Huntley hosted the Carp Classic Cash Bonspiel this January 26-28, and by all accounts it was a great success!
We owe the resurrection of this event to Cory Mundy, our Events Director, who initiated and organized all of it, after a hiatus of 15 years. It was well known in the region in the past, and it appears to have been very well received this weekend by the 16 teams attending, 5 of them from Huntley. We actually had a waiting list of several teams. The event was also financially successful, due to the sponsorship Cory attracted, as well as some serious bar revenue. Winners and runners-up in the 3 divisions each took away part of the total purse of $8,000.
Participants and numerous volunteers were treated to fantastic meals by our caterers Whitney Toogood and Amanda Beaulieu. Our regular entertainer Zach Martin provided music during Saturday afternoon, and Saturday evening we held Huntley’s famous Horse Races, hosted by our own Ross Valliant. Many thanks to them and the numerous volunteers who helped out all weekend.
Almost half of the teams participating had Provincial or National level competition experience in their careers, including Team Howard Rajala, who won the Senior Men’s Worlds last season. We were happy to have such high-level curlers at our club.
This includes Huntley’s Team Tremblay team who came through to win the C-division over Team Boucher. B-division was won by Team Abbis-Mills over Team Blad, and the A-division was won by Team Rajala over Team Tippett. Full rosters for these teams are listed lower in this post. These are all top-notch teams and the Finals were fun to watch. Great that a Huntley team made it through! Team Brown and Team Leger both put on a good showings with some wins as well. Team Tindall and Team Cormier were less successful but had some great competition, and it was all worthwhile.
All the teams were very happy with the ice conditions – icemaker Dwayne Lowe and his team pulled out all the stops to provide fast and consistent ice with lots of curl – competitors praise all around!
Special effects for the weekend included continuous updating of scores on-line by our webmaster Andrea Leganchuk. And a real treat was getting local bagpiper Brandon Stewart to pipe in all the finalists just prior to the last draw. Thanks also to those who have posted photos on social media.
The Carp Classic trophy was presented to Team Rajala by Lorne Rice as well as Lois Rump. The Rump family created and donated the fabulous event trophy decades ago, and it resides in the club still.
Plans are already underway to continue this event next season, and many of the teams promised to attend again!
Rosters of all winning and runner-up teams, by division
A-Side Winner Team Rajala – Howard Rajala (Skip), Rich Moffat (Vice), Chris Fulton (Second), Paul Madden (Lead)
A-Side Runner-up Team Tippet – Mike McLean (Skip), Erin Morrissey (Vice), Kevin Tippett (Second), Katie Morrissey (Lead)
B-Side Winner Team Abbis Mills – Bowie Abbis-Mills (Skip), Jamie Rintoul (Vice), Shane Barnes (Second), Glenn Rintoul (Lead)
B-Side Runner-up Team Blad – Bill Blad (Skip), Mike Grinnel (Vice), Mark Sullivan (Second), Steve Demers (Lead)
C-Side Winner Team Tremblay – Marc Tremblay (Skip), James Bergeron (Vice), Jeff Bird (Second), Bill Sobering (Lead)
C-Side Runner-up Team Boucher – Natalie Boucher (Skip), Susan Goheen (Vice), Carole Fujimoto (Second), Kathy Kerr (Lead)
You can see the full draw and box scores at the following links:
Thanks to all the sponsors of this event.
