The viewing room at the Shawville Curling Club was busy all day Saturday as 12 teams competed in the 44th annual Farmers Bonspiel. However, a quick scan of the room revealed not everyone there was a farmer.
Eric Smith, who has organized the tournament for years, laughed when he was asked if you had to be a farmer to be in the tournament.
“As long as you’ve chewed on a piece of hay or straw, you can play in this,” Smith said, attributing the statement to Jerry Barber, another curler.
Smith said when the tournament started, just about everyone who curled was a farmer anyway.
“When this started 43 years ago, there were a lot of farmers,” Smith said. “We had 100 milk producers, and now there’s about 14.”
He said now, with fewer farmers around, the tournament hangs onto the name to honour tradition.
“No, we don’t care,” Smith said. “We just go and play and have fun. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever farmed or not.”
The winners of the tournament’s early draw division were Bert Murphy, Darleen Murphy, Laura Murray Barber and Peter Haughton, each awarded a $25 gift certificate for the curling club bar.
The winners of the late draw division were John Campbell, Parnell Paschal, Jocelyn Paschal and Vaughan Bastien. They also received a gift certificate for the bar, along with the honour of getting their names on the tournament’s Plow Point Trophy, presented by Phyllis Wilson, whose late husband started the trophy tradition.
Jocelyn Paschal grew up curling in Manitoba before moving to the Pontiac in 2020. This was her third time participating in the bonspiel. She and her husband have a small hobby farm outside Shawville.
“It’s always so much fun,” Paschal said. “I love that the community comes together and supports one another. They’ve been so welcoming since we moved to the community.”
