The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

PAGE 14, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9, 1981, WHITBY FREE PRESS Whitby Free Press SPOR TS WEEK Savage captures Sun Life titie By RIMAS MIECIUS Four strangers finally put it all together when Paul Savage of Dundas Granite won the Sun Life Invitational Bon- spiel last Saturday evening. Savage, a reknowned skip with a new rink, easily got past Londoner Ken Buchan - last year's winner - 8 to 3 to claim the top prize in the main event of $7,000. The victory ended an erratie year of curling for the left-handed shooting Savage and placed his rink into the forefront of competitive Ontario teams with the most loot collected so far this season - a total of $11,900. "We were four stran- gers at the beginning of the year," said Savage, a 34-year-old publish- ing executive. "But now we've gotten to know one another better." Filling out the Dundas rink are John Kawaja at vice-skip, second Don Reddick and lead Mike "Stepper" Steplock. Savage squarely shouldered the blame for the team's early losses this fall. "I was inconsistent, terrible and I didn't have confidence in my shot," he said. "But then I threw 200 rocks and since then I've only missed a few shots." Things were so bad for the four-time On- tario men's champion that he couldn't even qualify for the club ber- th in the provincial men's playdowns. Savage vacated his tra- ditional home at Avon- lea Curling Club, a hot- bed of tough competi- tion, to the easier pastures of Dundas Granite only to be humi- liated in the club. But things picked up in the last month as Savage qualified in the money at the Soo and Thunder Bay. His Sun Life victory capped his return to prominence. Elements of mysticism enshroud the Savage win. Foremost is the "Whitby jinx." It has been common know-' ledge for years that no skip has ever won the bonspiel twice. Buchan was saddled with this fact, though he lended no creedence to the hex. "I don't believe in it," Buchan, a school teacher, said. "I felt the same as in any other game ... but I sure didn't play like that in the first few ends." Yet, Savage was over- joyed after his 6 to 2 semi-final win over Hamilton Thisle skip Jaim. Hawkins to find out Buchan would meet him in the final. "If we play Buchan then we're automatic winners because of the jinx," Savage smiled. But a second helping of the supernatural was involved. Frances Reddick, the wife of Savage's second, made several predic- tions at the beginning of the season that were sealed in envelopes. The first that proved correct was that the team wouldn't win their club, but the second was just as eerie: the rinks would wir mne of the top three bonspiels in On- tario. Savage jumped on Buchan early in the final game as he took three in the first end, then stole a deuce in the next one. From that point it was academic as Savage expertly peeled ominous guards and kept the game clean. Buchan, who was backed up by vice-skip Mitch Czaja, second Steve Doyle and lead Ross Guest, explained his problems in the early going: "I misread the ice. One shot hooked more than I expected then I threw a bad one. We really didn't test them, but they sure do play a good hitting game when they're ahead." The local hopes hung on Whitby icemaker Gord Carroll, who was ---------- one of the final eight rinks to qualify for the -main event after the preliminary rounds were played .by all 64 competing rinks. Carroll, a 44-year-old Newfoundlander, lost his first game to Haw- kins 7 to 4 to drop down into the fourth event. He then surprised Bruce Delaney of Ottawa Navy 7 to 5 in an enjoyable game watched by a majority of the Whitby Curling Club fans. Carroll then ran into veteran shooter Jim Sharples of Leaside in the fourth-event final, losing 9 to5. Joe Gurowka of Royals defeated Haw- kins 8 to 5 to win the second event; Ottawa skip Roger Mitchell took the third event with a draw for two coming home to shade Gary Rusconi of Humber Highland 4 to 3; former Ontario champ Bob Fedosa, now of Erin Curling Club, downed his own clubmate Stu Bennett of Annandale 5 to 3 to capture the fifth event; and London's Bruce Munro thumped Tom Steen of Oshawa 7 to 1. pW Whitby's Gord Carroll led his rink to a cliffhanger victory over Ottawa Navy's Bruce Delaney to gain his way into the final of the fourth event. His rink eventually lost out to Jim Sharples fWhitby's Carroll denied Lr main and 4th event crowns W.C.C. players sweep stone into house -Whitby's home town hope in the final eight rinks that played off for the $7,000 main event prize in the Sun Life In- vitational Bonspiel Gord Carroll was taken out of contention for the big money by the Hamilton Thistle rink skipped by Jim Hawkins. Carroll, the Whitby Curling Club's ice maker for the past three years, called the ice the quickest it had been all year, causing him to over throw a stone in the sixth end, giving Hawkins three points on his way to the 7 to 4 vic- tory. "That does it in this type of competition. You can't just give away three points," said Carroll. With the early draw loss the Whitby "ice man" was dropped into the fourth event. In what had to be his closest match of the day Carroll defeated Bruce Delaney of Ottawa Navy 7 to 5 in the first game of the fourth draw. Behind 4 to 3, Carroll stole two in the eight end forcing Delaney to bat- tle for a tie in the ninth. With the score tied at five in the final end the Whitby rink managed to steal two, putting the game away. "I'd say it was the most difficult lot of spectacular shots in that game," said Carroll. "Delaney played an exceptional game and that's a tricky sheet of ice to play." That match up took place on sheet number four, one which Carroll said has the "most character on the rink." "It's the one most suited to Sun Life curl- ing." Ottawa skip Bruce Delaney said his rink's aggressive shooting in the first end didn't work out. "We didn't really get too much in the way of rolls today," he said. "You've got to curl well and be very fortu- nate to win and we didn't crul well and we weren't fortunate." Carroll's victory set up the final match for the fourth event bet- ween his Whitby rink of vice Dave Miller, second Ross Troop and lead Rob Morton and Jim Sharples of Lea- side. Sharples handed Carroll a 9 to 5 defeat. Carroll became the first Whitby rink to ad- vance to the finals in the Sun Life competition when his rink swept three games in the first round of main event play. Paul Savage of Dun- das Granite was this year's main event win- ner when he defeated defending champion Ken Buchan of London 8 to 3. A total of some $21,300 in prize money was up for grabs.