CALEB NICKERSON
SHAWVILLE Feb. 9, 2020
On Sunday afternoon, the Shawville Community Bonspiel wrapped up for the 45th year, leaving another two weeks of close ends and missed stones in its wake. This year, 46 teams cycled through . . .
the club from Jan. 30 to Feb. 9, divided into eight divisions based on skill.
This year’s bonspiel was in honour of long-time club member and bonspiel volunteer Phyllis Wilson, who started curling at the club in 1977, back in the days of corn brooms and wildly inconsistent ice. She liked it so much she got her membership the next year and has been curling steady, give or take a season, for 40 years. Nowadays she still gets out on the ice three days a week, though she noted that she used to play more.
“You can curl too much, I think,” she said with a grin.
She recalled some of the post-game parties they used to have at the club on Friday nights, back when the curlers doubled as the entertainers.
“We’d be here two or three in the morning, they had a piano here and there was always somebody to play it,” she said. “There was always a member that was on the piano. We had a good time.”
This year’s winners were bonspiel newcomers Cartrites restaurant, made up of skip Kaara Brown, third Bree Barr, second Jayme Hines, lead Ashley Hodgins and spare Grace Sally, who sealed up their victory with a win on Sunday afternoon to take home the prized Toilet Seat Trophy.
Bonspiel organizer Ian MacKechnie thanked those in attendance and stressed how important the event is for keeping the club going.
Following the announcement of the winners and victory speeches, all the participants cycled through the rink to pick out prizes that each team had donated.
