St. Albert skip Ferd Caron was popping champagne corks after Sunday’s A final in the Solo Liquor Stores Mixed Bonspiel.
“It’s my first win in 27 tries. I’ve come close many times. I’ve won the odd event but this is the first time we won the tournament so I’m pretty pleased,” said the longtime St. Albert Curling Club member.
Caron’s rink of third Wendy Millan, second Neil McKay – an honorary life member at the St. Albert club – and lead Rica Caron polished off Dave Rogers in seven ends.
“We had our draw weight down real nice today and it made a difference. We were able to make some guards and that’s important for a skip to make guards, always,” said Caron, the 2015 runner-up in the President’s Cup mixed St. Albert playoffs.
The final brought together good friends on both Friday night teams in the St. Albert mixed league.
“We’ve been curling against each other for years and for some of us since high school actually,” said Rogers.
His lineup consisted of third Susan Bell, second Bob Smith, subbing for the injured Jeff Wilson, and lead Sandy Sadoway, filling in for Pam Rogers.
“We’ve never been in the A final before. We’ve been in the C and the B maybe but never in the A so this was very exciting for us,” Rogers said. “We got on a roll in the tournament this weekend. We’ve got three ties and one win (in league play) so we’re having a very poor year and this was very rewarding.”
Steals of one in the third and sixth ends was followed by four more in seven by Caron before the curlers shook hands with the score 10-2.
“It was a real tight game for the first four ends. Dave and his team made some excellent shots and then the ice (on sheet two) sort of changed and they struggled with the ice a little bit. We kind of stuck with it and we were able to manage it and squeak out a win,” Caron said.
The final was too close to call deadlocked at four after four ends, when the Caron foursome got rocks in play early and Rogers was unable to find to penetrate the house to limit the damage.
“It was a close game right up until the fifth end and then we had kind of a mental lapse and Ferd took advantage of it,” Rogers said. “Ferd is a good player and has a good team, so no surprise there.”
Rogers and company rattled off four wins a row, including a semifinal decision against Team Forbes, last year’s finalist, before bowing out to Caron in the grand finale of the 24-rink draw.
“The breaks just seemed to go our way. We were curling well and then we got a few breaks from other teams that we were able to take advantage of,” Rogers said. “I wouldn’t say it was smooth sailing because there was a lot of good teams that we played against, we just took advantage of the breaks we got.”
Caron pulled off some impressive victories to finish 4-0.
“We were successful in beating Doug McLennan, a past winner several times, and Wilf Gunderson, he was a past winner several times too, so we didn’t have the easy road. That’s two past winners we had to get by,” Caron said.
When asked if he prefers mixed or men’s, Caron replied: “They’re two very different games. It’s finesse with the mixed, where you have to have your weights. In men’s it’s more of a takeout game and hitting and angles,” said the skip of the second-place rink in the Friday night mixed league.
“I just love curling, especially bonspiels. It makes for an entertaining weekend and I get to curl with my wife and friends so it’s all good.”
