The Charles J. Futterer Memorial Open Bonspiel on March 8-9 was well-attended and a lot of fun for all the participants. Above: Woodcarver Bruce Futterer presents Ron Gervais Sr. with a special edition carving of a “curling guy.” Upper right: “A” Event winner-Phil DeVore Team-Lucy DeVore, Doug Camron, Lee Leksell, Phil DeVore Middle right: “B” Event Winners-Barry Hauta Team Thunder Bay-Chris Woznesensky, Eric Hauta, Barry Hauta, Mike Woznesensky. Right: “C” Event Winners-Mark Pedersen Team-Grand Marais-Mark Pedersen, Bob Spry, Joanne Smith, Rob Hackett
The Cook County Curling Club held the Charles J. Futterer Open Memorial Bonspiel this past weekend with 20 teams participating from St. Paul, Brainerd, Duluth, Two Harbors, and Grand Marais, Minnesota; Thunder Bay, Ontario and as far as Russellville, Arkansas.
Many of the teams have connections to the Grand Marais area and feel that they are playing in their home club, as most learned to play the game from their parents or from friends who were members. So this Bonspiel is the Fisherman’s Picnic of curling, not only are there good games that get played, but also it is time for old friends and new friends to get together. Many of the teams had either a parent or a sibling who was playing on a team this year.
The Ron Kowlachuck team from Thunder Bay has won this Bonspiel for the last four years. On Saturday afternoon they lost after a very close game to the Ron Everson team from Brainerd, which stopped them from continuing onto the semi-finals on Sunday.
The Ron Everson team went on to play the Phil DeVore team from Duluth for the title in the main event, but lost to the DeVore team. It would have been nice for our “hometown boy” to win, but he’ll be back to try again next year. Congratulations to the DeVore team!
Bruce Futterer presented one of his carvings to Ron Gervais Senior after dinner on Saturday evening for being one of the “original curlers” from the Cook County Curling Club, even though the Two Harbors Curling Club likes to claim him as their own. Ron Gervais started his curling career in the Cook County Curling Club and was acknowledged for his 6,000th game played last year in our club.
The club is winding down its curling season with league play downs starting next Monday evening and will be done the following Monday. Spectators are always welcome to come and watch. Curling is a lifetime sport and is really a fun game to learn. If you are interested in curling next curling season please contact us through our website www.cookcountycurlingclub.com.
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