Let the rocks fly
By Doug Graham
Kingston Whig Standard
December 1, 2009
The curling road to the Strathcona Paper Centre, home of the 2010 Napanee Tankard, will officially get started with men's zone competitions being held around southern Ontario this weekend.
The 16 zones are the first of two competitive curling stages to determine eight of the 11 rinks headed to Napanee in February to contest Ontario's representative for the 2010 Halifax Brier.
The Zone 4 competition, which covers rinks from Trenton to Kingston, has 12 rinks in it. Play begins Friday at Tweed's Land O'Lake Curling Club.
"This is something we started back in January (when the Napanee host bid was accepted) and now it's really happening," said Stephen Paul, chair for Tankard Napanee. "The first step is here. Before you know it we will be short listing our teams."
Eight of the 11 rinks slated to play over the week of Feb. 1-7 will come via the route of the zone and regional competions
Two more will come from the East and West Challenge Rounds in mid-January.
One other spot in Napanee is reserved for defending Ontario champion Glenn Howard.
A decision by the OCA last spring decided for the first time the Ontario champion would receive an automatic berth into the provincial field.
Howard, however, is getting ready to play at the Roar of the Rings in Edmonton where Canada's men and women's rinks for the Olympics will be decided.
It means that Howard, if he doesn't win the Olympic men's berth, will be in Napanee in February. If Howard goes on next week to capture the Olympic berth, Peter Corner of Brampton, the runnerup to Howard at Woodstock last February, will be included in the Ontario field.
"We'll be watching to see who comes out and hoping it is one of the Ontario rinks (Howard or Wayne Middaugh)," Paul said.
"Our hope is that an Ontario team qualifies. It may not be best for us but it will be good for Ontario curling."
With 13 of 16 draws for Tankard zones posted by the OCA, only Zone 13 (Hamilton and St. Catharines area) with 13 rinks, had more than the 12 rinks going to Tweed.
In total, there are 107 rinks entered throughout 13 zones with another dozen or so to come from the final three zones which don't have draws up yet.
Considering entries to the men's provincial championship have dropped off over the last few years as the gap between the elite rinks of Howard and Middaugh and the less experienced rinks widens, the Zone 4 turnout is good news for Tankard Napanee.
Making it even better, said Paul, would be having one of the zone rink comes through regional play, Jan. 9-10 at the Quinte Curling Club in Belleville.
Ottawa and area rinks, coming out of zones 1 to 3, will be at the regional.
"We are excited the process has started. We'd love to see a rink out of Zone 4 make it (to Napanee in February)," Paul said.
"We'd love to have a local rink in the field. We're keeping our fingers crossed for that."
The Zone 4 rinks include Napanee's Rob Dickson, playing on the Bryce Rowe rink from Tweed, Paul Dickson from the Napanee Curling Club, Sean Meleschuk of Royal Kingston, Scott Buckley of the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club, and Greg Balsdon, who headquarters his Ontario Curling Tour rink out of the one-sheet Loonie Curling Club north of Kingston.
The other skips in the field are Dave Collyer and Dennis Murray of Quinte, Trenton's Christopher Ciasnocha, Scott Kerr and Paul Aitken, Jim Marshall of Tweed and Josh Adams of Stirling.
Paul sees the number of rinks playing at Tweed as a sign interest in the area is still high for the provincial men's championship.
"That kind of turnout speaks to the calibre of curling we have in the area and it speaks to the hotbed of curling that this area is," Paul said.
While he didn't have a number for advance ticket sale booklets for the provincial championship, Paul said sales have been good.
"Certainly we have exceeded our expectations. Compared to Woodstock (host for the 2009 Tankard), we have exceeded their advance sales," Paul said.
Senior women and men's rinks from the Cataraqui Golf and Country Club won berths out of Zone 4 to advance to regional competition this weekend.
Both the Cataraqui rinks took the B-side berth out of the zone double knockout competition held at their club over the weekend.
Rick Ward's rink of Sandy Staples, Wayne Pickell and Tom Mastantuono defeated Jim Marshall of Trenton to claim its berth in the eight-rink regional Saturday and Sunday at the South Grenville Curling Club in Kemptville.
Bob Ray of Tweed's Land O'Lakes Curling Club went undefeated in the seven-rink field, beating Ward in the A-side final to claim the first berth.
Former Brier skip Bryan Coch - rane of Ottawa Rideau was one of the qualifiers for the senior regional.
Two rinks from the regional will advance to the provincial final in Orillia next month.
In the four-rink senior women's field, Dianne Wylie of Cataraqui lost the A-side final to Trenton's Pauline Bakonyi but bounced back to defeat club-mate Sharon Suddergaard in the B-side final.
The Bakonyi and Wylie rinks move on to the regional at Kemptville.