THE ROUGE NEWS

OCTOBER 2008

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AND SO IT BEGINS...........

 

Well sportsfans, it's another curling season, and just when you were getting comfy on the couch with the television changer in your hand. Well, guess what? It's 8:30 pm and you are on the late draw so get your butt in gear and warm the car up because you have a game tonight!! Curling is the sport that gives you a night out with the guys, a little exercise (very little depending on how many ends you play), a chance to perhaps tip a few browns, or maybe even earn a few points by bringing your bride or groom out to watch. Out of 40 years plus of experience, this last bit of advice should be heeded several times during the season so spring for a sitter. It's the late draw and the kids will or should be in bed by then anyway. See you on de ice or in the clubrooms, and remember, it's just a game.

 

GREETINGS NEW MEMBERS

 

The FRCC would like to say WELCOME to all new and returning menbers for the 2008/2009 curling season. New members should be made aware of a few housekeeping items:

 

Curling dues should be paid in full before one steps onto the ice to play the first game. Failure to do so can result in a visit from the Membership Chairman.

 

New members can rent locker space in our basement locker rooms or in the ladies' locker room on the main level. Sorry guys, there are no lockers for men on the main level. See Manager Jeff for rental needs.

 

The FRCC has a decent selection of brooms, grippers, slip-on sliders, FRCC shirts and jackets. Also available are broom handle attachments for curlers in need of an alternate method of delivering a curling rock. See Manager Jeff for more info and availability.

 

New members and old members alike should be reminded that we all pay good money to curl "x" number of games per season so think twice about postponing a game. We have noted through experience that the majority of postponed games never get played. Therefore you should try to play your games even if you are only a threesome. As long as you have at least two regular members available, you can pick up a spare or two to make the game legal. You may use players from other teams in the club if you wish. You may also bring in someone from outside the club to spare. This last alternative may be used under discretion and only a maximum twice during the season. So once again, let's be fair and reasonable and if you have to postpone a game and have no real expectation of ever making it up, give the win to your opposition. Refer to our "Available Ice Booking" book under the phone near the canteen with instructions to follow.

 

New members and old alike are encouraged to patronize the main level canteen for all sorts of edible concoctions including our famous Fort Rouge Pizza, all at competitive prices. Also available on the second level is our lounge area complete with a fine selection of premium beers, a fine wine selection, many hard liquor selections and of course, FRCC pizza by the slice. Just a note that our beer prices have remained the same as they were from the end of last season.

 

MEN'S CURLING UPDATE

 

Here's how we stand in our men's curling leagues: Thursday Night curling is full. Tuesday 5:00pm curling is full. Wednesday Night is short 2 teams. Monday Night is short 6 teams. If you know of a team who might want to still play even at this late date, have them contact Manager Jeff at 475-0888 or Membership Chairman Ernie at 668-4667 for more info.

 

Manager Jeff tells me he has special pricing available to those interested. Curling for these new teams would begin with the second round. Teams would only be accepted in groups of two due to scheduling requirements. As an aside, Manager Jeff says some of the rental leagues are in need of teams or individuals as well. Contact him for more info in this regard. 

 

FRCC ROSTER BOOK

 

The FRCC puts out a roster book yearly containing a multitude of member info, renter info, sponsorship info, and other info regarding the operational end of the FRCC. Printing of this book always involves a time consuming gathering of a lot of information, much of which cannot be gathered until the season is well under way and the various leagues have had an opportunity to contribute to it. By these leagues, I refer to the rental leagues, the Business Women's league, the Master's Monday league, and several others. So you can see what we are up against in our effort to get it out in a timely manner. We realize that this book is used by many and is needed as soon as possible for contact purposes. We ask for your patience and promise that it will be out as soon as possible. Thank you very much. The submission deadline date is Oct. 31. See Manager Jeff for info. We hope to publish by late November.

