麻豆社区

A familiar face emerged victorious at the Whitehorse Curling Club's International Bonspiel Sunday.

Skip Nicole Baldwin beat Chelsea Duncan 9-3 in the women's A final to claim the season-ending event's trophy for the ninth time.

The men's A final also saw a repeat winner, with Walter Wallingham claiming his first victory since 2012, beating Frank Taylor 8-6.

Following the final games, the curling rocks were removed from the club in preparation of summer.

Baldwin's rink emerged at the top of 14 participating women's rinks in the 62nd International Bonspiel, while Wallingham beat out 20 men's teams for the honour.

"I really enjoy the International,鈥� Baldwin told the Star following her latest victory. "It's one of my favourite bonspiels. I hope when they retire that trophy, I can have it.鈥�

Up 3-0 after two ends, Baldwin's lead was erased when Duncan scored a triple. Duncan wouldn't score again however, as Baldwin scored a single in four, and added steals in the final four ends.

Baldwin curled with third Ladene Shaw, second Jaime Hewitt, and lead Diane Huber.

Duncan, the long-time third of skip Sarah Koltun, got the best of her Scotties teammate in the A semifinal. Duncan was playing with younger sister Jenna and Scotties second Patty Wallingham.

"It was different to play skip,鈥� Duncan admitted of the battle with Koltun, that ended 6-6 at the end of regulation.

"It was really back and forth. It actually came down to a draw to the button. It's always good to beat your skip,鈥� she laughed.

"We just weren't making shots like we were in the other games,鈥濃�圖uncan said of her matchup with Baldwin.

"In multiple ends, I was having to do some sort of runback or some crazy shot to get points, so the performance just wasn't quite there.鈥�

Wallingham teamed up with third Nelson Lepine, his son Joe Wallingham at second, and lead Ed Kormendy to win his second International title.

After Taylor scored four in the fourth end to go up 6-3, Wallingham scored five unanswered points before blanking the eighth end.

"It was kind of an up-and-down game,鈥濃�圵allingham said. "We stole two in the third, but in the fourth they got four.鈥�

Winning alongside his son Joe was special, Wallingham admitted.

"He's come a long way,鈥� he said. "He's a great little curler. He makes hits and draws and that's all you can ask for.

"It was really good to win it with my son on the team.鈥�

The A final was the first Taylor had curled in 32 years of playing in the International.

"We curled well. We just had a couple of missed shots,鈥� Taylor said.

"It's good because it's still the old format,鈥� he added. "With a lot of the other events, in order to get more curlers, we play a points format instead of a score format. I鈥坙ike the old school.鈥�

Other weekend winners included Matt Johnson (B); Dustin Mikkelsen (C); and Justin Meek of Kitwanga, B.C. (D).

On the women's side, winners were Tamar Vandenberghe (B), Laura Eby (C) and Leslie Grant's 鈥楴orwegians' team (D).