The Burntwood Curling Club’s men’s open bonspiel March 16-18 didn’t have a lot of entries but those that did compete had a good time, with the squad skipped by Jared Schumann from Gillam taking top spot overall.
Schumann’s team, which includes third Trent Meston, second Andrew Briscoe and lead Al Meston, beat Jim Davidson’s team in the final, while Sean McKenzie’s squad finished third in the A event.
The B event trophy went to the team of skip Jonathan Sawatzky, third Matt Violot, second Jack Bauer and lead Curtis Briscoe, who beat the Kevin parson foursome in the final, with Grant Brown’s squad winding up third.
Skip Brian Lundmark, third Troy Millar, second Darren Queen and lead Steve Allen were the winners of the C event, prevailing over Ed McTavish’s team in the final. Jeff Ziemanski’s team was third in that event.
The D event title went to skip Gary Adams, third Konrad Jonasson, second Ken Ranward and lead Derek Coggan, who beat the Churchill team skipped by Luke Spence for the trophy. Kirk Cordell’s team from Gillam finished third in the D event.
There were 13 teams competing overall, including the three from out of town, said former Burntwood Curling Club and Curl Manitoba president Sam Antila.
“All in all it was a really good event,” he said. “Everybody seemed to be really happy that participated."
The bonspiel came just a few days after the conclusion of the 2018 Manitoba Winter Games, which were a boon for the curling club’s facilities, as they received new lighting, a new paint job inside the ice plant shed, new scoreboards and two new sets of hacks as well as measuring device. Prior to the games, an ice technician came up for a few days of training with the club’s ice maker and ice chair.
“That really improved our ice,” said Antila, with some of the games participants saying it was the best ice they’d curled on in the province this year.
The games curling competitions wouldn’t have come off as well as they did had it not been for some outside help, including a local business that assisted with the replacement of the club’s hot water tank, which bit the dust two days before the start of the games. The Burntwood Curling Club was also assisted by Curl Manitoba, which lent the club an ice scraper to replace the club’s, which is out of commission.
“I don’t know what we would have done without that,” said Antila, though Gillam did offer to lend out theirs.
Mixed playoffs wrapped up March 23, with Team Antila winning the A square, Team Adams winning the B square, Team Hogan taking the C square, and Team Lychuk, Team Lounsbury and Team Romanow winning the D, E and F squares, respectively. There were 24 teams in the league and the playoffs took place over the course of two weeks.
“We had a really good year, lots of new curlers and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves,” said Antila, who hopes next season will be as good or better for the mixed league, which had 24 teams this year. “Hopefully we have as many as this year. If we could get back to 36 it would be good.”
Curling is winding down with just the Vale bonspiel and more league playoffs to go before the end of the season.
“It’s been a really busy year and really productive year,” Antila said.
