Mens Curling

Rising to the top of the 44-rink field, the Scott Gobeil foursome captured the ‘A’ event of the annual Fort Frances men’s bonspiel here Sunday afternoon.
Gobeil–whose team included Don Robertson, Ron Eyolfson, and Daryl Eyolfson–cruised to a 7-4 victory over the Rob Sinclair rink.
“The competition was pretty tough. We were lucky,” said Gobeil. “In three of our games, we stole them in the eighth. Things usually went our way.”
The path to the championship was paved with victories over Mike Asplund (13-1), W. Windigo (6-5), Rick Weidenhoeft (9-3), Don DeBenedet (4-2), and Mark Snow (6-5).
“This is the first time I’ve gone to this since 1998. I usually go to the Canadian police curling championship,” noted Gobeil.
He had last won the local men’s bonspiel playing with Ron Bridgeman’s foursome in 1995.
“Overall, the curling was great,” echoed Rob Sinclair Sr., who curled with son, Rob Jr., Dale Wiersema, and Ron Martinuk.
“Even though we’re bridesmaids for the second year in a row, we’ll be back next year,” he vowed, noting they had lost out to the Raymond Roy rink 6-1 in the ‘A’ final here last year.
Meanwhile, Doug Boyd’s rink of Conrad Lemieux, Frank Ball, and Orville Eyolfson took the ‘B’ event Sunday afternoon with a 7-4 win over Mike Asplund’s foursome, which included Greg Ward Jr., Brian Johnstone, and Larry Gustafson.
“It was good competition all the way through but I think they took it easy on us old fellas,” chuckled Boyd, who recently had returned to the ice after spending four months in Texas.
In the ‘C’ final, Lorne Jackson’s rink of Derek Jackson, Dave Humeniuk, and Greg Bruce took top honours after nipping Kevin Busch’s quartet of Denis Busch, Guy Donaldson, and Jim Sutch by an 8-7 score.
“It was a good ’spiel. It was really enjoyable playing Kevin’s rink. They had a late comeback going that took us into an extra end,” remarked Jackson.
Rounding out the action, Lorne Gibson (Thunder Bay) dumped Tom Mayer (International Falls) 11-5 to capture the ‘D’ event.
Drawmaster Tom Fry felt the bonspiel was a great way to end the curling season.
“It’s absolutely successful from all aspects. The food was good, local sponsors came through with the prizes,” he noted. “We got lots of good comments from the teams.
“The competition was great. We saw lots of local teams, and a lot of the younger curlers came to the forefront,” added Fry, whose rink lost in Gibson in the ‘D’ semi-finals.
“Speaking for myself and my son, I think everybody had a a good time,” noted Rob Sinclair Sr.
“There were a few less teams but Tom Fry and his committee did a great job,” echoed Jackson.