Oct 22, 2008 - 10:13 AM

By Jim Easson

AJAX -- One of the top teams in Annandale's competitive men's curling league is disbanding.

Gord Norton, whose team of Warren Leslie, Mike Trudeau, Alex Bianchi and Ron Alexander has been a perennial challenger in the Ontario Curling Association playdowns, is history. The team has won, for example, the Last Chance Bonspiel in the past two years.

Norton no longer wants to enter the zones and the players are moving elsewhere to stay competitive. Warren Leslie is joining an Uxbridge team skipped by Greg Timbers with Barry Acton and Kent Cochrane. Meanwhile, Alex Bianchi and Mike Trudeau are joining an Oshawa foursome skipped by Brian Suddard with John Brotherhood.

The zone playdown for senior men goes at Dalewood Golf and Curling Club, near Port Hope, on Nov. 28, and the Tankard playdown is slated for Annandale on Dec. 5.

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The Annandale team that won the TCA Junior Bonspiel and a trip to Switzerland last December has changed slightly.

Jennifer McGhee coached the rink of Lesley Pyne, Stacey Hogan, Leahanne Legrow and Jackie Clarke last season. The lineup for this season is Lesley Pyne, Stacey Hogan, Suzanne Miller and Katie Hickey.

The team entered the fifth annual City of Brampton Kiwanis Junior Cashspiel last weekend. They won their pool with a 4-1 record and made the Sunday playoff round (only eight out of 24 teams advanced). The team then lost in an extra end on Sunday morning and dropped to the consolation round. They won the next game against Katie Lindsay from Oakville, but lost the final game against Sara Westman to finish sixth overall.

Michael Bryson had a junior men's team entered too, but it did not place.

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Ontario champion Glenn Howard, with Pickering resident Richard Hart back at vice, and the front end of Brent Laing and Craig Savill, takes the team to Portage, Man. from Oct. 24 to 27 for the 2008 Meyers Norris Penny Prairie Classic. The team has won it the past two years and hopes to keep this streak alive. The total purse is $58,000, with $18,000 slated for the winner.

For the curling clinic at Annandale on Oct. 25, approximately 30 beginner curlers and 30 curlers for the advanced clinic have signed up.

Sign-up sheets are near the office and on the various league boards hoping to capture a few more people this week.