Battle of past champions wraps up 39th Elk Point Oilmen’s Bonspiel

B&R Eckel’s ‘A’ event winners at the 2024 Elk Point Oilmen’s Bonspiel were (back row, left to right) Spring Park Knights Leonard Gadowski, Curtis Porcina, Brandon Tupper and Roland Joly, who reversed the ‘A’ event outcome with last year’s winners (front, left to right) Hahn Welding’s Jon Regnier, Don Anderson, Owen Gibson and Brant Evans. / Vicki Brooker photo
The first-ever Elk Point Oilmen’s Bonspiel champions to receive the Heavy Oil Grand Challenge trophy presented by Gordon McCuaig, were (left to right) Mel Wells, Terry Lively, Richard Klinger and Mel Klinger, whose Klinger Oilfield Services rink defeated Leyen Oilfield Service’s (front, left to right) Jim Spears, Clarence Hodgson, George Sheiber and Darwin Dean at the inaugural Oilmen’s Bonspiel in 1984. / Vicki Brooker photo

ELK POINT – Going into Sunday’s B&R Eckel’s ‘A’ event finals, Spring Park Knights skip Leonard Gadowski said all he wanted was “one point more” than Hahn Welding’s Jon Regnier in this rematch of their 2023 final. That time around, Regnier, who had also skipped the 2019 champions, came from a one-rock deficit in the seventh end to defeat six-time grand challenge and five-time third event winner Gadowski and his Knights.

The Hahn rink, which included Don Anderson, Owen Gibson and Brant Evans, was first on the scoreboard, but the second and third ends saw the Knights’ Gadowski, Curtis Porcina, Brandon Tupper and Roland Joly, with a 3-1 edge before the Hahn foursome got their second marker. The score was up to 6 – 2 in the Knights’ favor when the next Hahn point went up, giving Gadowski the hammer in the eighth, with the rocks in the house after Regnier’s final shot making the hammer throw unnecessary for the Knights’ win.

The Knights came into the final with a semi-final win over Conrad Pierce and his Hit to Score crew while the Hahn squad defeated Robyn Moroziuk’s Xtreme Oilfield rink on Saturday morning.

The Hahn Welding ‘B’ event saw another multiple time winner, Irven Courts, with three ‘B’ events and one ‘C’ event win at the Elk Point Oilmen’s spiels between 2015 and 2019, rack up another win, his Nova rink coming into the final after edging out Lee Michaud’s Rolling Stones, taking on Tyler Warawa’s Encore International foursome, fresh from their morning win over Mel Brooker’s Elk Point Oilmen’s Association rink.  That final saw Nova curlers pick their way through some seriously rock-choked houses to come back from a 5-4 deficit in the seventh end with a pair in the eighth for the win. The Courts team included Real Hebert, Leo Michaud and Jerry Croteau, while Warawa’s teammates were Tyson Ballas, Darren Skolarchuk and Duncan Gilbert.

The JPD Enterprises ‘C’ event was a close match all the way between Darcy Stafford’s Sheet Heads crew and Tyson Stafford’s Mantl rink, with a 6-all tie after eight ends seeing the teams declaring it a tie for the win. The Sheet Heads defeated Kyle Sakowsky’s PTW Energy rink in the semis, while Mantl won that go-round over Doug Bassett and Bump Oilfield. Darcy Stafford’s team included Stephen Kozina, Dustin Yaremkevich and Yvon Fontaine, while Tyson Stafford curled with Lane Lorenson, Marty Bendixen and Wade Poitras.

The Prowse Bros. ‘D’ event was the first off the ice, the young guns of the Wildcatters team, Kaiden Evans-Anderson, Carson Vogel, Hunter Nelson and Dustin Pinder and and coming into the final from a semi-final win over Calvin Fisher’s Diablo Oilfield, making short work of their win over Cameron Bredin’s Marksmen Vegetation, winners over Pat Demers and JPD Enterprises earlier in the day.

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