The semi-final and final draw of the Elmira OJCT cash spiel at the Elmira and District Curling Club took place on Sunday, 24 November with the top two teams in each pool qualifying for the playoff round.
Semi-finals
In the boys draw, the semi-finals featured Parry Sound’s Adam Walker against Huntley’s Ryan Hahn, and Elmira’s Andrew Paulley against Jacob Delisle of Dixie. On the girls side, Thea Coburn of Toronto High Park was pitted against Grace Lloyd of Uxbridge on sheet 1, while on sheet 3 Chelsea Reimer of Dundas Valley went up against Mackenzie Kiemele of Niagara Falls.
To qualify for the playoffs, Thea Coburn of High Park executed the shot of the weekend in the eighth and final end of her last round-robin game in Pool B against Kiemele of Niagara Falls. Tied in 8 but without last rock, Coburn faced a wall of stones in front of the rings with Kiemele lying one in the four-foot. There was, however, the narrowest of ports on the center line. With no time-outs remaining, Coburn decided the normal-weight hit through the hole was her only shot, put down the broom, and went to throw with the entire audience on the edge of their seats, including Team Clendenan of Port Carling and their supporters who could still qualify depending on the game’s outcome. But Thea was up to the challenge and threw a pistol, negotiating the port with perhaps an inch on either side and made the hit to lie 2. That shot left Kiemele a very difficult angle-raise double-takeout for 3 and the win, but her stone did not curl enough and gave Coburn a steal of one and the victory.
In the semis, Walker and Paulley emerged with victories to put them in the championship final, whereas Reimer defeated Kiemele 8-3 and Lloyd edged Coburn 7-6.
Finals
In the boys’ championship final, Adam Walker edged Andrew Paulley of Elmira 6-4 with a measure in the 8th end deciding the winner. In the girls’ final, Lloyd tied Reimer 4-4 with a single in the 7th on a measure, and then stole a single in 8 for the win in a very close, competitive game. In the consolation games, Coburn defeated Kiemele 10-4 for third place in the girls draw, whereas Delisle of Dixie defeated Hahn of Huntley 11-5 for a third place finish.
The winning teams are:
- Boys: Team Walker of the Parry Sound Curling Club. Skip Adam Walker, third Liam Thompson, second Tyler Marshall, lead Mackenzie Marshall, and coached by Laura Thompson.
- Girls: Team Lloyd of the Uxbridge Curling Club. Skip Grace Lloyd, third Brittany Heaslip, second Laura Boost, lead Lauren Pereira, alternate Raphaela Keiser, and coach Katherine Brown.
A special thank-you to Sue Furey of Adventure Guide, sponsor of the boys’ draw, for being at the club Sunday afternoon to present cheques to the winning rinks.
I would like to thank all of the parents, coaches, and other supporters for coming out to the club to support their teams, some of them from a considerable distance – we had a great crowd to watch some entertaining games by these young players. I would also like to thank the players for their patience and excellent sportsmanship throughout the weekend.
In addition I’d like to thank our sponsors: Adventure Guide of Waterloo, Frey Building Contractors of Hawksville, and Programmed Insurance Brokers and Martin Mills of Elmira. My gratitude to Rob Shaw, our resident ice-maker, and to my assistants throughout the weekend: Colleen Coghlin, Leslie Cornwell, Stan Sitts, Sue Martin, Deb Wells, and Marc Bernard. Also thanks to Matt Wilkinson and Wes Johnson of the OJCT for their assistance and support, particularly to Wes who enabled us to provide live scoring of all games through the weekend.
We are extremely pleased with the success of this event and we are committed to hold this event again in the 2014-2015 season.
