The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Last weekend at Willowpark, the men's Zone 13 curling playdowns were held with six teams from Flin Flon, one from Snow Lake, and three from The Pas. There were generally good crowds watching the games, and those who did come out saw some great curling. Very few games were lopsided. Most of the curlers who participated looked like they belonged in that caliber of play. The first draw on Friday afternoon, January 15 at 2:00 p.m. saw Craig defeat Leifso, Holmes over Switzer, and Blatherwick over Hjermastad of The Pas. Friday night's draw at 8:30 saw Holmes over Tower of Snow Lake, Sattelberger over Craig, Gogal over Reeves of The Pas and Kozlowski of The Pas over Blatherwick. On Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Craig defeated Hjermestad, Blatherwick defeated Leifso and Switzer defeated Reeves. The A-side semi-finals went at 12:30 with Sattelberger playing and defeating Holmes and Gogal playing and defeating Kozlowski. The A-final then had Sattelberger playing Gogal. Both these local skips graduated from the ranks of the junior curlers: Sattelberger from the Ross Lake Curling Club and Gogal from the Uptown Curling Club. There were many great shots made by both teams, with Gogal defeating Sattelberger to win the A-side. The draw on Saturday night at 8:00 saw Gogal defeat Craig, Sattelberger defeat Switzer, Blatherwick defeated Holmes, and Tower defeated Kozlowski. Sunday morning at 9:00 were the semi-finals in the B-side. Again Sattelberger and Gogal squared off with Gogal leading after six ends by two. Sattelberger got one in the seventh, and Gogal got two in the eighth to make the score 7 to 4. Then Gogal stole one in the ninth and ran Sattelberger out of rocks. It was a good game to watch with both teams making great shots. In the other semi-final Tower defeated Blatherwick in a shortened version of the game. The A/B-final took place at 12:30 on Sunday afternoon with the game seesawing back and forth. It was tied up in the ninth end but with his last rock, Tower made a fantastic shot through a port to take the win and force another game because Gogal had to be beaten twice, being the A-side winner. Again, anyone who saw the game would agree it was too bad there had to be a loser because the game was tied in the ninth end although Tower had a 4 - 0 lead at one time. This time Gogal had his rocks set up so well that he forced Tower to draw to the pimple which Gogal had partially covered, and Tower came up about an inch too short. Blaine Gogal's team of Jim Quinn, Vinny Morran, and Russ Reeves will be joining the Bob Bensen team in Brandon in February at the Safeway Select provincial playdowns. Bensen won the floater spot at a spiel in The Pas. The North will be well represented! In further curling news, don't forget the seniors bonspiel coming up the weekend of January 23, 24 and 25 at Willowpark. The opening draw and personnel of the rinks will be in Thursday's paper!
