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North Bay Fans Could Bring Fortune to Team Canada
Nugget Column #27 – Tuesday March 29th, 2016
Not since 2008 has a Canadian team captured gold at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championships, and that didn’t change this past week as Chelsea Carey and her Alberta-based team failed to medal in Swift Current.
Anna Sidorova’s Russian foursome captured bronze for the third straight year while Switzerland earned their third consecutive gold medal (and fourth in the last five seasons). The record for most consecutive wins still belongs to Canada who owned the top of the podium from 1984 – 1987.
The only difference in fact, over the previous three tournaments, is that Japan would claim silver this year instead of Canada.
Japan was seeking their first world championship when they stepped on the ice Sunday and half way through the final end (down one point with hammer) you would have been betting on the underdogs, but a failed attempt to remove a half buried Swiss stone resulted in leaving the defending champions sitting two instead of just the opposite. Japanese skip, Satsuki Fujisawa, was left with a tricky draw to the four foot to force an extra end, but it was not meant to be.
Here’s hoping that the North Bay Granite Club in partnership with the City of North Bay is successful in their bid to host the 2018 World Women’s Curling Championship at Memorial Gardens so that local fans may cheer Team Canada out of this slump.
Kudos to Dave Bennett and Rick Miller for championing this initiative and for leveraging our successful hosting of the Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in November of 2014 into a shot at welcoming the world curling community to our beautiful Northern Ontario city.
Canada leads the all-time medal count with 32 total (15 gold, 8 silver, 9 bronze), while Sweden follows with 23 and Switzerland constantly adding to their now 13.
Fundraising chair, Gus Laforge, and his volunteers are preparing for the Granite Club’s next capital fundraiser. The group is now accepting donations for a fundraising Garage Sale scheduled for Saturday April 30th and Sunday May 1st from 8am – 3pm.
Donations of clean, usable items will also be accepted the Monday- Thursday leading up to the event between 6pm – 8pm. For more information, please visit the event page to view the full story and Gus’ contact information.
We’ll be cheering on local curler Kate Sherry as she and her Sudbury-based team represent all of Ontario at the Optimist U18 International Curling Championships in Edmonton Alberta from March 30th – April 3rd.
Team Brunton is set to take on teams from British Colombia, Manitoba, Quebec, Minnesota and Alaska in pool play. The top two teams from two pools will advance to semi-final action, and possibly, the championship final on Sunday.
You can follow Team Brunton’s progress at U18Curling.ca
Please plan to attend the North Bay Curling and Athletic Corporation’s spring Annual General Meeting to be held Tuesday April 12th, 2016 at 7:00pm.
Curling and tennis members are invited to attend for the purpose of: confirming all acts, by-laws and proceedings of the directors and officers since the last annual meeting of members; review the club’s current financial position; appoint new directors and officers for the 2016-2017 season; and transact such further and other proceedings as may be brought before the meeting or any adjournment thereof.
Bobby Ray General Manager North Bay Granite Club