Well another Oilmen’s Curling Bonspiel has come and gone here in the city of Grande Prairie. This time it just happened to be the 33rd annual.
In keeping with the tradition of the event it was very well attended and a lot of good times were had by all. As always entertainment was high on the list and this year was no exception. The opening day saw a lot of friendships renewed and lost time was quickly made up for,… along with a very late night.
Day two saw the competition start to heat up as day one allowed the teams from the “A” event distributed into the “B” event, which then lead to a lot of movement into various other events in the Bonspiel Draw.
Thursday night was banquet night and the Grande Prairie Curling Club did not disappoint. The steaks were mouth-watering and the club fed 320 people in only 27 minutes. Opening act David Stawnichy from the Comedy Factory entertained the patrons followed by headliner Howie Miller, whose humour left the crowd with teary eyes and sore stomachs from laughter.
Prior to the evening’s entertainment former Bonspiel Chairman Steve Zimmerman, was honoured with a plaque for his contributions to the success of the bonspiel in years past.
The Reverse Draw was completed and Bren-Tech was the big winners, taking home $2000.00 in cash for the top prize.
Bruce Barker won the Ladies set of Calaway Golf Clubs and Andrea Ferris won the Men’s set of Calaway Clubs. Bruce Barker also purchased the Saskatchewan Roughriders Golf Bag at the live auction.
Friday saw some very competitive curling going on with some teams being eliminated from the competition. All this action was in preparation for Saturday’s semi-finals at 10:00 am.
After the semi-finals were completed it was on to the 1:30 pm finals which decided the various event winners
Winners of each event are as Follows:
``F`` Event Concord
``E`` Event Brogan Safety
``D`` Event Champion-Schwindt
``C`` Event CIMS Corp.
``B`` Event Bren-Tech
``A`` Event and Bonspiel Champion second year in a row Durwins Trucking
We would like to thank all the sponsors for their generous support the patrons and athletes who competed in the event.
Special thanks to Dave Michaels and Big Country for the extensive coverage they provided over the weekend.
Organisers are considering the bonspiel a great success and look forward to next year’s event.