Full Yearbook - Manitoba Curling Association

o’grady Challenge
recap of seasons 2010-11 and 2011-12
he beautiful O’Grady Trophy presented for
t the first time in Winnipeg back in 1908, is
on display in the Manitoba Curling Hall-of-Fame.
The O’Grady has been in continuous competition
ever since, and challenges are governed by Trustees
on behalf of CurlManitoba, and are open to all
affiliated curling clubs.
A record of every challenge is kept in log books
which travel with the holders, and each participant
receives a unique O’Grady competitor pin embossed
with the year of competition. A complete history
of the event, including results of all matches right
up to the end of last season, can be found on the
CurlManitoba website under “Other Competitions”.
The 2010-11 season began with match #1422
when Pembina CC (as holders from the prior year)
travelled to Morden where they defeated the boys
from Morden Curling Club.
December 19, 2010 featured a match with two
O’Grady Trustees – Don Stewart from Manitou and
Ron Lloyd from Fort Garry – facing each other;
possibly the first time for such an occurrence. This
match happened at the end of the same week that
our fellow Trustee Jim Sproule passed away. Jim
must have been pulling for Don, as the boys from
Manitou defeated the Fort Garry teams. After the
match and a friendly hour, a delicious roast beef
dinner was served to all, before the Fort Garry boys
headed home to Winnipeg.
A highlight of this season was a great run by the
Elmwood Club in their 100 th anniversary year. In
match #1431 they hosted and defeated Treherne, and
then went on to win five more matches before being
stopped by Beausejour. Congratulations fellows!
The sad part of the season was the passing of Jim
Sproule of Thistle – an O’Grady Trustee for 15 years.
Jim’s main ambition when coming on board was
to compile and make available all of the statistics
from some 1,400 match sheets. One of the benefits
of Jim’s efforts is that each curling club now has a
complete list of all the players who represented them
over the past 100+ years of O’Grady competition. Jim
also championed Col.
O’Grady’s election
into the Hall-of-Fame
in 2010.
Two new Trustees,
Ron Margolis of
Charleswood (first
O’Grady appearance
in 1999) and Rod
MacKay of Fort Garry (first O’Grady appearance in
2005), both past directors of the provincial curling
association, joined Ron Lloyd and Don Stewart in
2010, to help steward the O’Grady competition in the
years ahead.
2011-12 began with the Granite as holders,
and the season included the first every appearance
by the Argyle Curling Club – who challenged and
hosted Selkirk. Unfortunately for Argyle, the Selkirk
boys were in the midst of an 11 match run that
finally ended in Morden at the end of February, and
also included travels to Teulon, Treherne, Glenboro,
Carberry, Hartney, and Roland, as well as three visits
to Winnipeg clubs.
Other multiple winners during the season
included Portage and Morden.
At season’s end, the O’Grady title was held by the
Pembina club, who coincidentally won their very first
challenge for the O’Grady trophy back in March of
1962 – almost exactly 50 years ago. Pembina carried
the “O’Grady briefcase” containing travelling plaque
and log book to match #1462 at the home of the
next season’s first challenger in the fall of 2012.
For further information on the O’Grady Challenge,
please contact any of the Trustees:
Ron Margolis
(204) 295-0163 ron@margoliscapital.com
Ron Lloyd
(204) 255-6495
Don Stewart
(204) 242-2910 ldstew@mts.net
Rod Mackay
(204) 255-8307 Rodmack@mts.net
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curlmanitoba YEarbooK – 2012/13