The Yorkton Curling Club (YCC) hosted the Cornerstone Credit Union Ladies Cash Bonspiel, one of the stops on the Sask. Ladies' Curling tour and the LDM Men's Cash Spiel over the weekend.
YCC manager and head icemaker, Neil Wein-master reports 16 women's and 16 men's teams battled for the top prize money in the first major event hosted by the club this season. The event featured some good curling, says Weimaster. "These are all team that will vy for provincials. So they're in the hunt for their CTRS points. There are some excellent teams, all provincial calibre," he adds.
There was lots of young talent visible, especially in the ladies' tour, Weinmaster notes. There was also some experience like Dolores Syrota's team and the Gerry Adam foursome, providing a good mix of youth and experience.
There were six qualifiers in three events. "They take two out of the A, two out of the B and two out of the C and those go into the championship event," Weinmaster explains. The ladies' winner took home $4,000, while the top men's team pocketed $3,400, he reports.
Weinmaster and his staff began putting in the ice about October 1 with curling starting since the middle of the month.
While the year has started well, the club is always looking for more curlers. "We're looking for new members every year to build our membership," Weimaster suggests.
The club has had a management change this season with Weinmaster taking on the role of club manager while staying on as chief icemaker. Karen Hierlihy has also signed on as YCC office secretary, doing the bookwork and accounting. "She's a good assistant who's making things work well here," says Weinmaster.
Weekends are generally reserved for bonspiels at the YCC. Monday evening have the Knights of Colombus and super league curling. Tuesdays the men's and ladies mixed league takes to the ice at 7 p.m. followed by the superleague again. Wednes-day is ladies' night, while Thursday is men's night. Friday is a mixed, fun night. The junior program is offered Sunday afternoons at 1 p.m.
The Cornerstone Credit Union ladies' cash bonspiel was won by the Silvernagel foursome from Meadow Lake. The team of skip Robyn Silvernagel, third Sasha Yole, second Dayna Demmans and lead Christina Goertzen managed to upstage Wadena's Dolores Syr-ota rink 6-4 in the event final to claim the top prize.
Cornerstone Credit Union representative Cliff Trombley says the credit union has been a proud sponsor of the annual ladies event in Yorkton. The Cornerstone Credit Union and its 13 branches support sports in all the communities they serve.
Silvernagel says the weekend went very well for her team. "We were very pleased with ourselves. Everything went how we wanted it to. We played well. Some games went down to extra end, last rock and things just happened to go our way this weekend," she comments.
Silvernagel says the team played fairly conservatively which is their style. They would play a little more aggressively when the opportunity presented itself, she says.
Their strength was playing well together as a team and staying focused, Silvernagel suggests.
She admits she was prepared to play an extra end before all the rocks had been counted in the last end.
This is the first year all four girls played as a team, adding a new lead this season.
The foursome has its sights set on advancing to provincials from the northern playdowns and hopefully claiming the provincial title.
The YCC/LDM Foods Men's Bonsiel winners were the Adam foursome of skip Gerry Adam, third Gerald Shymko, second Jason Tucker and lead Brian Derbowka.
Adam says about a week ago the team played poorly in one of the super league games casting some doubt on their intention to enter the men's cash spiel. Once committed to play, the foursome continued to improve as the weekend wore on.
The Adam team came together at the beginning of the current season. "I thought I'd phone up the old boys Brian and Gerald and get one young guy just for sweeping and we're having a lot of fun," he quips.
Adam reports the final game which went into an extra end was the first full game his rink played all weekend, the other all ending early.
Adam's last shot in the eighth tied the game to send it into an extra end. "Cody made a triple on his first shot to clear all of our stones out of the house. The only shot we had was to sit as close as we could to his in front of the button. I tapped it back far enough to leave a little space there. Cody either had to pick it off the front of ours or try to nose hit it. He was in between and removed all of them," Adam explains.
One of the hardest shots in curling is a freeze. "I didn't make it perfect but good enough to get the blank end," he admits.
He set things up well in the ninth end. In trying to put a guard up, Hartung overcurled about half a stone. Adam couldn't see any of the stone but he believed it would curl in as the ice was fantastic all weekend. "My inturns weren't stellar all weekend. They were a little sketchy I guess you could say but I threw it really good with the proper weight and it curled in hard at the end. Cody missed his draw for the win," Adam explains.
While he hasn't skipped a rink for some time, Adam says he generally plays quite aggressively when he has last rock. "The when you get into trouble, as a skip you have to bail out your team and play a little bit more conservatively when you don't have last rock," he states.
Giving up as few points as one can usually wins a lot of games, Adam says. "The last five games we never gave up probably more than three points in each games," he notes.
Knowing the ice by playing on it is a huge advantage for local rinks and those who've played in Yorkton a lot Adam agrees.
He admits he's very excited about winning his hometown bonspiel. "It doesn't happen too often but this weekend it did, so we're very happy," Adam closes.
YCC secretary Karen Hierlihy presented the winners' cheque for the LDM Foods Men's Bonspiel to the Gerry Adam rink of skip Adam, third Gerald Shymko, second Jason Tucker and lead Brian Derbowka.
