Lightning strikes New Blue

Saturday saw three teams of women from the Morrisburg Curling Club in Russell for their open bonspiel.

In the early draw were Alice Thompson, Greta McGann, Sharon Van Allen and Kathy Norg. Alice’s team knocked off the Winchester foursome in the morning, enjoyed lunch–perhaps a little too much, and lost their afternoon competition to a strong young Prescott team. 

We had two teams in the late draw: Betty Locke, Kathy Hardy, Cheryl Thompson, and Janie Connolly. Betty’s team beat Navan in the morning and dropped a match in the p.m. against Carleton Heights by a single point. 

Our final team was Susan McIntosh, Wendy Casselman, and Claire and Paula Locke. They won their morning match over R.C.M.P. and in the afternoon defeated a team from the Ottawa Curling Club. The points earned were close, but Susan’s foursome won the overall title for the day. First and second place teams were cash winners, while the also-rans made selections from the prize table.

The ladies sat down to a fine evening meal, while men in white shirts and bow ties plied them with wine. It was a fine day’s work by all of our curlers.

Playoffs were needed to select Morrisburg’s senior men’s champion for the final Parnell competition this year. Three teams challenged for the one opening and Martin Schneckenburger won the bye, forcing the other two teams to play for the right to face him for the honour. 

Sid Morrell, Raymond Benoit, Neil Williams and Al Harriman lost to Peter Zeran, Jack Dikland, Karl Duncan and Earl Jeacle in the playoff. Accordingly, Peter’s team took on Martin Schneckenburger, Mahlon Locke, Andy Patenaude and Dave King for the championship. 

In a hard-fought match, Pete’s team won the final, and earned the right to represent the Morrisburg club for the final Parnell competition of the year.

     On Friday, Pete’s foursome drove to Lancaster and did battle with Cornwall, the eventual winners of the Parnell Trophy. After their morning defeat, Morrisburg’s afternoon opponents were the host team, Lancaster, who had also lost in the morning. It was another loss for our fellows, so congratulations to Cornwall, who will keep the trophy warm for us until the fall.

    The Sullivan, another two-team, four-club competition for senior men, is being hosted by Winchester. Morrisburg, Metcalfe and Russell will attend. 

Again, there are three teams vying for the right to represent Morrisburg. Peter Zeran, George Rutley, Karl Duncan and Earl Jeacle beat Martin Schnckenburger, Dave King, Andy Patenaude and Jack Dikland on Saturday in a close match. Since we are allowed only two over-70 teams to represent us, Martin’s fellows will play Sid Morrell’s team on Tuesday, and the winner goes to Winchester today, Feb. 15, along with Peter Zeran’s foursome, for the Sullivan Bonspiel.

Friday, our funspiel was on in the morning. The teams played two six-end games each, with rotating skips, and prize money for the winners. The team of Greta McGann, Wally McDonald and Paul Gunther won their early match against Ron Brown, Wayne Pulfer and Peter Byvelds. Tied in their game with Rick McKenzie, Arnold Barkley and Bud Perry were Andy Patenaude, Keith Robinson and Denis Thibault.  In their second games, Greta’s team won a tight match over Rick McKenzie’s warriors to take first place, and finishing second with their p.m. win were Rick McKenzie, Arnold Barkley and Bud Perry. The curlers enjoyed lunch afterwards. Thanks for organizing things, Glen.

That’s it for this week, Good Curling.

[…]

B. McNairn-Leader Staff

MORRISBURG – Good, Better, Best….that was the combination Morrisburg and District Figure Skater Trina Dykstra-MacPherson was aiming for when she started skating  at the Junior Bronze Level last winter. And that is the combination she completed with a gold medal skate performance at the 2013 Asticou Skating Club competition in Aylmer, Quebec, on Sunday, November 17.

Trina had the Good performance at her first competition at the Junior Bronze Level in Morrisburg last January for a third place finish. Then in April, she accomplished the Better to land a silver medal performance at a competition  in Gloucester.

She finished it off in Aylmer with the Best skate for her gold medal trip to the podium.

For the two minute and nine second program in Aylmer, Trina says, “I had a clean skate. Even the whole day, I didn’t fall at all. My technical marks were my strongest. My jumps and spins are both good.”

Included in Trina’s gold medal program are a Double Toe Jump, a Double Salchow and two Axel Jumps, one with a Loop. She also includes a Flip Loop and a Lutz.

“It was her first time trying her double toe in competition which she landed successfully,” says Trina’s coach Louise Dimmick. “Trina had a strong performance that really built on her training and previous competitions. She works hard at the rink and is very focused. It was nice to see her have this success.”

