Bonspiel marks 105th Anniversary

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The 105th Dawson City International Bonspiel was held February 19 ­ 21 with 18 teams taking part.

Mark Castellarin skipped his rink of Jim Leary, Lorraine Millar and Duane MacKenzie to A-side victory over surprise runner-up Dick Van Nostrand whose team of Eric and Lori Zalitis and Monna Sprokreeff were the surprise of the ‘spiel. Coming in to the tournament

The Mark Casterllarin Rick claimed A-side victory. Photo by Madeleine Gould

with little preparation, Van Nostrand’s rink fought their way to the final only to lose a hard-fought battle against a consistent and steady Castellarin rink.

In the B-Side final, rinks skipped by Akio Saito and Jack Fraser exchanged points over 8 well-fought ends before Saito secured a nail-biting two-point victory with his last rocks. C-Side action saw the Chris Mayes’ rink snatch a slim victory from the Potoroka rink. Neither team were able to score more than one point an end before the Mayes rink broke out for 4 in the 7th and buried Potoroka’s hopes for c-side glory.

In a closely-contested and well curled D-Side

Akio Saito was MC for the Bonspiel and the winner of the Burt Boyd Trophy for contributions to curling in the Yukon. Photo by Madeleine Gould

final, Monica Kulych’s rink from Whitehorse took out the Odd Rocks from Fairbanks. These two talented clubs entertained the crowd with perhaps the best played game of the tournament. The well-executed shots and brilliant strategy displayed by both these rinks had many in the crowd wondering why they were in the d-side final in the first place.

Skip Rick Reimer took a strange route to the prize table by earning “first out” honours at this year’s ‘spiel. Reimer was helped by a two-end drubbing in his second game that saw his team give up 8 points in the first two ends. The Reimer team had shaken hands and were on their way to the refreshment stand before anyone could suggest a third end.

The event capped off with a banquet at Diamond Tooth Gertie’s where it was revealed that event organizer Akio Saito had received the Burt Boyd Trophy the previous week for outstanding contribution to curling in the Yukon. The award comes in recognition for Mr. Saito’s commitment to curling in the Klondike.

Dawson Musher Takes 7th Place in Junior Quest

by Dan Davidson

Where will the next generation of mushers come from? They are out there, already, and one of the proving grounds for future racers, as shown by Kyla Boivin, is the Junior Yukon Quest, which was run from Fairbanks to Twin Bears, Alaska, on February 7th and 8th.

Joining the pack this year was 14 year old Daniel Joinson of Dawson, running his first big race since he began the sport at the age of 9. On his first attempt he managed to place 7th in a field of 14 mushers in a total time of 24 hours and 23 minutes.

Daniel Joinson. photo by Dan Davidson

Daniel says that he’s always been around dogs and got nipped by the urge to race while following in father Jerry’s footsteps. First he ran along with his dad, but eventually started running alone. Daniel looks after his own dogs, a task which consumes many hours a week, but enjoys the time he spends with them.

Training for races is a hard job which takes place with or without snow, though running with a sled is preferable to running with a four-wheeler.

Daniel says the Junior Quest was a test he set himself just to see if he could do it. Finishing with all 10 dogs was important to him.

The race follows the Quest trail for a day’s run to Twin Bears, where the teams have to take a 12 hour layover before leaving again. Daniel found that he didn’t get a lot of sleep there - got way too little, in fact.

He credits his dogs with keeping him on the return trail when he fell asleep for what he thinks was about 30 minutes. Something woke him up just as his team finally missed a trail marker, and after he figured it out he had to backtrack a little, but not too much.

Other than that, he says the race was hard, but also fun.

Daniel had a lot of community support, but also worked hard to raise the money for this venture. One of his sponsors was the City of Dawson, for whom he did odd jobs in exchange. Council members commented at the time that it was wonderful to have someone ask for a way to raise money rather than just asking for it.

Other sponsors included Colonel Norris Petit (Canadian Forces National Defence, Northern Division), the Klondike Visitors Association, Van Every Inc., Wild ‘n’ Wooly, Hair Cabaret, The Dog House, Klondike Kate’s, Al and Madeline Rothwell, Marg Hicks, Jim and Lou Anderson.