The 37th annual Sports­men’s Bonspiel was held at South Muskoka Curling and Golf Club at the end of March.

There were 23 teams from all parts of Ontario and one from France who registered for this bonspiel, making it an international event.

To honour the special guests the bonspiel organizers had a presentation by Bracebridge Mayor Don Coates. He brought greetings from the town and presented gifts before throwing the first rock to start the bonspiel.

Team France, consisting of Thomas Dufour, Tony Angiboust, Richard Ducroz, Raphael Mathieu, Jan Ducroz and coach Andre Ferland used the bonspiel as a warm-up for the Men’s World Curling Championship in Grand Forks, North Dakota, which began April 4 and finished on the weekend.

While South Muskoka played kind hosts to the World curling participants, they didn’t roll over and play dead.

The first-place team turned out to be the only ones to beat our guests. That was the team who won the Muskoka Mechanical Trophy, consisting of Archie Buie, John Bontje, Joe MacNeil and Neil Buie.

The runner-up team was Matt Lillie, Gary Love, Ian Lillie and Doug Millar who came from Parry Sound.

The second event trophy, Muskoka Kia was won by Team France. Accepting the trophy from Jay Houston was the rink of Thomas Dufour, Tony Angiboust, Richard Ducroz and Raphael Mathieu.

Runner-up was the team of Barry Moylan, Brian Moffatt, Paul Bertrand and Wayne Ferreira who play out of Annandale Curling Club in Pickering.

Gagnon’s Your Independent Grocer Trophy winners were the team of Adam Wallace, Jeff Gilbert, Greg Corbett and Nathan Guy from SMC&GC. The runner-up team was Bill Harrison, Trevor Harrison, Ben Willemse and John Willemse from Woodville.

The Labatt’s Trophy winners were Steve Cooke, Andrew Kuehn, Brandon Kuehn and Brian Howden from SMC&GC. Runners-up from Tam Heather Curling club in Scarborough were Matt Cook, Joe O’Hearn, Jim Tebo and Mike Mumford.