After four days of curling at the 49th Shawville Community Bonspiel, local team Les Glorieux took home first place and the prized toilet seat trophy.
The team won a tournament-high 40 points, meaning that they won five out of six ends in each of the two games they played. Club president Roger Younge said it was a solid performance against tough competition.
“It was a pretty domineering performance,” said Younge. “I looked at the teams they were up against and there were some teams that were pretty good.”
Skip René Cousineau said the team had never played together before the bonspiel, so he was surprised by the result.
“We were just sitting around the table after a game, I think it was last Tuesday, and Jacques said, ‘Let’s enter a team,’” he said.
The bonspiel drew 42 teams, separated into seven different divisions according to their skill level. Other division winners included Bonnieshade Farms, Hynes Paving, Quyon Lions, Wishful Thinkers, Traceys, and the Shawville-Clarendon Fire Department.
At the start of the season, the club wasn’t sure if the bonspiel would go ahead. An ice plant malfunction a few weeks into the season forced an ice shutdown while the club waited for a replacement part.
Younge said the club was happy with the turnout given the short timeline they had to put everything together.
“We were really pleased. We were at 42 teams, that’s about the same place we’ve been at the last few years, and for us to have pulled that together with just a few weeks to prepare was very impressive,” he said.
The club dedicated this year’s bonspiel to Laurie Barber, a longtime daytime curler who passed away suddenly in December 2025. Younge said the club decided to hold the bonspiel in her memory due in part to the sudden nature of her passing and the positive impact she had on the club.
“We were all so shocked, because she was such a vibrant member of the club and she was the last person we expected,” he said on Saturday before unveiling the plaque. “We’re going to post this [plaque] in memory of her so that we can all remember her, and her spirit can be here with us when we’re having a good time curling.”
As the club’s season nears its end, Younge said the board feels much better about the financial situation than at the start of the year. At the emergency meeting held in November, Younge called on members to help find alternative sources of income for the club, and he said they have responded to the call.
Through a $23,000 grant from the MRC, $12,000 in donations in Laurie Barber’s name as well as other donations from various Lions clubs, private donations and the chili cook-offs organized by Thursday curlers, Younge said the club has raised over $50,000.
“That was basically why I had the meeting, to say, ‘If we don’t get help, we’re going to be in a tough bind,” he said.
