Morrison defeats Foulger to win men's bonspiel

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Two of the three finals at the annual Rainy River Men’s Curling Bonspiel came down to the wire Saturday night!
With 32 men signed up, the eight team event ran Friday and Saturday with the finals that evening.
In the A event, it was Fred Foulger’s rink against Dale Morrison’s. It looked as though it might be over early when Morrison had a chance for an “eight ender” in the second end. With six rocks in the house and one just in front of the 12’ rings, Morrison used his last shot to try and raise and roll both rocks in. He wicked off the outside rock and rolled in to lay 7. It was now 7-2 in the second.
But the crowd was wrong when they anticipated a handshake from Foulger. He rallied back in the fourth after blanking the third. He laid a four ender in the fourth to make it a 7-6 game!
Morrison fired back with two in the 5th to lead 9-6. But Foulger wasn’t out of ammo yet, scoring three in the sixth to tie it 9-9!
Morrison took a one point lead in the 7th to give Foulger the hammer, down by one coming home. But Foulger’s foursome seemed to run out of steam and could not capitalize. Morrison stole three to wing 13-9 and capture the championship!
It wasn’t even close in the B event where Tim Nordin forced Mitch Seguin to shake hands after six ends. Seguin picked up the first point in the first end. But it was all Nordin after that. He scored one in each of the second, third and fourth. The fifth was blanked and then Nordin picked up a three ender and Seguin resigned, down 6-1.
It was another entertaining game in the C event with Ken Vogan squaring off against Ralph Armstrong.
It was 1-1 after two ends. Vogan then took the lead, scoring one in the third.
Armstrong landed a four ender in the fourth to lead 5-2. But Vogan answered with two in the fifth to be down by one (5-4).
Vogan then catapulted into the lead with a three ender in the sixth to lead 7-5. But Armstrong tied it up in the seventh when he drew in with hammer to score two.
It was 7-7 coming home and Vogan, with the hammer, prevailed, scoring two to win 9-7!
There was a good crowd on hand and all agreed the finals proved to be very entertaining! The next bonspiel at the RR Curling Club is March 11-13th. It is the last one of the year and is an open spiel.