Twelve-year old Trina, is a grade 7 student at St. George Roman Catholic School in Long Sault. She has been skating since she was six years old and she says it is her “absolutely most favourite thing to do. My friends say to me ‘Trina, it is always skating…skating, skating, skating all the time’.”

Her love of the sport and her talent shows in her quick movement through the various skating programs. A member of the Morrisburg and District Figure Skating Club and a guest skater with the Nepean Figure Skating Club, Trina skated one year in the CanSkate program, one year in Junior, two years in Intermediate and is now a senior skater.

Trina says of her gold medal performance in Aylmer, that it “felt good” and she knew she had “skated really well,” when she left the ice.

In addition to winning gold with her solo skate as a Morrisburg club skater, Trina teamed with Nepean skaters Chloe Sills and Kiara Hartnell to claim a second gold medal at the Aylmer competition in Team Elements on behalf of the Nepean Skating Club.

For her part of the team event, Trina complete an Axel as her first element and a spiral sequence, which included a Biellman spiral and a Y spiral, as her second element.

Along with Trina’s Axel, “Chloe did an Axle Toe Loop and she landed it and Kierra did a Lutz and it was good.”

With the Aylmer skate behind her, Trina now turns her attention towards her season goal. “I want to get through all three stages of EOSIC and make it to Trillium.”

This year’s EOSIC (Eastern Ontario STARskate Invitational Championship) is being hosted by the Cornwall Figure Skating Club at the Benson Centre, February 14-16, 2014.

Trina skates six days per week, four in Morrisburg and travels to Nepean two nights per week, all the while working hard to keep up with her schoolwork. She is also a Canskate PA with the little ones in Morrisburg on Saturday mornings. 

She skates year-round and in the summer she adds ballet classes to her schedule which is an extension of her skate program in Nepean. 

In Nepean she works with three coaches including her Morrisburg coach Louise Dimmick. “Dan [Gordon, Nepean coach], says I have a good presentation and a good style of skating.”

[…]

He went four over in the first four holes, but Upper Canada golfer Lance LePage got it back together here Saturday, to win the annual Morrisburg Golf Club’s Men’s Open tournament with a 2-over-par 72.

“I started out rough,” said LePage of his double bogey on the par-4 first hole. “I had two, three putts in the first four holes, and they had nothing to with the golf course. It was in excellent shape. The three putts were all me. I missed two putts that were inside three feet.”

That may have been the case on the front nine, but it was the exact opposite on the back, said LePage of his 1-under-par 34 which he added to his front nine 38 for a 72 total and the tournament championship.

On the back nine, Lepage posted a pair of birdies, on the par four 12th hole and the par four 18th.

“I didn’t miss any putts on the back nine. It was a good day, and the greens staff had the course in great shape.”

LePage, a former member of the Morrisburg Club, said he was impressed with the work done on the Morrisburg Golf Course which sees the total re-design and re-build of the third green and a re-shaping and re-sodding of the second green.

“The golf course is in great shape, and the new greens are fantastic. The third green is a great improvement and will be a tricky green to play. It will certainly be interesting to seem some of the pin placements on it.”

With Lepage winning the overall tournament championship, that left Prescott’s Steve Martineau and Brockville’s Peter Gilder tied for the low gross in A flight with 75’s.

A sudden-death playoff on the par four ninth hole and a Martineau birdie settled the issue.

The low net in A flight was won by Upper Canada’s Allan McNairn who shot a 78 for a 68 net.

Following Martineau and Gilder was Prescott’s Rob Kimberly who shot a 77. Ottawa golfer Paul Nooyan shot a 78 and Morrisburg’s Lindsay Weegar carded an 80.

Seven golfers broke the 80 barrier on the day, and among them was Morrisburg’s Dave McClenaghan. His 79 scored the win in B  flight, two strokes up on Prescott’s Bruce Perrin and Upper Canada’s Sam Laurin.

Laurin’s 81 gave him the low net in B flight with a 68.

Next up in B flight was Upper Canada’s Kirk Barkley with an 86. Paul Casselman (Cedar Glen) and Justin McNamee and Mike Bowers all tied with 87’s.

Morrisburg’s Charlie Moore and Larry Gallinger, and Cedar Glen’s Rob Casselman shot 89’s.

Prescott golfers led C flight with Les Randel claiming the win with an 84. Ed Greengrass was second with an 87 which gave him the flight’s low net with a 67.

Morrisburg Club Captain Andy Patenaude was next with an 89 and Mitch Cassell (Morrisburg) carded a 90.

[…]