A men’s team of curlers from Terrace and Kitimat had what they feel was a successful weekend at the Kelly Cup Bonspiel in Prince George last weekend, March 30 to April 2.
The team skip was Greg Morgan from Kitimat and the rest were Terrace players: John Evans as third, Jordan Johnson as second, and Kevin Dodderidge as the lead thrower.
The Morgan rink started out strong with four straight wins against teams from Quesnel, Smithers, and Prince George.
First was an opening win on Thursday night over Pat Mourad from Quesnel. Play continued on Friday with another win over the Scott Sherba team from Prince George and a victory over the Ron Vanderstar rink from Smithers.
On Saturday morning the Morgan rink came up against former Kelly Cup winner, Bill Lim from Prince George.
Evans said they were up two points coming home, when the Lim rink skidded two points in the eighth end to tie it up.
In the tie-breaker end, Lim missed their final throw to leave two Morgan rocks in house, earning them the victory without having to throw their final stone.
That advanced the Morgan rink into the A-final against the Blake King rink from Prince George. It was a close match, with the Morgan rink leading by one point coming home in the last end. But their opponents managed to score two points in the last end, defeating the Terrace/Kitimat men.
But Evans was still positive.
“It was a great bonspiel to play in, we all really enjoyed it,” he said. “The fact that we were able to make it to the final two years in a row was really exciting.”
Evans said that doing so well with a thrown together team speaks volumes for the northwest.
“For a group of four guys that don’t play together throughout the season to be able to put a team together and compete against the big boys is awesome,” he said.
“There are a number of good teams in the Terrace Curling Club that would be able to do just as well, if not better,” he added.
He added that it would have been nice to finish off with a win, and “one of these days [he hopes to] take home the championship.”
There were two other northwest teams in the bonspiel, the Ron Vanderstar rink from Smithers and the Travis Bernhardt rink from Prince Rupert. Other teams came from as far as the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan and northern Alberta.
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