Gregory takes gold at Ontario Parasport Winter Games

Ken Gregory's Bradford rink rebounded from a morning final round robin draw defeat by beating Thunder Bay's Carl Levesque in an extra end of the gold medal tie-break game at the Ontario Parasport Winter Games at the Kingston CC.

Gregory went out to an early 5-0 lead with a steal of 4 in the second, but gave back a steal of 3 in the fourth. Levesque took 2 in the eighth to force the extra, but conceded a single to lose 8-7 to the far more experienced Bradford team.

Levesque   0  0  3  1  0  1  0  2  0 - 7
Gregory    1  4  0  0  1  0  1  0  1 - 8

Team Gregory will now be favourites to repeat as Ontario Champions at the Provincials February 17-20 at the Collingwood CC.

Rock & Roll Funspiel January 23rd in Bradford ON

Ken Gregory and Bruce Gorsline at Bradford CC
(photo Bradford Times)

The Bradford CC is teaming up with the Canadian Paraplegic Association to host the Rock & Roll Funspiel on Saturday January 23rd.

Bradford is the home club of Team Ontario skip Ken Gregory who told the Bradford Times that he changed venues from Toronto when the club made the ice and washrooms accessible six years ago.

The organizers hope the spiel will build interest in curling, and especially in wheelchair curling as an activity for those with spinal cord injuries.

"It's one of the few sports that wheelchair and able-bodied can play on equal ground," Gregory says.

The goals are to raise funds for the Canadian Paraplegic Association Ontario, but also to raise awareness of the challenges and triumphs of people with spinal cord injuries living in the municipality. You can see the event poster and registration details HERE or register on-line HERE.

USA beat Great Britain in Cathy Kerr final

Teams had an early start Sunday morning as the semi-finals of the the Annual Cathy Kerr Memorial Spiel began at 8.30am at Ottawa's RA Club.

Great Britain beat Chris Sobkowicz's Manitobans 6-3 and USA beat last year's Ontario champions Team Gregory 8-6.

In the afternoon final it was USA over Great Britain 9-4, with Gregory claiming bronze with a 9-5 win over Sobkowicz. Great Britain had Michael McCreadie calling the game from 3rd with Aileen Nielsen throwing last rocks. Team USA rotated their fifth player, who then skipped the USA 2 side.

In the recreation division Robert Michel was the winner and Aaron Wong-Sing was the runner-up. Both teams are from Ottawa.

The results mean that Bruce Cameron, Ken Gregory and Chris Rees all qualify for the Ontario ParaSports Winter Games to be held in Kingston in January 2010. Richard Fraser will be the alternate.

During the semis and finals, the other competitive teams curled for pride and experience so everyone had six games over the weekend.