Boucherville to host second straight Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship

By Al Cameron

Updated: November 19, 2014

Boucherville, Que., will play host to the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship for the second straight year, it was announced today by the Canadian Curling Association.

Canada’s top wheelchair curlers will once again gather in Boucherville, Que., for the 2015 Canadian Championship. (Photo, Morgan Daw)

The 12th wheelchair nationals will be staged April 27 to May 3, 2015, at Club de curling Boucherville in Boucherville, Que.

The 2015 Canadian Wheelchair Championship will again be organized and operated by Défi sportif AlterGo, a Quebec-based organization focused on raising awareness of sports for athletes with a disability.

“We’re excited to be able to get behind the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship for the second straight year,” said Maxime Gagnon, the director for Défi sportif AlterGo. “The 2014 event in Boucherville was a resounding success according from the standpoint of the participants, the spectators and the organizers, and we’re hoping to make it even better in 2015.”

At the 2014 nationals, Manitoba won its second Canadian championship when Dennis Thiessen and his team from the Assiniboine Curling Club (third Mark Wherrett, second Melissa Lecuyer, lead Jamie Anseeuw and coach Tom Wherrett) beat defending champion Benoit Lessard of Quebec 8-5 in the gold-medal game. It capped an amazing season for Thiessen, who also won gold playing for Team Canada at the 2014 Winter Paraympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

The Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship began in 2004 and has previously been won by Team Canada (skip Chris Daw) in 2004, 2005 and 2006; by British Columbia in 2007 (skip Darryl Neighbour), 2008 and 2009 (skip Jim Armstrong) and 2010 (skip Gary Cormack); by Manitoba (skip Chris Sobkowicz) in 2011;  Saskatchewan (skip Darwin Bender) in 2012; Quebec (skip Benoit Lessard) in 2013; and  Mantoba (skip Dennis Thiessen) in 2014

Cormack to play at nationals

 by  Rick Kupchuk - Surrey North Delta Leader

• posted Jan 22, 2015 at 1:00 PM

Gary Cormack will represent B.C at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships April 27 to May 3 in Boucherville, Quebec.

— image credit: FILE

Gary Cormack will heading to the 2015 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships April 27 to May 3 in Boucherville, Quebec.

The Surrey resident and 2006 Paralympic gold medalist completed a perfect run  through the competition at the provincial championships with a 7-6 win over Team LaBounty Sunday at the Richmond Curling Club.

Cormack won all five matches at the three-day tournament in Richmond.

Other members of his team are 2010 Paralympic gold medalist Darrl Neighbour at third, Gerry Austgarden at second, Samantha Siu at lead and fifth Jacqueline Roy. Austgarden was a member of Cormack’s team which won gold at the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, Italy.

Cormack, Austgarden and Roy have previously won Canadian championships.

8 teams playoff for Int. Wheelchair Cup 2015

Swiss Wheelchair Curling Championships ready to go!

Submission by: Stephan Pfister,national coach wheelchair curling, Switzerland

Swiss Wheelchair Curling Championships going next week from Thu 29^th Jan to Sun 1^st Feb in Wetzikon (Zurich)

8 teams will compete in a RR,  SF and medal games for Swiss Champion. Results are on http://resultat.curling.ch/Archiv/201415/bs/rollstuhl/sm/Index.htm

This competition is not deciding to going on international championships, because we have a system of squads for the national team.

 

 

Bonspiels in 2014/15:

 11^th / 12^th April 2015 – 4^th Eastern Switzerland Wheelchair Curling Trophy

 

GEORGE HORNING PASSES AWAY

from Laughie Rutt (personal friend and teammate)

The wheelchair curling family lost a valued member on January 20^th, 2015. George Horning was sixty two. He was the reigning 2014 Nova Scotia Curling Champion and played out of Lakeshore Curling Club in Nova Scotia. Horning moved to Nova Scotia in 2012 after he retired. A chance phone call brought him to throw a few rocks at Lakeshore while traveling. It was where he decided to spend his retired life.

George Horning was born in Whitehorse in The Yukon and lived most of his life in Winnipeg. He represented Manitoba at the Canadian Curling Championships on a number of occasions. He won a gold medal in 2011 in Edmonton while playing for Manitoba.

George found he had cancer shortly before the 2014 Nova Scotia Provincial Play Downs where he skipped a team. He insisted on playing and skipped his team to the Championship. He entered radiation therapy immediately following the win. Despite failing health he, again, insisted to play in the 2014 Canadian National Championship in Montreal. He entered chemotherapy upon his return. He has been unable to play with Team Horning in the current curling season.

He will be missed by his special friend Mary Commo; his relatives and team mates.

George will be remembered as a person who loved life; loved curling; and would always be there for someone in need, even at a sacrifice to himself. George did not lose the game against cancer. He just came up a little light in his final draw.

Wheelchair Curling is poorer with his passing.

 

Personal Note:

 

It is with a very heavy heart that I came to learn of my good friend George's passing today. My heart was filled with joy just a few short weeks ago as George and I spoke about our cancer battle and how we both intended to win. Today I learned I was cancer free and George had lost his fight. I can only reference this loss as a very personal gift from George that in his passing I find freedom from this horrible disease .

 

In his passing I can find solace that he is at peace and back on the rink; curling to his hearts dreams. He dreamt of curling just once more and showing his survivability.  I know he is happy and without pain. My friend will be missed and I miss him.

 

God rest you,

 

Chris Daw

 

 

 

 

Searching for 2015 Events....

Hi all;

We are trying to create a comprehensive calendar of events for the 2015 season. We have added a new page for this to the blog but we need your help.

To all our readers and followers;

Please send us your events! Please send your event name, date and location and we will post it in our calendar of events so all wheelchair curlers know what and were things are going on.

