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Pulpspiel

Cariboo Pulp and Quesnel River Pulp hosted the Western Canadian Pulp and Paper Curling Championship.
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A curler delivers a rock in last weekend's Pulpspiel.

Cariboo Pulp and Quesnel River Pulp hosted the 41st annual Western Canadian Pulp and Paper Curling Championship at the Quesnel Curling Centre this past weekend. Eighteen teams attended from nine different pulp and paper mills from both British Columbia and Alberta.

Team Johnson from Hinton Pulp took the A event with a hard fought win over the Huber rink, also from Hinton Pulp. Jonson kept the game close early and with continued pressure caused the Huber team to give up a couple of stolen points in the middle ends, leading to the victory. Both teams moved on to the championship round. The skip, Ron Johnson had played in the second ever Pulpspiel and has been chasing the A event title ever since. Ron’s team included his son Warren, Mark Christensen and Norman Carre.

In all, eight teams qualified for the championship round. It ended up with Vic Leblanc of QRP facing off against Jack Dawson’s Cariboo Pulp crew.

Dawson got off to an early 4-0 lead, but Leblanc fought his way back to trail by one after six ends. Leblanc scored a crucial two points in seven to go up 6-5. In eight, Dawson needed to make a delicate tap to earn an extra end, but the rock curled a little too much giving the Leblanc rink the championship title. Leblanc curled along with Colin Shpak, Shayne Yamamoto and Penni Yamamoto.

The A consolation event was won by the Glenn Vipond rink out of Grande Prairie over the Hedden rink from Cariboo Pulp. The game went the full eight ends with Vipond along with Cliff Kostiuk, Dave Darewianko and Lawrence Vavrek coming out on top 6-4. Grande Prairie will host next year’s event.

In the B consolation, Gary Shalansky from P.G. Pulp along with his sons Al, Ken and Ed Brown won a high scoring affair against the Clean Harbors team.