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Nugget Column #18 – Tuesday January 26th, 2016
The field is set for the Traveler’s Northern Ontario Men’s Curling Championship coming to the North Bay Granite Club February 10th – 14th, 2016.
While North Bay’s lone contender will not be moving onto provincials this season, there are many local ties to the rink hailing from the Voyageur Curling Club in Mattawa.
Skip Patrick Gelinas and Second Eric Gelinas are both members of the Granite Club playing in our Wednesday night Cash League and Thursday night Doubles League respectively.
Not too long ago the brothers would routinely represent the Granite Club with their junior men’s team comprised of two North Bay curlers. Eric also represented the club at the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials after winning the Northern Ontario championship in 2014.
The team’s lead is Luc Gelinas (father to Patrick and Eric), and in addition to throwing his hat into the Brier playdowns, he will also represent the Granite Club in pursuit of a Northern Ontario Senior Men’s Championship with Team Mark Brown.
Vice-Skip Artie Trudel is a long-time Mattawa curler and perennial tankard pursuant. Trudel is no stranger to the Granite Club having played many leagues and events over the years and can be seen throwing practice rocks on a weekly basis in preparation for the main event in February.
Sudbury’s Rob Gordon and Jordan Chandler were the other two teams that qualified from the NOCA’s Men’s East Qualifier at the Idylwylde Golf and Country Club this past weekend.
Three of Gordon’s team members would not be new to the Brier should they be successful at this provincial, while this exact lineup also owns two Northern Ontario Senior Men’s Curling Championships (2012 and 2014).
In 2013 this squad lost the men’s provincial final to Brad Jacobs; three years after Ron Henderson, Dion Dumontelle and Doug Hong (all but the skip) lost the same final to the same team.
The skip of that 2010 runner-up team also happens to be the last brick thrower for Jordan Chandler’s qualifying rink this season. Matt Dumontelle is playing his first competitive season since winning the Brier as alternate for Team Jacobs in 2013.
Chandler’s Lead and Second, Lee Toner and Sandy MacEwen, lost the 2012 men’s provincial to Team Jacobs and look poised to make another deep run in North Bay.
Toner has already represented Northern Ontario at the 2005, 2007 and 2009 Briers.
Tickets are still on sale at the Granite Club with full event passes going for $80; single round robin game and tiebreakers priced at $10; the semi-final at $15 and the final at $20. More information on teams, schedules and the championship is available at www.nbgraniteclub.com/travelers.
We’re very proud of Laura Payne, Stephanie Brown, Mackenzie Daley, Laura Forget and Amanda Corkal who completed the Northern Ontario Scotties with a 2-4 record. They battled valiantly with Canadian ranked No. 5 Tracy Fleury and No. 12 Krista McCarville. Congratulations to Krista McCarville, Kendra Lilly, Ashley Sippala, Sarah Potts and Oye-Sem Won Briand who are advancing to the 2016 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Follow our own Kate Sherry and Team Northern Ontario at the Canadian Juniors this week at curling.ca/2016juniors.
Bobby Ray General Manager North Bay Granite Club