Success for Oliver curlers in Eastlink Combined Spiel

Wanda Casorso of Oliver calls her sweepers to action during her rink’s victory in the women’s final Sunday.
The Wanda Casorso rink, including, left to right, Jenn Seminoff, with Emily, Maria MacCarthy, Linda Schroter, Wanda Casorso and Cathy Thompson.
The men’s B event winners, include Dale Dodge (third), Dave Arnold (second), Jeremy Knechtel (lead), and Dale Cory (skip).
Dale Cory photos

It’s known as the Eastlink Combined Spiel, an event unique to curling circles due to its combination of men’s and women’s rinks competing in one big curling bonspiel.

A total of 20 men’s and 12 women’s rinks took to the ice Feb. 20 at Eastlink Curling Centre, with games played Friday through Sunday.

When the pebble had been swept clean, Oliver rinks had captures the men’s B event title, and the women’s A event championship.

On the men’s side, the Dale Dodge foursome, featuring second Dave Arnold, lead Jeremy Knechtel and Dale Cory, captured the B event after defeating the Coffin Dodgers #1 rink from Vernon 9-1 in the final.

“In our men’s league, we were second at the Christmas break and did not win another game until last Thursday,” offered Dodge on his rink’s success last weekend. “I would say we got the momentum and peaked at the right time.”

The foursome’s successful weekend was very similar to their participation in the Osoyoos Men’s Spiel a month ago. At the International Curling Club event, the Dodge rink opened with a loss to the Green foursome from Summerland, then won three-straight games to get to the B event final, before losing to Tony Blashko of Osoyoos.

Last weekend Dodge fell to Green on the game’s final shot, then rattled off wins over three Oliver rinks – Cornie Zacharias, Chuck Myers and Mike Johnson – to advance to Sunday’s B final. The Dodge rink, skipped by Cory, scored three in the first end, stole two in the second and another in the third to go up 6-0 after just three ends, defeating the visiting foursome 9-1.

Oliver’s Wanda Casorso and her foursome took the A event final on the women’s side, beating the Walker foursome from Penticton 6-5 in the final.

Casorso won both her round robin games, beat the Cate Pierlet foursome of Oliver in the A event semi, then made her final shot to win the title. Also on the rink are Jenn Seminoff, Maria MacCarthy, Linda Schroter and Cathy Thompson.

“We had a good weekend of curling. Our third Cathy Thompson had an unfortunate fall Saturday and dislocated her shoulder, so we recruited Jenn Seminoff to fill in at third. The girls all curled very well and we had a good final game Sunday. It was a hard-fought and close game, coming down to the final rock in the eighth end,” said Casorso of her team’s victory, while adding, somewhat tongue-in-cheek: “Our win was probably due to the good coaching of Cathy Thompson.”

Chris Cottrill of Penticton took the men’s A event and George Lee won the C event.

Dale Cory

Oliver Chronicle