By Blair Braitenbach and
Bruce Campbell
Staff reporters
This weekend’s Okotoks men’s bonspiel marks not only a highly anticipated curling event in itself, but also the final leg of the Community Savings Triple Crown.
Beginning today (March 26) and running until Sunday, the bonspiel will have a full house of 48 rinks vying for curling glory — 24 of those being Triple Crown entrants.
According to Brad Culp, skip of last year’s Triple Crown championship-winning rink, what makes the three-tournament event so exciting is virtually anyone has a chance to win based on its point system. In the Triple Crown, curlers received five points for each victory at the Black Diamond bonspiel and 10 points for each win in High River and will receive 15 points for each win in Okotoks.
“(The title) is not unattainable that’s for sure,” said Culp, whose High River rink is currently sitting tied for fourth with four others in the Triple Crown. “The chance is there to do that, but it just depends on how the two rinks ahead of us fair.”
Culp’s rink — which consists of himself; Hal Henderson, third; Terry Burgess, second; Andre Fagan, lead; and Rob Stier, alternate — is 30 points behind the first place Hugh Quigley rink out of Okotoks, but he knows first hand that anything can happen this week. Last year Culp was sitting in eighth place going into the final round of the Triple Crown, however, after accumulating a number of wins in the final Okotoks bonspiel, he managed to take home the championship by five points.
“The ones ahead maybe didn’t have as good of luck with their games and we had only really lost the one game,” Culp said.
Going into the Okotoks bonspiel, the Quigley rink is in first place with 70 points; the Bryan Hill rink from Calgary is in second with 55 points; the Aaron Grant rink from Okotoks is in third with 45 points; and Culp, Okotoks’ Wayne Rowland, Nanton’s Brian Brown, High River’s John Steel and Kevin Muir’s rinks are in a five-way tie for fourth with 40 points each.
There will be two draws each night at the bonspiel until the weekend where there will be curling all day and the finals taking place on Sunday.
High River mixed
curling
The best mixed curling teams in the province are heading to High River this weekend.
The Highwood Curling Club is hosting the Alberta Mixed Championships March 26-30.
Youth will be served at the mixed bonspiel.
“There are a lot of young curlers this year,” said John Steel, manager of the Highwood Club. “Brock Virtue (skip from Lethbridge) was a member of the team that won the world junior championships last year.”
As well, Dustin Ecstrand from Red Deer is a former Canadian Junior curling champion.
There are eight rinks entered in the championships. The winner will curl in the national mixed championships in November.
There is no entry fee to watch the curling in High River this weekend and the final is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
The Highwood Curling Club is on a roll. Next year, it will host the Alberta Masters championships and in 2010 or 2011 it will host the Alberta Men’s final.
Curling fans can follow the Alberta Mixed Curling championships at www.highwoodcurling.ca
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