Mike Hutchings was smooth as ice at the St. Albert OK Tire Men’s Bonspiel.
In Sunday’s A-event final Hutchings’ draw to the four foot with last shot in the extra end defeated Doug McLennan 6-5.
McLennan was counting one when Hutchings delivered the game-winning point.
“I just wanted to hit the eight foot. It was a draw that we’ve made all weekend long. I’ve had pretty good draw weight so there was no hesitation on the call. No worries, no concerns of making it at all,” said Hutchings.
His Boreal Laser Inc. foursome of third Chris King (filling in for the injured Bryan Connell), second Brian McPherson and lead Derek Skarban pocketed $580 for the win and $1,055 in prize money at the 32-rink competition with a waiting list of hopefuls.
It was also the fourth straight St. Albert bonspiel title for Hutchings with a slightly different line-up every time.
“It’s pretty crazy actually,” Hutchings said. “It’s something we tried for but didn’t really expect. It’s a hard bonspiel to win but, as it has been in years past, it’s kind of our warm-up leading in to the playdown season. Our goal is to come in and play well and if we win, great.”
The final was a rematch of last year’s low-scoring 3-2 win by Hutchings when McLennan missed a tricky tap back with the hammer in the eighth and last end.
“I’ve had a lot of people’s number over the years and it seems like Mikey’s got mine,” McLennan said. “Last year the game was a little more messy with a lot of misses. This time around there was a lot better shooting going on by both sides.”
McLennan’s 50-plus senior playdown rink of third Wilf Gunderson, second Dave Klatchuk (subbing for Don Johnston) and lead John McKenzie gave the Big Rock Edmonton Super League team all it could handle.
“Doug and his guys played well. It was a battle the whole way,” Hutchings said. “We played well the first half but we really, really played well in the second half. We kind of set some objectives for each end and accomplished them all the way through for the last five ends.”
McLennan won the toss and opened the scoring with a deuce and Hutchings matched the two spot the next end with some slick shooting.
McLennan regained the lead with a draw for two in three.
Hutchings settled for one in four after the possibility of a big end went sideways for the Bellerose Composite High School teacher.
McLennan blanked the fifth with a hit and roll and the next end gave up a steal of one after some rare misses by the back-end tandem.
“We got complete control of that thing but the sixth end went a little south on us,” McLennan said. “If we score one you’re playing seven two up and with the way everybody is playing two up playing seven means you’re probably coming home with brick or better.”
Down by one without last rock, Hutchings’ game plan was to steal the tying point.
“We went really aggressively at the steal and managed to get that steal and I think that was the turning point,” said the 1999 provincial high school champion representing Morinville Community High School.
Both teams then traded singles to force an extra end. McLennan’s last shot in eight, a delicate tap back through traffic, kept his team in the hunt.
“The boys had to grind on it a little bit but it was nice for Mikey to set that up for me. If he was three feet higher (with his last shot to clog up the middle) it would’ve been really tough to get in there,” McLennan said.
With no shot clock in play, both teams spent prolonged periods of time throughout the match deciding what to throw.
“I told Mikey on one of those deliberations that by the time I get to throw I’m going to be in masters,” McLennan said with a grin. “We usually don’t take that much time but when you’re having a real fun game with a lot of stuff going on, you’ve got to check it all over. It might be the definition of respect because both guys don’t want to put it someplace because they know the abilities of the other guy so they took a little longer.”
McLennan’s Tuesday night league rink defeated Zutz, Guidinger, Lycko and Haggith in the semifinal for a return trip to the final.
Hutchings swept past Sterling, Rubin, Hoover and Pfeifer in the semifinal for another shot at the title.
“We got better and better and better as the weekend went and that’s what we were looking for. It’s great to win but our goal is the playdowns,” Hutchings said. “The quarter-final game against Trevor Hoover was real good. We played extremely well and got lucky to beat them on last rock. Our semifinal game we played very, very well too. The score ended up close but we had control all the way through and ran them out of rocks.”
