DeBenedet earns second spot at Northwesterns

Who says you need to have a team together all the time to produce a winning rink?
Take Don DeBenedet’s foursome of third Tim Nordin, second Kevin Busch, and lead Dave Bondett.
Thrown together for the express purpose of playing at the Zone 7 qualifier in Stratton last weekend, the rink was near flawless en route to a 4-0 record in the round-robin.
Then they earned the second berth at the Northwesterns after downing Derek Jackson’s rink 5-3 in the playoff.
Jackson would have had to beat DeBenedet twice to advance but was ousted from further contention after just the one game.
“We started a little shaky on Friday but then we picked up our play by the weekend,” said DeBenedet, whose rink will be joining Raymond Roy’s foursome at the Northwesterns later this month in Sioux Lookout.
“The first game we weren’t too sharp,” he admitted.
But they still managed to win, nipping Jackson’s rink 7-6 in an extra end Friday night. Then after having a bye Saturday morning, they reeled off wins over Tom Fry (9-8), Clifton Chojko-Bolec (8-3), and Brian Bonot (6-2).
Meanwhile, Jackson finished in second place in the round-robin with a 3-1 record. Chojko-Bolec was next at 2-2 while Fry and Bonot went winless at 0-3 (they opted not to play their round-robin game Saturday night).
DeBenedet said having a different team does make it a bit more difficult but added they made the shots when they had to.
“It makes it a little tougher because of all the [different ways] people throw,” he remarked. “But Dave and I curled together and Timmy [Nordin] shoots pretty straight.
“I was quite pleased,” he added. “Dave Bondett has been out of curling for a while but he curled really well as a lead. Everyone held together.”