It took two inexperienced players to finish at the top of the men's Beef and Barrel bonspiel held at the Howe Sound Curling Club Jan. 7 to 9.
The undefeated champions of the bonspiel was the Simmons' rink, with two experienced players, skip Darryl Simmons and Dan Tichauer, and two players - Rob Proudfoot and Gary McLain - who had only played two games before the tournament.
"We went into it to show Gary and Rob how fun curling is," said Tichauer. "We didn't expect to do as well as we did."
The open bonspiel started at 7 p.m. on Jan. 7, and drew in 10 local teams and six out-of-town teams. Simmons' rink won its first game against organizer Hal Hughson's team. Hughson's rink ended up finishing in fourth place in the D event. Simmons' rink went on play Chapman's rink and Simmons' finished by just one point. Chapman's rink finished the bonspiel in fourth place in the C event. In the semi final Simmons' rink beat Schutz's rink, who finished the bonspiel in third place in the A event.
In the last game, Simmons's rink faced Nickol's rink, which was also undefeated in the bonspiel. The game was the last one to wrap up.
"We were up by one going into the last end," Tichauer said. "We just caught a lucky break on the last shot."
"It was a surprise, yes," said Hughson about the eventual winners of the bonspiel. "Basically, it was end-to-end play. It wasn't a high scoring game.
"The skips were pretty competitive in their curling. If they keep playing together they'll be quite a strong team."There are six private bonspiels coming up in the next few months at the curling club, as well as a mixed open bonspiel March 4 to 6.