 

FORT ROUGE GOLF DAY 2008

 

By the time you read this, most leagues will have gotten underway but the curling season actually began in early September when 50 or so golfers? made their way to the water-logged countryside near Inwood, Manitoba for the annual FRCC Golf Day. Those who were smart or maybe just plain lucky went by automobile and 40 or so brave souls, though they weren't aware of it at the time, were sent on an adventure that will be remembered. It was an enjoyable ride both ways and what would a FRCC Golf Day be without our stop along the way home for a traditional pit stop. Can you imagine 15 or so people exiting the bus on a side road in the pouring rain to find relief?

 

Well, enough about our trip, let's find out how the golfing went. After all, that is why we went!

 

· The winning team on a countback(whatever that is?) over the Jackson team with a 9 under par was the Varnes foursome with Ron, Rick, Matthew Varnes and Robin Fontaine. They were winners of the gold jacket with Ronnie Varnes being made to wear it and I must say he looked pretty dapper in it. Congratulations.

· Closest to the pin was Don Shiach. Congrats.

· Longest drive went to Grant Churchill with a staggering smack of 310 yards. Congrats to Churchy although we couldn't find anyone to verify the yardage!

· The putting contest was won by Robin Fontaine with $42.00 going to the Firefighters Burn Fund. Congrats. Thank-you Pat Carson for running the contest.

 

We thank the following people and companies for their generous contributions to the event:

 

Bruce Gourluk@ Big Guys Bar and Grill                      Gord Green@ Remax                            Ian Beavis 

John Devlin@ Color Trac Packaging Inc.       Clark Norman@ Kwik Kopy Printing   Caddy Shed

Molson's Breweries                                             Inwood Golf Course                               FRCC

Rick Wiles                                                            Jeff Tarko

 

Many thanks also must be expressed to Bruce Gourluk and Bruce Wiebe for stepping up on such short notice and making the event another successful FRCC Golf Day. Chairman Jim Devlin thanks everyone who attended and helped out in whatever way was necessary. He is hoping next years event will be better and bigger. I hope he was referring to the bus!!! Great job Jim.      

                                                                                  

FRCC CURLING BINGO

 

The FRCC recently had the opportunity to take part in a fund raising bingo at the Regent Casino. The FRCC realized a windfall of $1000.00 and many thanks go out to the following volunteers for a job well done: Jim and Christine MacGregor, Darcy and Judy Clendenan, Resby Coutts, Paul Pelletier, Ingi Ingaldson,Dan Hildebrand and partner Nicolle Brockie, and last but not least, Bill Forbes. Great job Gang!!

                                                       

FRCC  WEBSITE

 

The FRCC Website was recently updated and is up and running. There are many interesting things there including the FRCC Men's Curling schedules and for the first time the schedule of the Saturday Schoolmaster's Curling League. Congrats to them. Members of the FRCC are invited to check it out. The website is at www.mts.net/~frcc/

  

HANDICAPPED PARKING

 

I really don't know why people have to be constantly reminded about the fact that if you do not have a HANDICAPPED PARKING sticker issued for your vehicle then you cannot park in a HANDICAPPED PARKING zone. It's a Tow-away Zone. What is so hard to understand about this? So we ask you to please refrain from doing so. This is not rocket science.

 

NO PARKING AREAS

 

Also the area immediately adjacent to the front stairs on the south side of the building is a delivery parking area and reserved for delivery vehicles. Also east of the delivery parking spot are several staff parking stalls.

 

Please respect these restrictions as they are also safety related as well. Staff that work late shouldn't be expected to have to walk to the back lot to retrieve their vehicles or halfway down Daly Street either. Thanks for your cooperation.

 

REFURBISHED CHAIRS

 

John Hodge just never gives up. He is intent on fixing every single chair in our lounge area. Over the summer, John refurbished another 30-odd lounge chairs to go along with the 45-odd he tackled last season. Oh yeah, he also repainted the ladies locker room on the main level in a beautiful?? pastel green. Above and beyond the call of duty John, and we all thank you !

 

CANADIAN NATIONAL FIREFIGHTERS CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP

 

This season the Manitoba Fire Fighters Curling Association along with the Canadian Fire Fighters Curling Association are both celebrating their 50th anniversaries. The Manitoba Fire Fighters Curling Association will be holding their provincial championships once again at the Fort Rouge Curling Club. The event will take place from Feb. 5-8, 2009.

