Winning is winning

I had the pleasure of playing in the 121st Annual Detroit Men's International Bonspiel this past weekend. I think I've played in about 30 of them. We did all right, missing out on advancing by about a half of an inch: that's how close our last rock was to scoring the winning point in our last game. So it goes; we had fun.

Curling bonspiels are different than a lot of tournaments. They aren't double elimination or anything like that but, rather, come with game guarantees. You are guaranteed to play a certain number of games, typically 3 or 4 depending on the length of the spiel. With the Detroit Men's, it's a four game guarantee. Everybody begins in the championship or 'A' event. Lose and you drop to the B, lose again the C, lose again to the D, lose then and you're out. You've played your guaranteed four games.

But I remember one time, I assume because of a scheduling quirk or an odd number of teams or some other unusual circumstance, that in order to make sure everyone got to play a fourth game, the Detroiters were forced to add events. Events E through Q were invented basically as dumping grounds to give everyone their fair share of play. Events E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, and Q were one-offs. And that was the year Team Cosgriff won the prestigious J Event.

We've done better. We've won the B, C, and D Events in the past. But we honestly, and proudly, can claim to be the sole ever J Event winners in the history of the Detroit Men's International Bonspiel.

We're still waiting for our trophy though.

Curlmageddon 2016

I'm home tonight after a long, extended weekend of curling. I think it may be the most I've curled in such a short time: nine games in five days.

It began with my regular Thursday league game, which we won. On Friday I played in a Tier 55 spiel in Chatham, Ontario. Tier 55 is a kind Canadian term for senior curling, which itself is a PC term for old guys trying to keep curling. Be that as it may, we went 1-1 there and finished third. We won a nice pork loin for each member of the team; it was a meat spiel. For some reason, Canada loves to have curling tournaments where the prizes are meats. I won a three pound bag of breakfast sausages at a meat spiel in Leamington, Ontario, back in January. It's a great deal for us non, non-non, vegans.

Then I curled at Roseland, my home curling club in Windsor, Ontario, on Friday night. We won.

Next came the Wild Goose Bonspiel in Kingsville, Ontario. We played two games on Saturday and two on Sunday, finishing in the C Final. We lost that, but played really well, and maybe should have won that last game. Maybe the first one too, if the skip had have made his shots. Ah well. We were 2-2, and were part of the final group which were led onto the ice by a bagpiper in a grand procession. I tell ya, few things beat being piped onto the ice in a curling bonspiel.

My regular Monday league game came last. The boys in front of me played well and we caught some breaks to end up with a win.

So Curlmageddon 2016 went well for me, thanks to the players around me. 6-3 over nine games, and we really could have easily been 9-0. Honest. But now I'm very tired and gotta get some sleep. By Wednesday I'll be fine.

But it was a great five days on the rink.