Despite frigid temperatures, the 100 Mile Curling Club welcomed 18 teams to compete in the 2024 Men’s Bonspiel last weekend.
Eugene Gerwing, the club’s president, said the event was a successful affair for the club with 100 Mile curlers joined by teams from Williams Lake, Quesnel and Kamloops. He observed that the cold temperatures kept everyone inside the rink giving the bonspiel a large audience watching from the lounge.
“The ice this year is probably the best ice we’ve ever had. People were a bit surprised because in the past we’ve had some trouble with the ice, so they were happy we had good ice and that resulted in some pretty good curling games,” Gerwing said. “The teams all said it was a good tournament and that they’d return next year.”
As in previous years the bonspiel was divided into A, B and C events with teams competing in each for cash prizes, bragging rights and champion jackets. Gerwing said the competition was lively and friendly throughout the weekend.
When all the rocks were thrown and tallied Team Bisaro from Williams Lake, made up of Morgan Day, Moe Monita, Mark Berg, and skip Ron Bisaro, came first in the A event. Lakecity curlers also reigned supreme in the B event with Team Bowman’s Cordel Weibe, Rob Sutton, Darrell Taylor, and skip Peter Bowman taking the top spot.
“I actually was in the B Event final with them and we had a really good game. They were a good group of guys to curl with,” Gerwing said. “The out-of-town teams are usually pretty good curlers and there’s a lot of them. We had probably seven out-of-town teams competing this year.”
Longtime 100 Mile House curler Ed Ney led his team, including Pat Hamilton, Tom Dall and Lorne Folk, to victory in the C event. Gerwing observed Ney probably already has a closet full of curling jackets he’s collected from winning various club tournaments over the last five decades.
In addition to the good ice conditions, Gerwing credits the popularity of the men’s bonspiel to the fact they give out money for every win. Using the money they get from entries he said they offer up these prizes so everyone has a good time and has a little spending money for the club’s bar.
With the men’s bonspiel now in the rearview mirror, Gerwing and the 100 Mile Curling Club’s Bonspiel Committee are turning their attention to the Doubles Bonspiel. Scheduled for Feb. 9 -11 Gerwing said they’re expecting 24 teams to sign up and that spots are already filling up fast.
“We’ve been advertising it on our website and Facebook page and we probably have about 18 teams signed up already. If people are interested they need to sign up pretty quick,” Gerwing said.
