The drive for five by Mike Hutchings at the St. Albert OK Tire Men’s Bonspiel ended in Sunday’s final against a touring South Korean rink on the road to the 2013 Winter Universiade Games.
Hutchings, winner of the last four men’s bonspiels at the St. Albert Curling Club, watched as skip Chang-Min Kim executed a hit and stick with the last shot in the eighth end to give up a steal of one in the 9-8 win.
“They executed better than we did in some crucial ends,” Hutchings said after the teams shook hands. “We played really well in the first half and then we had two bad ends. I think we outplayed them, even in the last two ends we outplayed them, we just kind of fell asleep in the fifth and sixth and you can’t do that against a team like that. They’re pretty strong.”
A steal of four in five pushed Kim in front 7-5 and in the next end settled for steal of two after a measurement for three was unsuccessful.
“They played really well. That fifth end we were lucky. The opposition made a little mistake, which led to four,” Kim said.
After the Boreal Laser Inc. foursome of Hutchings, third Matt Willerton (filling in for Brian McPherson) and sweepers Chris King and Derek Skarban scored a deuce in three to lead 5-2, Kim replied with one in four before capitalizing on a variety of miscues in the next two ends.
“We couldn’t put rocks in the right places and they made us pay for it,” Hutchings said. “The fifth end was bad but in the sixth end we were only down two and we weren't out of the game by any stretch of the imagination. If we bounce back and have a good end there and get two or three we’re right back in control of the game. We had our chances but it didn’t work out.”
Hutchings got back on track with a draw for two in seven and in eight was positioned to tie it at nine apiece, but Kim opted to remove the second counter at the back of the rings instead of the shot rock around the button that was partially guarded to end the suspense.
“It was pretty good win for us,” Kim said. “The ice is so straight and it’s fast so it was hard to adjust to this ice.”
Kim’s rink of third Min-Chan Kim, second Se-Hyeon Seong and lead Seon-Young Seo pocketed $600 for the win and $1,300 overall while going 5-0 in the 30-team competition.
“It was fun. We enjoyed our time here. We meet many guys on the teams, really good guys,” Kim said.
The Koreans knocked off Appleman, Rubin, Fleming and Haggith for a berth in the final.
“It’s great experience for us in this bonspiel. We learn many things,” Kim said. “We need the experience from the many games we play against younger age, older age curlers. They have experience at curling.”
The Koreans are sharpening their skills in Canada before the Winter Universiade starts Dec. 11 in Trention, Italy. The last bonspiel is this weekend’s World Curling Tour event in Spruce Grove.
“In Canada we play in many cash spiels. It’s great experience for us,” said Kim, the oldest of the four university students on the team at age 27. “This is five weeks for us now. We have 10 days left then we go back to Korea and rest and then go to Italy.”
Kim estimates there are only 500 curlers in South Korea, including his dad who steered him towards the roaring game.
“It’s a new sport in Korea. That’s why we learn every day in every game curling against people who enjoy curling.”
Hutching was impressed by the calibre of curling by the Koreans.
“It was a pretty traditional game they called. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary that surprised us that caught us off guard,” said the Bellerose Composite High School teacher. “We’ve never played against an international team like that of any sorts so it was interesting. From the get-go in the spiel, we said if they make it and we make it then it would be cool to play them to see what we could do and we held our own against them, we just missed a couple of key shots.”
The Big Rock Edmonton Super League rink – 3-4 with McPherson on board at second – banked $200 for the loss and $675 overall after beating Hafso, Jenkyns, Maschmeyer and Ferbey en route to the final.
“In the semifinal (against Ferbey) this morning we were up three playing the last end. We had total control if it. The other three games we never made it past six ends,” said Hutchings, who polished off Doug McLennan of St. Albert in the last two finals by scores of 6-5 in an extra end and 3-2 with slightly different lineups both teams.
Last year the Morinville-based rink lost two of the three qualifiers at northerns to go to provincials.
“We always use this bonspiel as kind of a tune-up to get ready for playdowns and it was mission accomplished. The guys played extremely well all weekend long and I think things are looking up as we get into playdowns,” Hutchings said.
HOG LINES: In the B final Sweeny beat Rouault in an extra end for a payout of $530 and Kravontka upset Lewis in the C final to claim $410.
