King curlers salute Oktoberfest, play at championships

October 22, 2013 · 0 Comments

Curling Club members, John Hackner, Doug Groombridge, Bob Belcher, Wilf Robinson and Dave Swackhammer represented the King Curling Club recently at the Zone 9 Playdowns for the 2013 Dominion Curling Club Men’s Championships. The team earned the honour to represent their club by winning the club championships last year.

By Shellee Morning
Traditionally this time of year, Germany, as well as many other countries around the world, are in celebration of Oktoberfest.
This festival can last up to 16 days and where few things have changed since the event began over 100 years ago. One tradition that has not changed over the years is the Beer and the Cheer.
For King Curling Club members, the tradition carried on as the Friday night Mixed Social league got into the spirit with “oompah-pah” and “prost” which was happily shared amongst the Friday’s crew down on the ice and then well after the game’s handshakes.
The scoreboard reflected some very interesting games during the third week of play where some contests were no match against their opponents. On the early draw, Team Kyle Barber met Team Scott Gilpin in what seemed like a balanced challenged for the pair of Skips in the early part of the game. The end for end contest was much closer than the 10-4 score as Team Barber was able to collect a few multiple scoring ends to keep it close late in the game.
A paper thin miss by Skip Gilpin in the final end allowed Team Barber to collect 4 points and seal the victory.
Lady Skip Hilary Sutherland gave league leader Team Dave Barber a run for his money on sheet one. Neighbouring curlers kept a close watch on the pair as the house featured many rocks in play, requiring some fairly creative shot making by both teams. It was Barber’s team of Ron Ivany, Miriam Firth and Margaret Ann Smith taking over with control and sweeping into the win column scoring 9-7.
In other action, Team Groombridge made a statement against Team Duffy in their first meeting of the season confidently posting a 7-3 decision, while Team Stronach won by default over Team Lus.

Dominion Club Championships

King Curling was well represented last Saturday at the Zone 9 Playdowns for the 2013 Dominion Curling Club Men’s Championships held at the Barrie Curling Club.
Team Belcher earned the honour of representing King by winning the Men’s League Club Championships last year. Thirteen teams participated in the event in hopes of moving onto the Ontario Championships then eventually to the Men’s’ Canadian Curling Club Championships in Thunder Bay later on in December.
Skip Bob Belcher, Vice Doug Groombridge, Second John Hackner, Lead Dave Swackhammer, and alternate Wilf Robinson competed enthusiastically throughout the distinguished tournament collecting their fair share of take-outs and timely draws. Although the scoreboard was not in their favour and continue their quest to the next round, the Belcher Team would like to thank the many members of King for their support and well wishes.
The Monday night Men’s League has a wealth of talented curlers producing some very premium curling every Monday evening. The games are well under way this season and as the leader board indicates the quality of curling already, the journey to determine next year’s representative’s promises to be a very exciting season for the men of King.