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After finishing in third place in the very closely contested nine-team Upper Canada Major Division regular season, the South Dundas Pioneers worked their way to the championship final at the playoff tournament held in Kemptville in mid-August.
The Pioneers, coached by Kent Young, (assisted by Ben Henry and Chris Fetterly) were in a transition year having lost all but four players from the 2013 lineup. They played some good ball during the regular season to finish in a very tight race that saw Brockville in first place with 31 points.
The next four spots were extremely close with Kemptville Grey in second with 26 points, the Pioneers next with 25, Prescott with 24 and Kemptville Black with 23.
The format for the tournament playoff championship divided the league into three pools, with the top three finishers in each and one wild card advancing to the semi-finals.
The Pioneers after placing first in their pool met the Kemptville Grey.
“The first couple innings were close as Kemptville had a very good starting pitcher,” says coach Young. A couple of big innings put the Pioneers in the driver’s seat and they hung on for an 8-7 win to advance to the championship final against the top seeded Brockville team.
“They [Brockville] had a good team. They were always the team to be from the start of the season,” says Young. “They had a very good pitcher and a very good team. We started off really well and were actually up on them by a run after two. But they didn’t start their ace, and that got to us mentally. The boys knew it would be tough to manufacture any runs off of him. That’s when things started to fall apart. We walked a couple of batters, made a couple of errors in the field and threw the ball around.”
“Then you added their hits, and it was a recipe for disaster. We ended up losing the game 13-3.”
“All in all, I think we did very well for a young team,” says Young. “The kids learned a lot this year. It was a transition year…I had lost all but four of my players so we had eight new players. The start of the season was teaching all the basics.
“The biggest difference for some of the first year guys was the pitching. Pitchers didn’t throw as hard and didn’t have curve balls last year.”
“So the start of the season was a bit bumpy. We did well against the younger teams because they were in the same boat as us. But against the more veteran teams we struggled. They all started to improve gradually through the course of the season. Everyone had something to offer.”
“It is nice to see that baseball has made a huge comeback in the Williamsburg area,” says Henry. “I think the biggest reason is because you have someone like David Lapier in our community who has spearheaded the association. He has spent countless hours getting our association organized and people involved. He has recruited quality people to help with coaching, umpiring and maintaining the fields.”
“It takes many volunteers to make our association successful on and off the field. If it wasn’t for volunteers like David and the others, the kids would be missing out on an opportunity to play such a great sport.”
Curling Milestones
It was another milestone for two of our senior curlers last week, as a crew from CJOH television dropped in to feature two of our over-ninety curlers, Dwight Gilmer and Eric Orgee. These men have been athletic all of their lives, and it’s an inspiration to the rest of us to see them still active at this age. Keep going, fellows! Remember, Jim Fraser was well over 100 when he retired. The segment should air Friday night during the sportscast on the early news.
Speaking of Jim Fraser, the final senior men’s draw was completed last week, and the trophy named in Jim’s honour was won by – wait for it – Sid Morrell, along with Len Bellamy, Paul Gunther and John Walsh (who had to drop out early in the draw). Some people have beaten Sid, but not often.
Coming in a close second was another top curler, Don O’Brien, with Raymond Benoit, Gerry Thompson and Charlie Farlinger. Organizer Dave King has set up a fine season for us, and we thank him for this, and for the special events he has also arranged. These include the friendlies, the two-person senior bonspiels and other events.
Our senior men visited Cornwall last week for their final friendly matches of the season. The club can accommodate six teams at once, so three from Winchester joined us against the Cornwall hosts.
It’s always good to renew acquaintances and make new friends at these events, and with about 50 curlers present, there were a lot of them. During conversation at lunch we learned that next year Cornwall’s new curling facility will be completely paid for, with $200,000 in reserve. Not bad for a 134 year-old club!
Now to the bad news: our local fellows lost every match. Winchester fared a bit better, winning one game. For the record, the victims were: Martin Schneckenburger, Rick McKenzie, Fred ‘Boomer’ Langlotz and Steve Thompson; George Rutley, Doug Jarvis, Karl Duncan and Dwight Gilmer; Dave King, Ron Brown, Keith Robinson and Ted Harriman. In spite of our lack of success on the ice, we had a very pleasant day, and look forward to more of these events next year.
Last Friday, two teams of senior men drove to Kingston for their final bonspiel of the year. Jack Barkley, Dave King, Doug Jarvis and George Rutley beat a Perth foursome in the morning, and a Brockville team in the afternoon, finishing second on the ‘B’ side.
Sid Morrell, Raymond Benoit, Neil Williams and Al Herriman defeated Carleton Place in their first match, but had a tougher time in the afternoon against a fine Kingston team. Sid had to tap a rock back in the final end to extend the match, but the rock slid one inch too far. As a result, they finished seventh. Still, they each got a small box of steaks for their trouble – not as big a prize as the steaks Jack and his gang brought home, but excellent prizes all the same.
The fellows had high praise for the Royal Kingston Curling Club. They raved about the beautiful facility, the prizes, and the meal the club put on. It was a fitting end to the season for the men, who, aside from the skins games they’ll play at our club this week, have finished for the season.
Curling in the ladies’ Tuesday afternoon curling and their Wednesday night league have finished, with no winner declared in either case, but a sociable wind-up to their seasons, as usual
The daytime mixed curling on Thursday mornings finishes tomorrow, followed by the usual luncheon and trophy presentation for the ten-team league. Good curling to all!
The week kicked off at the Morrisburg Golf Course with the weekly ladies night on Wednesday, sponsored by Lloya and Dwayne Sprague at the Morrisburg Home Hardware Store.
The biggest crowd of the ladies night season was on hand last Wednesday, and says club captain Monique Patenaude, “everyone had a wonderful time.”
The evening game was “the closest”… Closest to the chipping basket on the 10th hole won by Deanna Cassell, Closest to the hole on 14 won by Barb McWhinnie, Closest to the line on 16 won by Lillian Noon and closest to the pin from off the green on 18 won by Brenda Stitt.
In men’s night action on Thursday Brian McNairn and Greg Millard led the field of 71 golfers with 71s.
McNairn’s 71 gave him the low gross in A flight, while Millard claimed the low gross prize in B flight. Right on their heels was Ken Rundle who posted a 38 to win C flight.
Net winners were Shawn Hummel in A flight, Jeff Cassell in B and Al Graham in C.
Millard won closest to the pin on the par three 14th hole and Rob Murphy won closest to the hole on the par three 17th.
The evening was sponsored by Bill Barclay and Brister Insurance.
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