 

The MFFCA hopes to make this their biggest and best provincials ever and to do this, they are reminding and inviting all past and present firefighter curlers to either enter into the competition or by marking their calendars now with the dates of the event, to come out and  watch or participate in the activities. I myself have watched the curling and can vouch for the talent on the ice and the social activities off of it. General curling will be suspended during this time period so I myself am inviting curlers of the FRCC to come on out Feb. 5-8, 2009 and have some great fun. More info can be obtained by contacting the younger Bob Poole at bobpoole@shaw.ca or Manager Jeff.

 

EARLY MCT AND MCA BONSPIEL RESULTS

 

Jeff Stoughton and his team of Kevin Park, Rob Fowler, and Steve Gould won the Manitoba Lotteries Curling Classic in Brandon defeating Joel Jordison's Moose Jaw squad 8-7 in an extra end. Stoughton needed two on the 8th end to tie the game and then stole the extra end to win the $12,000 first prize. Jordison won $7,000 while semi-finalists Dave Bohn of Assinniboine Memorial and Alan Lyburn of Brandon each took away $4500 each.

 

Janet Harvey's foursome of Cheri-Ann Loder, Kristin Loder, and Carey Kirby won the Atkin's Curling Supplies Women's Classic at the Charleswood Curling Club beating Chelsea Carey of Morden 7-4 in the final to collect $3,500. The Carey team won $2,000 and Joel Brown's Deer Lodge team along with the Patti Burtnyk team from Assinniboine Memorial won $1,100 each in the semis.

 

Alex Forrest and his junior  team of Kody Janzen, Brady Zawada, and Trevor Grenkow from Deer Lodge Curling Club needed a tie-breaker win over Randy Dutiaume team to reach the semis of the Nott Autocorp Thanksgiving Charity Open at the Thistle Curling Club. They then followed that up with victories over Reid Carruthers of Beausejour and then Brad Haight of West Kildonan Curling Club to win the $2,300 first prize. The Haight team won $1,400 while the Carruthers team and the Sean Grassie team from Stonewall each took home $900 each.

 

Reg Malanchuk's Fort Rouge team of Vern Sheldon, Rob Rummery, and Terry Hunter with spare Lloyd McKay won the Neil Andrews Legends Classic bonspiel in Brandon on Oct. 19 and picked up the $3,000 first prize along with $375 in round-robin winnings. FRCC's Mark Franklin team qualified then lost.

 

At the Portage Curling Club, Glenn Howard"s Ontario team won the Meyers Norris Penny Men's cash spiel with a 9-1 victory over Brad Heidt's Kerrobert, Saskatchewan team and won $18,000 while Heidt walked away with $10,000. Wayne Middaugh of Toronto and Brad Gushue of Newfoundland lost in the semis and won $6,000 each. The Dave Boehmer team from Petersfield, the Kerry Burtnyk team from Assiniboine Memorial, the Daly Peters team from Beausejour, and the Willy Lyburn team from Brandon all came away with $4,000 each. 

 

KID'S CHRISTMAS PARTY

 

Once again the FRCC is glad to receive SANTA CLAUS in our second level clubroom on November 29,  10 AM. Members and staff alike are welcome to come out and meet him along with their little ones, also to be entertained by a magician. Parents are encouraged to attend. Treats, hot dogs, doughnuts, and drinks will be available to all. Look for sign-up forms by the main floor draw board sometime in early November. The event runs normally about two hours so bring your cameras and have a load of fun. Gifts for the little ones are suggested to be in the $10-$20 range to maintain some sense of continuity of costs. Santa thanks you. HOHOHO!!!

 

THE FEEL BAD FOR OUR FEARLESS MANAGER JEFF STORY

 

I told our fearless leader that this story was too good (sad) not to be shared with you people. If this man didn't have bad luck he would have no luck at all.

