THUNDER BAY – Trevor Bonot has skipped his rink to back-to-back Tbaytel Major League of Curling championship.
The veteran skip made a crucial hit-and-stick in the eighth end on Saturday, facing a pair of Brian Adams Jr. stones, to avoid giving up a steal, and squeaked out a 6-4 win in the championship game at the Port Arthur Curling Centre.
It was a great way to cap off a roller coaster seasons for the 2024 Northern Ontario men’s curling champions, who came up short last month in their push for a second straight provincial title at the very same venue.
But that’s in the past, Bonot said.
“Last week at the provincials we weren’t super sharp. We’re pretty disappointed. Obviously we worked pretty hard this year to try to defend that title. But we knew coming into today that we could have a three-game day like we did last weekend,” Bonot said.
“We were ready to go.”
Winning back-to-back titles is never easy in the 18-team league.
Dylan Johnston accomplished the feat in 2020 and 2022, but before that it was Jeff Currie in 2012 and 2013.
It was the seventh Major League title for Bonot’s third, Mike McCarville, who also won consecutive crowns playing third for Joe Scharf in 2010 and 2011.
“We knew we had this weekend to look forward to and this league is always so competitive. It’s been many, many years of me playing in this one. We came here with a goal to win three games and we did it,” McCarville said.
Team Bonot, which also includes lead Kurtis Byrd and second Jordan Potts, took out Ron Rosengren 8-7 in the morning quarterfinal draw, scoring three in the eighth to pull out the come-from-behind win. They needed extra ends to edge their coach, Al Hackner, in the semifinal, edging the two-time world champion 6-5.
Adams, by no means, was an easy foe in the final.
It was Bonot to made the first big move, however.
After ceding one to Adams with hammer in the first, Bonot bounced back, making a draw for three in the second.
They orchestrated steals of one in the third and fourth and led 5-1 at the break.
Adams, Joel Adams, Colin Koivula and Mark Koivula may have been down, but they weren’t out.
After blanking the fifth, he retained hammer in the sixth and, after Bonot couldn’t remove a pair of Adams stones from the centre of the rings, Adams was left with a freeze to his own for a pair, cutting the gap to 5-3.
On his final stone in the seventh he put down the perfect guard, protecting shot stone in the four-foot. Bonot tried the hit, but could only brush his opponent’s rock and the steal of one made it 5-4 heading into the final end.
Adams came up short on a draw to the eight that would have given Bonot pause for thought on his final rock had it been a few feet further into the rings, leaving Bonot a cut-and-dried shot to secure the win and avoid the steal.
“It’s never easy, man,” McCarville said. “We knew that was going to happen. With the lead, you kind of play a little safe in order to protect the scoreboard. But you know if you do that and they make a couple of shots, it’s going to come down to the wire.
“It was nice to have that one-point lead with the hammer and Trev made a really nice shot with his last one for the win.”
