Curlers from around the Kootenays and as far away as Abbotsford swept into the Beaver Valley Curling Club for it’s annual men’s bonspiel on the weekend.
Over 30 men’s teams competed for the big prize at the curling rink in Fruitvale and when the stones settled on Sunday it was Marcus Partridge’s fabulous foursome made up of third Peter Sheets, second Brian Cusator and lead Don Catalano that slid away with the Men’s A title.
In the A final matchup against Balfour’s Boyce rink, the two sides traded points much of the match with Partridge up by one and holding hammer going into the final end.
The Boyce rink had to steal one to tie it and force extras or two to win it outright. On his first rock, skip Rick Cutler tapped Partridge’s stone back to sit two with cover, and leaving the B.V. rink in a precarious position.
Partridge needed to make a difficult draw around the guard and either tap Boyce back or sit on the button for shot rock.
The young skip’s stone looked wide and heavy as it came around the guard but just as Boyce’s third, Dave Hargraves, was preparing to sweep the stone through the house, the rock picked, made a sudden turn and stopped, settling right on the button and buried for shot, as the gallery erupted.
Cutler’s final stone clipped the guard giving Partridge the 5-3 win, an exciting finish to the always popular bonspiel.
In other action, the Jason Startup rink with Kim Verigin as third, Brian Baldwin second and Chris Kissock as lead swept to victory in the B event. The Jason Avis rink took top spot in the C’s with Rob Vandermeer playing third, Kyle Jones second and Brad Mason lead, while the Len Gordon rink with Darcy Dickson third, Morris Plamondon second and Ken Warzocha lead, placed first in the D.