We don't care if it is big or small, we will post it.

Send us:

Your bonspiel
Your playdowns
Your championships

You help make the stories and you host the events so let us help you promote those events!


Send the information along to: wcblog2@chrisdaw.ca

We will post and add to the calendar!

Thanks in advance!

British Open Wheelchair Curling starts in Lanarkshire

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Laura Hale

 

 

 

Wheelchair curling pictogram. Image credit: Maxxl2, licensed public domain.

 

Yesterday, the British Open Wheelchair Curling got underway in Lanarkshire, Scotland at the Lanarkshiren Ice Rink.  The Finnish team lost their opener against Scotland 2 by a score of 1 – 7.  The Finns won their second game Donaldson 6 – 1.  The Finns are scheduled to play Sweden and Webster later today.

The British Open Wheelchair Curling is one of the last chances for teams to get international experience ahead of the  2015 World Wheelchair Curling Championship scheduled to get underway on February 6 in at the Kisakallio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland.  At least three teams competing at it are in the United Kingdom for this competition including Scotland, Finland and Sweden. Scotland and Sweden will meet in their second match of the competition. Finland and Scotland, and Sweden and Finland are scheduled to play each other on February 11.  This is a good chance for the teams to size each other up.

The Scottish world championship team, announced in late December, includes Aileen Neilson, Gregor Ewan, Jim Gault, Angie Malone, and Hugh Nibloe. The Finland side is captained by Markku Karjalainen.  The team spent the week before the competition training in Kisakallio.

LIVE BC Playdowns - Final (Cormack vs. Labounty) - Winner is Team Cormack in an extra end!

Team Cormack



Standings after Round Robin

Team	W	L
Cormack	4	0
LaBounty	3	1
MacDonald	1	3
Tingle	0	4

Game scores by team/draw/event

Sunday, January 18th, 2015

Draw 5 - 10:00am

Game: 5 | Event: FIN

SHEET 7	H	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	TOTAL
MacDonald	*	1	1	x	2	1	1	x	1	x			7
Tingle		x	x	1	x	x	x	1	x	x			2

Congratulations Team MacDonald on your bronze medal finish. Was a great game by both teams.

Game: 5-6 | Event: FIN

SHEET 6	H	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	TOTAL
Cormack	*	1	1	1	x	x	x	2	1	1			7
LaBounty		x	x	x	4	1	1	x	x	x			6

 

2015 OCA wheelchair playdowns starts Jan. 27

THE OCA WHEELCHAIR  PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP

GALT COUNTRY CLUB

January 27 to January 30, 2015

Team Number	Club Name			Skip
1	Ilderton Curling Club			Tony Reynen
2	Peterborough Curling Club			Chris Rees
3	RA Curling Club (Ottawa)			Collinda Joseph
4	Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club			Shauna Petrie
5	RA Curling Club (Ottawa)			Jamie Eddy
Draw #			Sheet 1	Sheet 2	Sheet 3	Sheet 4	Bye
1	Tuesday Jan.27	4:00 p.m.		1 vs 2	3 vs 4		5
2	Wed. Jan.28	10:00 a.m.	2 vs 4		5 vs 1		3
3	Wed. Jan.28	3:00 p.m.		3 vs 5		4 vs 1	2
4	Thurs. Jan. 29	10:00 a.m.	1 vs 3			5 vs 2	4
5	Thurs. Jan. 29	2:30 p.m.	4 vs 5		2 vs 3		1
	Thurs. Jan. 29	7:00 p.m.		Tiebreakers (if necessary)
	Fri. Jan. 30	10:00 a.m.		Semi-Final
	Fri. Jan. 30	2:30 p.m.		Final

Forrest, Gaudet return for national duty

posted Jan 18, 2015 at 1:00 AM

Canada will be putting a new-look team on the ice when the World Wheelchair Curling Championships get underway Feb. 7 in Lohja, Finland.

Mark Ideson of London, Ont. will take over as skip in Finland, with longtime national team skip Jim Armstrong of Cambridge, Ont. missing the event due to health issues.

Ideson, who will throw lead rocks, was the alternate for the Canadian teams that won gold at the most recent World Wheelchair Championships, in 2013, in Sochi, Russia, and also captured gold in the same position at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi.

He will be joined in Finland by veteran national-team members vice-skip Ina Forrest of Armstrong, (who will throw last rocks), third Dennis Thiessen of Sanford, Man. and second Sonja Gaudet of Vernon – all of whom were members of the Paralympic gold-medal team (Gaudet’s third Paralympic gold and Forrest’s second).

Also travelling to Finland will be Marie Wright of Moose Jaw. She will be making her national team debut as the alternate. Wright was a member of Team Saskatchewan, winner of the 2012 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship.

“We’re optimistic about the look of this team going to Finland,” said Greg Stremlaw, CEO of the Canadian Curling Association. “We ended the 2013-14 season ranked first in the world in wheelchair curling, and while we know Team Canada will be adjusting to a new lineup, I know this group and its coaching staff will be performing at its best in pursuit of the gold medal.”

Canada has won a leading three gold medals at the World Wheelchair Championship – 2009 in Vancouver, 2011 in Prague and 2013 in Sochi. Gaudet and Forrest were members of all three teams, as was national coach Joe Rea, who once again will be at the helm in Finland.

Team Canada will open round-robin play in the 10-team competition Saturday, Feb. 7 against China at the Kisakallio Sports Institute. The top four teams advance to the Page Playoff round, leading to the gold- and bronze-medal games on Feb. 13 at 4 a.m.

Photos from BC Playdowns - By Rich Green

All photos taken by Rich Green

Team Cormack

Team LaBounty

Team Tingle

 

Team MacDonald