Skip to content

Draws to the button decide Ladies Bonspiel

The first shots made the difference at the end of the Whitehorse Motors Ladies Bonspiel at the Whitehorse Curling Club over the weekend.
ladiescurling

The first shots made the difference at the end of the Whitehorse Motors Ladies Bonspiel at the Whitehorse Curling Club over the weekend.

Before the first games, skips for each team threw one shot for the button to determine winners in the case of a tie.

Those draws to the button decided spots first through fourth.

Team Smallwood took first over second place’s Team White with skip Jody Smallwood having landed her shot smack-dab on the button.

Smallwood was joined by third Joan Ewing, second Paula Nugent and lead Jari Smarch.

“Joan, Jari and I curled together last year as a team, we don’t have a ladies team because I’m doing the mixed and mixed doubles,” said Smallwood. “So it was just a weekend of throwing friends together, going out there and giving it all we’ve got.”

Team White, which also had 53 points in the modified skins format, included skip Marg White, third Carol Richards, second Val Whelan and lead Inge Brown.

Donna Scott, drawing to 76 centimetres from the centre of the button, snapped a tie for third, placing ahead of Team Eby.

Curling with Scott was third Ally Goncalues, second Allison Nette and Vy Tang.

Team Eby - skip Laura Eby, third Deb Enoch, second Janine Peters and lead Lorna Spenner - slipped to fourth.

A total of 14 teams participated in this year’s bonspiel, each playing five six-end games. The modified skins format awarded the winner of an end two points and the losing side one point.

It kept scores fairly close across the board.

“It was ‘ultimate scoring’ so it was a level playing field for everybody,” said Smallwood.

Smallwood and her husband Bob Smallwood will compete this week against just one other team for Yukon’s one spot at the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials.

The Smallwoods reached the quarterfinal of the mixed doubles nationals for the world championships last March.

They also represented Yukon at the 2014 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship in November, narrowly getting edged out in the qualifier. Their mixed team was also the runner-up at the Polar Eyes Cashspiel in Whitehorse at the start of December.

The Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials will take place this March in Ottawa. The 2014 World Mixed Doubles Championship will follow the next month in Dumfries, Scotland.

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com