Broomstones 2 skip Andrew Glaser chose a defensive strategy that prevented Philadelphia 1 from building any big ends and earned a 4-2 victory in the Green Trophy finals Sunday as the 52nd annual Junior Invitational Bonspiel concluded at the Schenectady Curling Club.
Sponsored by The Gazette Newspapers since 1962, the Green Trophy is named after John Garside Green, who was publisher of the Gazette from 1946-64. The three-day bonspiel attracted 18 rinks from six states and Quebec.
Glaser’s rink, from Wayland, Mass., grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first end, then was able to blank the next three ends by continuously knocking its opponents’ rocks out of the house before picking up two more stones in the fifth.
“I didn’t want to let them get two points, which worked well for us,” said Glaser, 18, a Green bonspiel regular who won an event for the first time.
“We got lucky in the fifth end. He [Philadelphia skip Daniel Dudt] missed his last shot, and we stole two points.”
Glaser was not curling with a regular rink, but rather with friends from the Broomstones club that he assembled for the weekend for “a fun spiel.” One of them, lead Alex Harlow, 19, actually lives in Dallas, but his family also owns a home in Cape Cod, and he regularly curls out of Broomstones for bonspiels. Jenna Burchesky, 15, played vice skip, and Lily Wadsworth, 17, was in the two spot.
The quick start helped Glaser to utilize his defense in the subsequent ends.
“It was a good first end,” he said. “There was a guard out front, and I got behind it. He [Dudt] tried to draw down on top of my rock, but he missed, so I drew for two.”
Dudt, who was curling with Sean Burchesky (a Broomstones member), Ben Nikitas and Andrew Dudt, had an open draw for two in the sixth end and attempted to use his own counter as a backstop, but his draw weight was heavy, and he knocked the original stone out and settled for one.
Philadelphia got another point in the seventh end when Glaser tried a double takeout with the hammer, but one Philadelphia rock remained in the house.
In the final end, with three guards out front, Glaser was able to promote one of his own rocks to the middle of the house to take the advantage away from Philadelphia, leaving Dudt a difficult final shot attempt at two, but he couldn’t get the second Broomstones rock to slide out of the house. Glaser did not have to deliver his last stone.
The host club had a medal winner as Ryan McMakin’s Schenectady 1 entry scored three in each of the fourth and sixth ends to rally past Montreal West 2 and skip Dominique Jean, 9-7, for the Munro Medal in the third event.
The second event, the Eugene A. Fink Medal for first-round losers in the Green, went to Nutmeg (Ken Sluslavich) of Bridgeport, Conn., an 8-4 winner over Justin Hoge’s Broomstones 3 rink.
In the fourth event, the Mackintosh Medal for semifinal losers from the Green Trophy, Nashua (Morgan Lee) rallied with four in the seventh to tie, but Philadelphia/Plainfield/Ardsley skip Scott Dunnam used the hammer to pull out a 6-5 decision in the final end.
GREEN TROPHY
Broomstones 2 200 020 0x — 4
Philadelphia 1 000 001 1x — 2
FINK MEDAL
Nutmeg 003 032 xx — 8
Broomstones 3 110 200 xx — 4
MUNRO MEDAL
Montreal West 2 004 020 1x — 7
Schenectady 1 210 303 0x — 9
MACKINTOSH MEDAL
Nashua 001 000 40 — 5
Phil/Plain/Ards. 110 211 01 — 6
GAZETTE COVERAGE
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