'A' Winners - Team MacCuspic
Donald MacCuspic
|
'B' Winners - Team Gouthro
Kevin Gouthro
|
'C' Winners - Team Windsor
Mel Windsor
|
The premier event of the season at the Schooner Club, the Schooner Open Cash Spiel, was held at the club from February 14th to 16th with a full slate of twelve teams talking part. Teams were representing the Schooner, Sydney and Strait Area Curling Clubs. It was a great weekend of curling and fun and the club was very busy over the three-day event.
Play got underway on Friday evening with all teams seeing their first action, winners of these games staying in the top ‘A’ division and losers moving down to play in ‘B’. The first draw of the evening saw Team Delarenzo take on Team Gouthro and the Stephen Leslie rink went up against Julia Cormier and her team. Delarenzo and Leslie won their respective games. Draw two had Port Hawkesbury’s Jeremy Brow take on Schooner’s Carrie Cress while the other game of that same draw had another Strait Area team, Donnie MacCuspic, take on Sydney junior rink Sophie Budgen. Both Strait Area rinks won those games.
The third and final draw of the evening was essentially a second round game in the ‘A’ division as all teams competing had gotten a bye through round one. In those games, Sydney’s Thomas Drover defeated Kathleen MacAulay’s Junior rink and Fred Gillis defeated Mel Windsor.
Friday was a great start to the spiel with lots of great curling action and lots of great food. Curlers and guests were treated to a variety of dips, desserts and finger foods brought in by various members. A big thank you to everyone who brought something. There was also a bar tab draw on Friday that was won by Team Carrie Cress.
Play got underway early on Saturday and was scheduled to go all day with the final games scheduled for 9:15 that night. Curlers were treated to a light breakfast, soup, chili and sandwiches at lunch and a ham and salad supper to keep them fueled up for the long day. Thank you to everyone who helped out and brought food for everyone to enjoy.
By the end of play on Saturday we would have the teams that would compete in the ‘A’ division and ‘B’ division finals and teams that would play in the ‘C’ division semi-final on Sunday morning for a chance to get into the championship game for that division later that afternoon. The ‘A’ division would see the Fred Gillis Rink facing the Donald MacCuspic rink in the final on Sunday at 2pm. Donald had defeated Jeremy Brow in his second game and then Stephen Leslie to earn his spot while Gillis only needed to defeat the Thomas Drover rink on Saturday to earn his spot in the ‘A’ final. Both Leslie and Drover would play now play in the ‘C’ division semi-final on Sunday morning. Drover would face the Mel Windsor rink who had dropped to ‘C’ after an early loss to Kathleen MacAulay but then defeated Jeremy Brow to stay alive and make it to the semis. Leslie would take on the Julia Cormier rink after Cormier lost to Kevin Gouthro in ‘B’ and then earned her way into the semi-final game against Leslie with a win over the Sophie Budgen rink.
The final match up to be decided for Sunday play would be for the ‘B’ division final. In that game we would see a rematch of one of the first games in the spiel with Kevin Gouthro taking on the Brittni Delarenzo rink. Gouthro had victories over Julia Cormier and Carrie Cress to earn his spot. Gouthro’s intense play was evident when he actually snapped his broom in two while vigorously sweeping a rock, showing the passion and determination some of these curlers have to win. Luckily for Gouthro, he wasn’t injured in the incident. Delarenzo had been dropped down to ‘B’ after a loss early Saturday to Stephen Leslie and then won her only ‘B’ division tilt against Kathleen MacAulay to punch her ticket to the final.
While curling did extend quite late into the evening, that didn’t stop DJ Jimmy from starting the party on time at 9pm. Jimmy played the night away to a big crowd that stayed well into the wee hours of the morning in true Schooner fashion.
Sunday play got underway at 10am with the ‘C’ semi-finals that saw Mel Windsor defeat the Thomas Drover rink to earn the right to take on Julia Cormier in the final who earned her way in by defeating Stephen Leslie. That championship game was set to go at 2pm. The next draw of the day was scheduled to be a single game, the ‘B’ final, but, due to weather concerns for the team travelling to Port Hawkesbury, the ‘A’ final was moved from 2pm to the 12pm time slot. In that ‘A’ final, Donald MacCuspic came out on top and took the overall spiel championship and the $800 first prize. Skip MacCuspic was joined by Mike McNamara, Neil MacNeil and Schooner’s own Russell Fitzgerald. The Fred Gillis rink won $600 as ‘A’ runners up. Fred was joined by Gordie Cormier, Benito Delarenzo and Dan MacDougall. In the ‘B’ championship, Kevin Gouthro was able to make it through a full game with the same broom, turn the tables on the Delarenzo rink from their first meeting in the spiel and take the ‘B’ title. Skip Gouthro had Walter Nichols, Robbie Biron and Douglas Fewer while Brittni Delarenzo had Shane Langille and Meranda Fitzgerald-Bullen aiding her to the ‘B’ runner up position. The ‘C’ final went off at its scheduled time of 2pm and saw Mel Windsor defeat Julia Cormier in an all Schooner tilt. Mel was joined by Keith MacEachern, Bryant Cormier and Bob Smith while skip Julia had Samantha Livingstone, Val MacIntyre and Jenn Haigh. It was nice to see Jenn back at the Schooner again to join us for another event.
So another great cash spiel in the books. It was a fantastic weekend of curling, food and fun at the Schooner Club. We want to send out a big thank you to all teams who took part, especially those who joined us from other clubs and travelled from other areas, to all who helped organize and run the event, to everyone who brought food for everyone to enjoy, to the ice crew for providing great conditions and working hard all weekend to keep the ice in top shape, to the bartenders and all volunteers and to everyone who helped out in any way. A huge thanks goes out to Rusty’s Trading Post for being the sponsor of the event, without the support of local business these types of events would be very hard to run. Lastly, thanks to everyone who joined us this weekend to take in some of the great curling action and help make the weekend even better. We hope to see everyone back again next year for the 2026 Schooner Cash.
Teams and First Draw are Listed Below
Entry Fee is $220 per team
Any Combination of Male and Female Curlers
Limited to 12 teams
All Money Returned in Prizes
Dinner for all Curlers on Saturday
Dance Saturday Night - DJ Jimmy - Open to Everyone 19+
Sponsored by:
Participating Teams
Brittni Delorenzo
|
Donald McCuspic
|