Senior games make a splash

The three-day District 1A Senior Games wrapped up Thursday at the Sister Kennedy Centre here with shuffleboard.
Dryden’s Leona Church and Doris Soucie clipped Fort Frances’ Rita Bagacki and Freda Yuill in the final while another Fort Frances pair, Sylvia Beadle and Mary Clinker, took home the bronze medal.
“That’s hard work,” Clicker laughed. “This is what you have to look forward to when you are over 80. It’s lots of fun.”
Event co-ordinator Nick Wihnan quickly addressed the participants at the conclusion of the games before many of them headed for home.
“We had three wonderful days here in Fort Frances,” Wihnan praised. “I knew we’d have fun and boy we sure did. [We] couldn’t have asked for better weather.”
In other events over the three days, bridge was won by Atikokan’s Terry Rheault and Marilyn Hannon, with Dryden’s Janice Eger and Sally Rowat nabbing the silver medal while Kenora’s Len LaFreniere and Anne Towsley took home the bronze.
In cribbage, Dryden’s Church and Soucie captured top honours to complement their gold medal in shuffleboard, with Fort Frances’ Jose Balcewich and Shirley Nault landing silver medals.
Another Fort Frances team, Frank and Renee Dumeney, took bronze.
In the Euchre competition, Hilda Hoffman and Marj McTaggart of Fort Frances hauled in gold medals, followed by Dryden’s Gail Boudreau and Marion Berglund and Fort Frances duo Eleanor Kuchma and Anne Longmuir.
In floor shuffleboard, Dryden’s Vic Medwid and Ebbe Kruger won gold, Fort Frances’ Mildred Bedard and Roberta Jeffery took silver, and Dryden’s Mary Johnson and Lavine Leacy picked up the bronze.
In horseshoes, Gord Calder and Ralph Benjamin were the champions by default while Nellie Shybyski and Della Baraniuk took home the carpet bowling crown as the lone participants.
And in team five-pin bowling, the Dryden Strugglers took first place, followed by the Mamas & Papas (Kenora) and “Try Hards” (Fort Frances).
Fort Frances finished the event with 10 medals while Dryden was a close second with eight.
The gold medal-winners now will have the opportunity to represent the district at the Senior Summer Games on Aug. 14-16 in London, Ont.