 

One beautiful weekend Jeff and a bunch of his mostly curling buddies were to go golfing up near Lac Du Bonnet and stay at a friend’s cottage in the Whiteshell. Now Jeff is sort of the type who likes to drive by himself and check out the local hiking trails. Sometimes he would even drive all the way to Pye's Landing near Clearwater Bay to get his favourite beer. So we were not too worried when he had not arrived at the cabin by Happy Hour. A little later on we heard the sound of a vehicle entering the yard, moving quite slowly I might add. We went out to greet him and were met by Jeff and his redisigned Suzuki. He had hit a deer somewhere near Rennie, Manitoba. The damage was substantial but believe it or not, the vehicle was still mobile. Upon further analyzing the damage, it was decided it shouldn't be driven so eventually it was towed back to Winnipeg. End of Chapter One.

 

Chapter Two. Jeff travels to Scotland quite often to visit relatives and watch as many Scottish League soccer games as he can fit in. Now remember, Jeff is carless at the moment and is not looking forward to buying a new vehicle just before his trip. He decides to wait. Sometime in the week before he is to leave, he decides to go for coffee with his buddies at St. Vital Center. So he rides his bike over from where he lives, not very far, just over the Bishop Grandin Bridge. Coffee ends and he rides home over the bridge and decides to take a bicycle trail once over the bridge. Well, wouldn't you know it, he wipes out into the brush. Oh well, everything seems to be okay, no broken bones or bad bumps or bruises. That's good because he's going away very shortly right? End of Chapter Two.

 

Chapter Three. Come departure day and Jeff climbs aboard this big, beautiful airplane and takes off for the United Kingdom. Now I don't know if you people keep up on your current events but GUESS WHAT AIRLINE Jeff flew on. You got it!  ZOOM!!!  And guess what Jeff decided to take overseas with him? A full blown case of poison ivy. I'll bet you can guess where he got it. So here he is in Scotland with no return ticket now and poison ivy that won't quit!. He tries to treat it with over the counter ointments but this fails to work so he has to go to a "real" doctor to receive "real" medicine and he receives a "really big" bill. It finally heals and his credit card company ponies up for his return trip. End of Chapter Three and just maybe the end of Jeff's Excellent Adventure.

 

CASINOS OF WINNIPEG WOMEN'S CLASSIC

 

FRCC once again hosted the Casinos of Winnipeg Women's Classic Bonspiel. It was a fabulous event and those who didn't show up to support the club and the event missed some great curling by some of the best female teams in both Canada and the world. The crowds were the best ever for this event and so was the prize money. In the end, Jan Sandison and her group of volunteers did a fabulous job and there were few if any complaints. As well the prize money was the biggest of any women's bonspiel to date.

 

Reaping the benefits of their great curling was the Michelle Englot team from Regina who took home the $16,000 first prize beating the Kelly Scott team from Kelowna who won $11,000. Losing in the semis were the Kaitlyn Lawes team from Winnipeg and the Cathy King team from Edmonton who picked up $6,000 each. The four teams who lost in the quarterfinals were the Jennifer Jones team from Winnipeg, the Annette Norberg team from Sweden, the Barb Spencer from our Fort Rouge CC, and the Cheryl Bernard team from the Calgary Winter Club. These four teams picked up $3700 each for their troubles. Also a new innovative idea that proved very popular with the teams was paying winning teams $100 for each win they had during the roundrobin play.

 

We would be remiss if we did not thank the staff of the Fort Rouge Curling Club, the ice making crew who once again wielded their magic that produced ice that the ladies all raved about, the great work of Rose Neufeld's timekeepers and Rose herself, the technical team who made the scores possible on the WWW, the drivers who drove the teams to and from the hotel and the airport, the people who manned the gate, ran the 50-50 draws and many others who gave of their time not only during these four days but before and after as well. This bonspiel would not be possible without their tireless hours. Congrats to all involved. 

 

2008/2009 MANITOBA CURLING ASSOCIATION CALENDAR OF EVENTS

 

The dates, entry deadlines, locations, and entry fees for the MCA  berth bonspiels and Winnipeg zone playdowns for this curling season can be found on the leagues boards, on the MCA website www.curlmanitoba.org or you can ask Manager Jeff.

 

Submitted for your enjoyment by your general newshound, Don "Scoop" Wiles.