Norton wins in Chicago again

AJAX -- An Annandale bantam curler, Joan Moore, plays lead for Carly Howard (yes, Glenn Howard's daughter) and they won the 'B' side of Region 3 and advance to the Ontario provincials being held Feb. 4 to 7 at Oshawa Curling Club. Carly Howard, out of Midland, qualified for the Bantam Provincial's by winning four of five games in the region and won the 'B' side.

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On the weekend of Jan. 17, Annandale's Gord Norton team went to Chicago for the 60th Annual Men's All Inclusive International Bonspiel. Competing were 15 Canadian teams from three provinces and 17 American teams from five states. Team Norton won the event again. The team included Craig Jewer, Doug Lawson and the lead was Ron Alexander. It was the fourth time in six years the foursome have won it. All say they have a great time at the event every year. They won bragging rights and a winner's pin.

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Annandale women's team of Sandra Thain, Barb Luffman, Meaghan Snow and Joan O'Leary were curling with Rhonda Welch, Janet Alexander, April Risto and Leslie Bainard in the OCA Zone for the Women's Tankard, the two-team event, Jan. 24 in Sutton. The teams were sidelined and did not advance to the Region. Next is the ladies' Intermediates Zone, Feb. 7 and 8, at Whitby Curling Club. Susannah Moylan, with Rhonda Lawson, Shannon Sliva and Heather MacDonald are competing. Two teams in the double knockout will advance to the Regional at St. George's Feb. 28.

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The Annandale team of Ben Bevan, Chris Avery, Jake McGhee and Carter Adair lost in the 'B' side semifinals at the Bantam Boys' regions this past weekend. The Saturday games were at Leaside and on Sunday they played at Donalda. A win would have put them into the Ontario Provincial finals. The team was coached by Jennifer McGhee.

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Annandale had two teams entered in the Fairfield Marriott Challenge Zone playdown held in Uxbridge Jan. 10. Chris Van Huyse, Andrew Klein, Rob Bushfield and Tyler Anderson advanced from the zone directly to the Provincial in Brighton and Trenton Jan. 23 to 25, where 32 teams met with three games each guaranteed. The Annandale team won its first game, but was then sidelined.

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Team Glenn Howard, with Pickering resident Richard Hart at vice and Brent Laing and Craig Savill, competed in Winnipeg from Jan. 21 to 25. They played in the third leg of the men's 2008-09 Capital One Grand Slam of Curling series, the BDO Classic Canadian Open. Eight of 18 top teams qualified to share the $100,000 purse. Team Howard scraped through the round robin to qualify, but then won the quarter-final, the semifinal and then the final against undefeated Kevin Martin from Edmonton. The team won $22,500, plus $1,500 for each round-robin win for a $24,000 total. In the meantime, they won the 'A' side of the Regional TSC Stores Tankard in Elmira Jan. 4, and now advance to the Provincial finals in Woodstock Feb. 2 to 8. The one winner out of 10 teams in Woodstock will represent Ontario at the Tim Hortons Brier in Calgary March 7 to 15.