirkland Lake) 9-7 and Bill Johnston (Sault Ste. Marie) 7-3 on Friday—before beating Peter Minogue (North Bay) 12-8 in their final round-robin game Saturday morning.
Tied 8-8 through eight, Bonot scored two in the ninth and then stole a pair in the 10th to win.
Johnston went on to beat Ball 6-5 in the final later Saturday to capture the provincial title and move on to the national playdowns Feb. 2-10 in St. Thomas, Ont.