On February 2-4 Elmira hosted our fifth annual U18 OJCT cash spiel with 16 rinks participating from across southern Ontario to compete for OJCT tour points and for $2600 in prize money available to qualifying teams.
On the womens’ side, in Pool A cumulative draw-to-the-button scores were not required as teams Poluck from Galt Country and Ensing from Elora finished the round robin with matching 2-1 records, but with Erin Ensing earning first place honours via a win over Alison Poluck in draw 3. Similarly, in Pool B, Team Veronica Bernard of Elmira were undefeated at 3-0, followed by Hannah Don from Oshawa at 2-1, and both of these teams qualified for playoffs without the need for tie-breakers.
In the men’s draw, in Pool A, Daniel Del Conte and his rink from Hamilton Victoria finished round-robin play at 3-0, followed by Team Prenevost out of Milton at 2-1. Skip Matthew Prenevost made some outstanding shots during the tournament, including a real pistol: a long angle-runback with his last stone in 8 for the win against Eric Van de Lande from K-W Granite in draw 5. In Pool B, Connor Massey of Bayview finished the round-robin undefeated at 3-0, followed by Alex Flannery of Oakville at 2-1. A close, extra-end finish in draw 6 between Massey and Paige Ballantyne of Bluewater in draw 6 kept all of the B-pool teams and spectators in their seats on the Saturday night, but Massey’s win eliminated both Ballantyne and Peter Naus of East York from the playoffs.
In the cross-over semi-finals, on the women’s side, Alison Poluck defeated Veronica Bernard’s rink out of Elmira in a tight 6-5 game that, after a few misses by both teams in earlier ends, had Alison draw the pin with her final stone in the 8th facing two Bernard stones in the four-foot. In the other semi, Hannah Don defeated Erin Ensing 6-3. On the men’s side, Connor Massey cruised to a 9-4 win over Matthew Prenevost, while Daniel Del Conte similarly cruised to a 8-1 win over Alex Flannery.
In the finals, Alison Poluck and her rink (photograph below) took the championship final 6-4 over Hannah Don, the championship being her first OJCT tour win as a skip. Alison collected the winner’s cheque for $500 and 128.80 OJCT points. The consolation final saw Veronica Bernard defeat Erin Ensing who conceded after 7 ends. On the men’s side, Daniel Del Conte (photograph above) of Hamilton Victoria defeated Connor Massey 7-3, whose entire rink struggled to find draw weight in the final and were limited to three singles. This was Del Conte’s second Elmira championship in the last three years, and earned his rink 137.95 OJCT tour points in addition to the $500 first place cheque. In the consolation final, Matthew Prenevost rebounded from their semi-final loss and defeated Alex Flannery 5-4, earning third place honours in a very close game.
The weekend saw some outstanding play and some great team performances by some teams who will be ones to watch in the coming years. My personal thanks to ice technician Rob Shaw, club manager Jennifer Lipp, Perry Marshall and John Gabel of the OJCT for setting up live scoring on CurlingZone, our Elmira volunteers who helped run the draw and the kitchen during the event, Andrew Paulley for assisting on Friday night and Saturday, and all of the players and coaches. In addition I would like to thank our event sponsors without whose support our event would not be possible:
- Adventure Guide, Waterloo
- Frey Building Contractors, Hawkesville
- Century Group Financial, Kitchener
- Rudow’s Carstar Autobody, Elmira
- Martin’s Mills, Elmira