Carbomspiel

By Paul Savard (1L)

Friday March 12th 2010 started off like any other day, but it wasn’t just any other day. It was the day of the Law Students’ Association annual curling bonspiel, the Carbomspiel at Shamrock Curling Club. With the bus scheduled to leave at 1:30pm sharp, it was an ominous start for the Plaid Shirts as lead John Schmidt arrived late, even VP Sports Raji Deol threatened to leave him behind as he was late even by his standards.

Fortunately the bus managed to arrive on time and teams scrambled to find the best equipment as play got underway. Due to time constraints and a field expanded to 16 teams, the schedule consisted of 4 groups for 3 two-end games of round robin play. Group winners then emerged to play a semi-final and final.

Within Group A, Team Ghostbusters got lost on the way from the lobby to the ice, but were eventually found in the lounge and the first game got started. Unfortunately, the efforts of Jorge Piñata, Geoff Geldart, and Lamont Bartlett were not enough without skip Alex Russell and they dropped their first match. Using Jorge’s tremendous takeout weight they tied the Angry Crackers, ultimately finishing with a 0-2-1 record. Leadership by Lance ‘McSweep’ McClean and superb sweeping by David Archibold and Chris Younker contributed to some amazing shots by team MVP Cara Patterson. Meanwhile, the In Turns, consisting of Kirsten Burrows, Megan Dawson, Kat Samaras and skip Andrea Piercy, were not only voted the best looking team and awarded the wine prize pack, they were able to compile a record of 1-1-1. The group winner was decided before the first broom hit the ice and the plaid clad team of John Schmidt, Barry Loutit, Ky Kvisle, and Paul Savard cruised into the semi-finals with a 2-0-1 record.

Group B consisted of Team K-Mac, Team Sharkey, Team Blanc, and Team Bennett. Unfortunately, Team Sharkey (Jordan Sharkey, Brandon Mewhort, Scott Matheson, and Matt LaFleche) had trouble seeing with their costume and dropped their first two games, but manage to qualify for the E Final. Whereas, Team Blanc consisting of Jay White, Lindsay Ross, Scott Nicol, and Laura Young lost a couple heartbreakers, even with the mighty takeout abilities of Laura Young. I would argue that Team K-Mac was one of the better themed teams with their Hawaiian shirts and carefree attitudes. But even with Mr. Trevor Goulet and his circus shots, teammates Kyle MacLeod, Paul Govenlock, and Blake Hafso weren’t able to outduel Robin Bennett, Sean Van Der Lee, Chris Nam, and Dave Cumming.

Group C was the most balanced of the four pools with each team having a 1-1 record after the first two games. The ladies in green, Dana Skorenki, Trish Hankinson, Tina Heinz, and Shannon Mather fought hard, but did not advance. Rumor has it Dana did have a double takeout, but that was still in dispute at press time (editor: confirmed). The Tim foursome weren’t able to translate Tim Smythe’s indoor court prowess to the ice. The rest of the team, all ringers, were easily hitting the T-line. At the end of round robin it was Jay Geers, Steve Rohatyn, Joe O’Kurley, and a ringer (Coach) tied with Dallas Sopko, Justin Sherman, Ace Espejo, and Jordan Mertz at a 2-1 record. With a better point differential Team Geers was able to claim the second last playoff spot. At this point, Sopko attempted to pull a Queen’s, but he was unable to find the bulletin board to cross out “Geers” and write in “Sopko.”

Group D consisted of Team Wiedman, Team Iceland, the Trailer Park Boys, and Team Grewal. Details are sketchy, but Team Wiedman managed to qualify for the playoffs thanks in large part to the corner guards of Britt Burton. Meanwhile, Jason Kully had trouble getting his weight under control. Leadership provided by A.L.K was only O.K. as the Iceland team was dominated by the Trailer Park Boys with controlled draws by Katie Rowe and a solid double takeout by Mr. Jason Buttuls. Michelle McGuiness and Adam Sopka demonstrated moments of brilliance, but unfortunately came up short for the playoffs. I’m not sure exactly what happened with the final team in Group D – Marc Yu, Kam Grewal, and Winston Moh were without the services of Graham Semeniuk. In their first game against team Iceland, lead Raj Deol had a terrible first shot and chose to abandon his blonde-haired teammates and join the enemy in order to form the first ever fully-ethnic curling team. In an ironic twist of fate, he would help score two for Team Color in what would be their first and only victory.

Semi-final #1 featured two of the fiercest competing teams. Surprisingly, Team Wiedman made relatively short work of Team Geers. Unsurprisingly, Jay Geers, Steve Rohatyn, Joe O’Kurley, and their alternate were the last ones to emerge from the scheduled lunch break. In classic curling style the lunch featured beer and fried food for all.

Semi-final #2 was a real showdown. Once again Sean Van Der Lee proved that men with mustaches excel at Canadian sports, through his decision and shot-making abilities. That, in combination with Bennett’s attempts at intimidating his 1L opponents, made this an extremely difficult game for the favorites. To counter, Savard (me) and company managed to steal one in the first, before setting things up for Barry Loutit in the 2nd. Mr. Loutit managed to stay standing long enough to hit the shot of the game, a double takeout keeping the shooter to put the game out of reach for Bennett’s men.

With the bus due to arrive shortly, the curling executive determined that a one end final would have to do. As a result, the coin flip had added importance to decide who would get the one and only hammer for the 2010 championship. The suspense was incredible as the coin was tossed… heads was called … it was tails. Team Wiedman had the hammer, the game looked bleak for the team in plaid. But as we struggled to keep the buttons on our shirts done up, we kept hitting the button with our shots keeping the pressure on. Finally, it came down to a raise by Skip Jeff Wiedman for the win… he missed.

Victory never tasted so sweet (editor’s note: and never looked so appalling).

At the awards Jessica Proudfoot was recognized (ironically) for her lack of surefootedness and received a bottle of wine for her efforts.

I would like to thank the staff at the Shamrock letting us use their facility and Raj Deol for organizing the event.