AJAX -- The Annandale Golf and Curling Club had two junior teams in the Ontario Junior Curling Tour event last weekend.

The Home Hardware Junior Curling Classic was contested in Kitchener-Waterloo from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. Participating in the OJCT event from Annandale were the junior women's team of skip Lesley Pyne, Stacey Hogan, Suzanne Miller and Katie Hickey, coached by Jennifer McGhee. They qualified for the main event after winning all their round-robin games. The Pyne rink, however, was eliminated in the semifinals.

The other Annandale rink, the junior men's team of skip Michael Bryson, James McPherson, Sandy Martin and Josh Hall, was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Second Event. Susannah Moylan coaches the Bryson rink.

Next for the junior teams is the Annandale Youth Bonspiel on Nov. 8, followed by the Junior OCA Zone playdown at the Whitby Curling club from Nov. 22 to 25.

The Little Rock Bonspiel also goes Nov. 22 at the Annandale club. Five teams from Annandale are signed up along with seven others from Bayview, Galt, Leaside and East York. Organizers are trusting that four more teams will fill the 16-team draw by the time of the 'spiel.

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Ontario men's curling champion Glenn Howard, with Pickering resident Richard Hart at vice and Brent Laing and Craig Savill on the front end, took the team to Brooks Alberta for the 2008 Cactus Pheasant Classic from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, with 24 top teams in contention.

In the triple-knockout playdown, the Howard team gave up one of three lives, persevered through draw 'B', qualified, and won the event Sunday afternoon.

Howard had to steal two in the last end over the defending champion Kevin Martin team. The total purse for the running was $70,000, with $22,000 going to the Howard team.

Next on the calendar for Team Howard is a trip to Waterloo from Nov. 12 to 16. Howard will shoot for an unprecedented third consecutive title for this event when his team competes against 17 of the top squads from Canada, Europe and the U.S. at the Masters of Curling, the first of the men's Capital One Grand Slam of Curling series. The teams play in a triple-knockout draw looking for a share of the $100,000 purse.