North Bay Hosting Northern Ontario Club Championship This Week

Nugget Column #27 – Tuesday March 28th, 2017

The Travelers Curling Club Championship is an annual curling tournament held in Canada. The tournament features to the top “club level” curlers from every province and territory, plus Northern Ontario.

This program was established in 2009 to promote grassroots competition as a solution to the traditional Brier and Tournament of Hearts playdowns becoming more elite with every passing season.

The reigning Olympic gold medallists, Team Brad Jacobs, for example have won seven of the eight most recent Northern Ontario tankards (and did not participate in 2014 due to the Olympics). In the previous eight championships to those, there were six different winning skips. It was plausible that with a little bit of practice, dedication, and effort that a recreational team could have a good week and punch their ticket to “the show”. Not anymore.

It’s the first year in over a decade that long-time local Skip Jeff Brown did not enter the race to the Tim Horton’s Brier, but he’s looking forward to this new challenge and will have the luxury of playing in front friends and family on home ice when the Travelers Northern Ontario Curling Club Championship open this Thursday at 7:30pm at the North Bay Granite Club.

Brown with teammates Gavan Jamieson, Steve Decary, and Bobby Ray qualified for the provincial championship by winning their regional competition back in February. All six Northern Ontario regions will be represented by a men’s team and a women’s team this Thursday to Sunday in North Bay.

Round robin games are scheduled for Thursday March 30th at 8:30pm, Friday March 31st at 2:00pm and 7:30pm, and Saturday April 1st at 9:30am and 2:00pm. The top two men’s and women’s teams after round robin will advance to the championship finals on Sunday April 2nd at 10:00am. Spectators are welcome.

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Coldwell Banker Bonspiel Continued…

The Granite Club’s largest bonspiel in over a decade attracted numerous teams of varying experience. Organizers would very much like to thank the rookie teams that worked up the nerves to play in their first bonspiel, and despite not winning on the ice, reported to have had an enjoyable experience.

Last week we reported on the “A” division results, while there was also tremendous playoff action happening in three other categories.

In the “B” division an all North Bay final took place between familiar foes Team Gilbert Waye and Team Serge Palin. Serge Palin, Chris Chartrand, Jeremy Bin, and Kate Sherry took the title.

In the “C” division Team Real Gagnon defeated bonspiel sponsor Team Brad Minogue. Gagnon with Brad Beaver, Bonnie Tweedle, and Brian Eckensviller also beat the defending champions, Team Rediger, in semi-final play.

And it was a long three-game Sunday for Randy Callahan, Brandon Albert, John O’Hara, and Seb Bell who rung off three wins in a row to capture the “D” division title over Team Maltby.

Bobby Ray General Manager North Bay Granite Club