The domination of out of town rinks at the Bashaw Men’s bonspiel was curtailed this year with a local rink taking top spot.
The rink skipped by Jim Whitehouse — with third Dale Weins, second Josh Towpich and lead Jeff Ramstad — used steals in three different ends to force the Brady Armstrong rink from Erskine to shake hands early for a 7-2 win in seven ends.
Whitehouse opened the game being limited to a single with hammer, but capitalized on some misses and shots coming up short to steal one each in the next two ends to open up a 3-0 lead.
Armstrong caught a break in the fourth to score a pair when Whitehouse’s final stone came up short.
The Bashaw rink shot back with a single in five, but the real dagger came in the sixth end as Armstrong saw a stone pick and then pulled the string on a draw with his final stone to give Whitehouse a steal of three for a 7-2 lead.
Armstrong was in more trouble in the seventh and shook hands before throwing his skip stones to hand over the win.
However, the rest of the event saw other Erskine rinks walking away with victories.
Ritchie Chapman, last year’s champion, finished off the rink of Kerry Andrew from Bashaw by a count of 6-3 in seven ends to win the B-event. A pair of steals early along with a three spot in the sixth end, which easily could have been four, had Chapman in the game’s drivers seat.
As for the C-event, the Erskine rink skipped by Miles Armstrong defeated Brad Carlson from Bashaw 4-2, eventually running the locals out of rocks.
