Sylvie Paillard
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The Howe Sound Curling Club echoed with slamming rocks and yelling skips during the 32nd annual Beef and Barrel Men's Curling Bonspiel last weekend - and a team that sat in 13th place in the season's standings swept up the victory.
Skip, Karry Laferriere took his team right to the last rock, taking home the beef Jan. 6, 7 and 8.
Sponsored by the 樱桃视频Bottle Depot, Laferriere's team edged out another local side skipped by Jim Schutz.
Schutz said he didn't play well despite taking second spot and share of the beef in Division A. But "it was enough to look forward to next year's Men's Bonspiel," said Schutz.
In the B Pool, two North Vancouver rinks took first and second spot. Last year's champ Darryl Simmon's rink took his colleague Mark Bailey's team down to the last rock as well. Jim Pietila's side edged out Jason Nichol's teams in the C Pool.
Bert Biglow assembled a last minute team to fill in for a team that pulled, making it to the finals of the D pool, eventually losing to Colin Chapman's side.
Although Hal Hughson's rink was kept off the scoreboard his other role as bonspiel organizer was a success.
"Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to a bigger and better event next year," he said.
The 36th annual Beef and Barrel Bonspiel is already scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 21, 2006. October's date will make this one of the first curling bonspiels on the circuit to be supported by BC Curl to draw more teams from the mainland.
All of this year's teams were sponsored by community businesses "to help defray the costs of the event and to offer more features and services to the visiting out of town teams," according to event organizers.
