Left to right are: Gerry Sundwall from OMTCURL, Bryan Cochrane – skip, Ian MacAulay – third, Graham Sinclair – second, and Ken Sullivan – lead. Courtesy Photo
RUSSELL – The Russell Curling Club has a habit of turning out winners.
Team Cochrane from the club has won top honours at the Ontario Seniors Men and Women Provincial Championship.
The competition was held at the Ingersoll District Curling Club from March 15 to 18.
The Cochrane team’s win sends them to Vernon, BC for the nationals on December 4 to the 10.
Bryan Cochrane, the team’s skip is already thinking ahead to December.
“It is kind of nice at this old age of 65,” said Cochrane.
The team is no stranger to success on the ice.
It is the fifth time the team has won the Ontario championship. They also won two Canadian championships, once in 2016 and then again in 2018. They also won the Worlds Senior Championship in Norway in 2019.
This year’s championship features eight men’s teams from around the province.
At the end of round robin play, the team finished in second place.
“We had to win the semi-final game on Sunday morning against the team that had come in first place after the round robin,” explained Cochrane.
Team Cochrane was up against the Rob Lobel Team from the Lindsay Curling Club.
“We played pretty well, but we got some breaks. The score was really close early on in the game, but we stole two in the fifth end, which made the score 5-2 and then we got another break in the sixth end, and we stole two more and we went up 7- 2.”
The team was confident going into competition, but they had to be realistic about their chances. Cochrane said this was the eleventh time at the senior provincials and he said this was the best senior field we have ever had.
Now that the championship has been won, there is some time to rest up and get ready for the December championships.
“We will just continue to play and practice,” said Cochrane, adding that the team will be strategizing about their game.
The team likes to focus on their ability to curl the rock when they throw it, so they are hoping that the ice in the December games lends itself to that kind of play.
The next step for the team is to round up sponsors ahead of the nationals in Vernon.
For more information about how to support Team Cochrane visit the Russell Curling Club’s Facebook page or message them.
Joseph Morin is the Editor of the Eastern Ontario AgriNews, and the Record. He is, despite years of practice, determined to eventually play the guitar properly. He has served the Eastern Ontario community as a news editor, and journalist for the past 25 years with the Iroquois Chieftain, Kemptville Advance, West Carleton Review, and Ottawa Carleton Review in Manotick. He has never met a book he did not like.
