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60th anniversary for Spectra Energy bonspiel

The annual event takes place in Quesnel
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Gord Angus, from Parksville, throws during the Spectra bonspiel on Saturday. Quesnel curler Ron Durocher gets ready to sweep. Melanie Law photo

Spectra Energy helds its 60th annual company bonspiel over the weekend at Quesnel Curling Rink – a historic event for the company.

The bonspiel – which has been called the Westcoast Transmission, Westcoast Energy, and Duke Energy Bonspiel, as the company has evolved – saw employees, retirees, affiliated vendors and contractors, and family of employees attend.

The Quesnel Curling Rink has held the event 59 times, only missing one year, when the local rink burned down and the bonspiel was held in Williams Lake.

Curlers showed up from Fort Nelson, Fort. St. John, Chetwynd, McLeod Lake, Summit Lake, Prince George, Quesnel, Kamloops, Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

“We have 14 teams this year,” says bonspiel organizer Pete Novak, who has been involved with organizing the event for the past 15 years.

“The make up of the teams this year is more retirees than employees, and there are a lot of families; these guys bring their brothers and sons to curl with them,” he explains.

Novak says there are trophies for the winners of each event, and one for the “goose egg”.

There’s also an Alex Dodge Memorial Trophy for the most sportsmanlike team, which is presented by Dodge’s sons and grandson, who compete in the bonspiel each year.

This year, curler Dewey Lund played again in his 56th consecutive Spectra Bonspiel.

“I started curling in this bonspiel in the early sixties, and I haven’t missed one since,” says Lund.

Lund, who plays lead, and his team ended up in the semi-final event.

The winner of the A event was the Ty Coates rink, including Mike Bell, third; Jim McDonald, second, and Ted Skevkenek, lead.

The B event was won by Dave Plant, Richard Barrette, Ray Langley and Jim Trockstad; and the C event winners were Ron Johnson, Braden Johnson, Barry Johnson and Gary Silver.

A mostly-Quesnel team, made up of Craig Kitamura, Derek Kitamura, Tak Kitamura and Kevin Lafrentz, won the Goose Egg trophy, which goes to the team that suffered the worst defeat. Fittingly, the Kitamura rink also won the Alex Dodge Memorial Trophy after showing how sportsmanlike they could be.

Novak says the event was another great success.

“I’m looking forward to next year,” he comments.