Strong oil sector boosts bonspiel

The stars aligned to make the 54th Lloydminster Oil and Gas Open Bonspiel a notable one, thanks to a strong energy sector and a revitalized organizing committee.

It will go into the history books as the eighth A-Event title for Monte Armstrong’s rink and the second with his current crew of Colby Benoit, Mike Welygan and Tyson Armstrong since 2018.

They beat the Brett Rowan rink 7-2 in the final, called after six ends.

Bonspiel president, Ryan Rowan, was clearly stoked about having 28 teams take part, up from 24 a year ago.

“It’s a little bit healthier in the oil industry right now. Sponsorship is up, and curlers seem to be coming out a bit better,” explained Rowan during the event banquet at the WLS Convention Centre Friday night.

“We’re up this year for the banquet too. This place is full right now.”

Rowan also thinks having a new, younger organizing committee helps the cause.

“Lots of people stepped up this year. We had some long-time committee members retire last year,” added Rowan.

Those long-time volun - teers were Monte Armstrong, Jeff Latos and Mikey Armstrong, who were presented with recognition plaques for their combined 104 years of service.

The profile of this year’s bonspiel was raised by having Lloydminster-trained curlers Mike Armstrong and Evan Latos play on their respective Saskatchewan and Yukon teams in the recent 2023 Brier.

“A couple of Lloydminster boys in the Brier always helps,” said Rowan.

Evan showed up for the oilmen’s with his dad, Jeff, on the Brian Robinson rink.

“I haven’t played him yet, but I’m looking forward to giving it a shot,” said Rowan.

The main VIP of the tournament was Fred North, who accepted the Oilman of the Year award with a few words of thanks to those who selected him.

“I would just like to thank them for thinking of an old truck driver to give him this honour and we really appreciate it,” he said, speaking for him and his wife, Lily.

He was introduced as a man of few words and stuck to that script, followed by a standing ovation.

One of North’s fans is Ron Milne, who turns up at the banquet every year as a past

Oilman of the Year in 2010.

“That’s a good guy to pick. I’m glad they picked him,” said Milne, who no longer curls.

The banquet was also the perfect opportunity for the younger Latos to talk a bit about his second crack at the Brier, hosted in London, Ont. in early March.

“It’s nice to talk to everybody and share my experience that I had there,” he said.

The Yukon team posted a 2-6 record with Evan as the lead.

“It was really exciting to see how much the team progressed between last year and this year. We were right in there every game against some of the top teams,” he said.

Evan is hoping to be back next year when the Brier is in Regina and close to home.

“There would be a lot of support from Saskatoon and Lloydminster. I have a lot of relatives around. It would be great to be back for sure,” he said.

Evan qualifies as an import player virtually working in Saskatoon for his employer’s branch in Whitehorse.

Evan says his team got a lot of texts and messages at the Brier from people throughout the week, especially with the week they had.

“We were on TV a few times, had a couple of good games upsetting B.C. It was nice to see everyone cheering us along,” he said.

They also lost a nail-biter to the Glenn Sturmay Wildcard No. 3 rink from St. Albert that finished 3-5 with Glenn Venance from Kitscoty onboard.

“They had to make a hit to win and they ended up beating us by one,” said Evan with his parents looking on at the Brier.

Jeff says it was great for him and his wife, Olesia, to see Evan play in London.

“It was wonderful to be able to watch him there,” he said.

Jeff also said Evan had been out-curling him at the oilmen’s all week, but he was holding his own.

When the dust settled, their team qualified for the A-event, but was knocked out of contention for the semifinals.

“They were one rock away,” reported Olesia.