PORT McNEILL—For curlers, scoring an elusive "eight-ender" is a rarity akin to carding a hole-in-one in golf.
Local skip Tom Baker pulled off the rarest feat for the second time in his career during Broughton Curling Club men's league play last week. And to make it even more rare, Baker did not even have the hammer — or final rock thrown in the match.
When the opposing skip's final stone gently tapped one of Baker's rocks into the 12-foot ring, it left Baker's rink with all eight of its red stones in the house, which was devoid of opposing blue rocks.
Baker's rink included Arly Blight, Jacques Gaudet and Doug Goodman.
The eight-ender occured in the third end of Baker's match against Rob Conley's rink and gave Baker a 9-2 lead.
Baker can only hope the highlight carries over to this weekend, when Broughton Curling Club hosts the first Bill Gurney Memorial Men's Open Bonspiel beginning Friday night. The tournament is the 34th men's open hosted by the club, and beginning this year is will commemorate longtime club member and volunteer Bill Gurney, who died in March this year.
The first draw is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday. Play continues throughout Saturday, and finals are tentatively scheduled for early afternoon Sunday.
Lounge and concession will be open throughout the bonspiel.
For info, call Mike at 250-949-1245 or Nick at 250-956-2736.