The Williams Lake Curling Club’s Open Mixed Bonspiel took on a bit of a different look this year, much to the praise of curlers in the lakecity.
Sixteen teams made up of men and women were split up into two pools during the weekend, where each team played five, six-end games in their pool looking to earn points based on ends won and lost.
Each team had one player attempt a draw to the button Friday night, which was measured and recorded, and was used Sunday as a tiebreaker.
When the dust settled after the final games Sunday afternoon, it was skip Simone Groundwater’s rink of Laura Ball (third), Robert Gudbransen (second) and Alex Jeannotte (lead) bringing home the bonspiel title.
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Groundwater’s rink finished its round robin games tied with skip Roger Kaleta’s rink of Kaleta, Whitney Christy (third), Colin Shpak (second) and lead Wanda Andersen, however, had a closer draw to the button to win the tiebreaker, giving Kaleta’s rink the second-place finish.
“It was just an excellent format,” Groundwater said. “It kept it tight for everybody. There’s no blowout games which is really nice.”
Third place was the Ken Hall (skip) rink of Hall, Betty Dryden (third), John Dryden (second) and Arlene Hall (lead).
Fourth was Brian Purdy (skip), Michelle Ball (third), Gerry Leclerc (second) and 12-year-old Isabella Groundwater (lead).
Mike Dextrase (skip), Myles MacKinnon (third), Tina Dextrase (second) and Mike McMullen (lead) were fifth, while Debbie Rand (skip), Mallory Sandhu (third), Corry Sandhu (second) and Bill Rand took home sixth.
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Payout in the bonspiel went to the top six-placed teams.
A fun, one-end minispiel was also a hit with curlers, who had their names thrown into a hat and randomly drawn to create teams. Each team played a one-end game, and the team that scored moved on to play the next winning team, with losers being eliminated.
The Williams Lake Curling Club, meanwhile, thanked all of the various business sponsors who donated prizes and sponsored the bonspiel, and also all of the volunteers, especially Laura Ball, Michelle Ball and Groundwater for helping pull everything together, and for all their support.
sports@wltribune.com
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