:_ These are strange. times in the

land of the fantastic. and super-
natural where the Ship of State,
‘with @ mutinous crew and can-
- mons rattling about on-its decks,
_ delfts. closer and closer to the
“rocks.” ee
~S-go to,bed with the image if
~ the Captain himself mumbling

~~ about Nazi oppression and the ~

_-presumption of guilt as he flees
“a’media press gang. The next

‘some dragon lady barking
: about a suitcase full of money is
-/ my wakeupcal
*“*'Bills, bills, and more Bills.
"Political life in British Colum-
“bia gets more surreal with’ the
passage of each one, Finally we
get a cabinet-approved bill that
proposes to cut back on the
~ dioxinated waste which is slowly

plotting:

«Despite appearances, the

tional sport. -:

magnitude of importance
~ global events like the Gulf

t's a good, time to ‘sit

ee

waters and Bill kills it, 7
One craves honesty, integrity, .

“morning the strident. voice :of .

accountability and a skipper

-with an understanding of what -

is required to restore the soiled
sections of our provincial’ en-
- vironment, and the guts to pre-

- vent the degradation and ero- |

sion of what is left.

_ thoughts rattling around in my
mind as I] drive toward Kitimat
for a meeting with a group of
people whose salaries are in

danger of being clobbered by:

yet another Bill.
It’s the day before spring but

_ the ponds in the marsh around -

the hot springs are still frozen.

‘Cedar snags and a few old.

spruce rise from the cold, morn-
ing mists. Sockeye Creek is dead
low, its banks the colour of

. These, then, are-the kinds of

_ The Skeena
Anigler
by Rob Brown —

but there are.no signs of life.

Conflict and politics, are all
but gone from my mind.as I
come over the crest of the hill,

and see the Kitimat River.win- .

ding its. way toward the sea.
When I see a fisherman taking

his rod out of the car on the.

other side of the orange bridge,

I'm thinking tranquil thoughts.

mof rivers and fish once again.

Findlay, I recall, told me of

“Ted Rawlins and I fished it
years ago,” Fin said: ‘Ted
knew how to catch them, He'd

fished for cutthroats.on. Van-.
couver Island, near Parksville.’

. “Did you get any?’’
“Sure. Ted would find a
place where some fresh water

trickled down jnto the salt.
'.He’d walk to the end of it and

fish right there.”

was ‘just being’ assembled. 1.

. wondered if fishing the tides for
‘trout-would retain any appeal

three decades later. With an
hour and a half to spare, ] turn-
ed toward the Haisla reserve to

’ find out,

A lot of logging had taken

’, ‘place since I’d passed this way.

A mile or.so this side of MK Bay

"a helicopter was ‘being used to
‘remove some timber. I parked

near the spot Findlay had

_described and walked out onto

the estuary. -

The tide was low and still run-
ning.” The mud: made ‘sucking
sounds as [ walked through it.

“On the: beach, like a stranded
: whale, ‘lay an enormous lodge

built atop a barge, next to it a
leaning sloop with Sanity writ-
ten across its stern. Far out in

J" + Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 27, 1991

heads of, three'se

| _but inevitably killing our coastal

- STRESSED OUT. And no wonde

rust. Blackwater Creek is open

sea trout in the Kitimat River-:
estuary! ;

d

. That was during the days
"when the industrial complex

the bay -] counted the dark

PORTS NEWS,

JEFF NAGEL 638-7283 | TERRACE STANDARD ©

“Somewhere in the warrens and dark places of the
city: — even-as you read this — groups of normally
tespectable citizens are. conspiring, calculating and

annual orgy of nefarious

activity ‘that ‘cuts loose this season isn’t about drug-
‘punning or electioneering — it's about Canada’s na-

+x The late hours, the reams of paper littering desks,
the burnt-out calculators and the bloodshot eyes.,
~ They reflect the agony of-declsion — of momentous
“choices belng made by hockey poolsters everywhere.
_ This is a time of year, after all, in which news.
~ reports of a bunyon on Brett Hull's toe take on a

normally only accorded:
War. _ ,

’ > And asthe dedicated ponder whether to go with
2 ony Granato or Steve Yzerman in the third round,

back and analyze that

“mysterious dnimal known as the hockey pool.
Canadians have a penchant for both gambling and
‘hockey. All the money we spend in a year on lottery

-“}iiekets, bingos, NHL game tickets, hockey gear and

= hockey pools.

: “organizers are worried,

‘Of

paraphernalia added. together could probably |
~ eliminate, the national deficit in one swipe, Finance .
' minister Michael Wilson has never run a, pool, other-"
“wise he'd:have found a way to tax them by now. —
- .§o why not combine hockey and gambling? Presto -

"Granted they are, at least technically, illegal, as is
agiy'such gambliig operation that isn’t run as a chari- _
 ty.event with the proper lottery licen
-_RCMP’s staff hockey pool rumoured to havé one of :
- ‘the largest payouts of any in the city, few local pool

. But with the

Most hockey pools come in two basic varieties —
select and draft, (No, they don’t come on tap.)
"ain the’ basle: select pool, the: poolsters simply
- choose the players they want on their ‘team’ and turn

the list in to the pool organizer. oe
"Things like how many players each poolster takes, —
3W-much triorey to get in, and how the final payout

! r! An avid hockey poolster probably spends
more time working aut his fool-proof list than Michael Wilson puts in throwing
together the federal budget. Unfortunately, the strain of dealing with the

OCKEY

This is @ sordid story of life on the underside of socie-
‘iy. ICS a story in which all the facts are there, but the
“names have been changed to protect. the guilty. It’s a
* story about ... hockey pools.

to babbling loons.

OOL

is divvied up are sorted out in advance.

The select poo! ‘makes it easy to deal with large
groups of people who can’t get together at one time.
But the drawback is the best poolsters tend to end up
with nearly identical teams.

The solution: the draft pool: The poolsters all con-
gregate in one place, import: refreshments, post
guards. around the building, and then draft players.

The order of the:draft’ is: determined by random
draw, with the order reversed each round to minimize
the advantage of first pick. Each player drafted is
scratched from the list of available players so that —
unlike the select pool — nobody has similar teams.

multitude of computations — a
the upset of the century —- have been known to reduce some fanatics (above)

“make it at last. That’ll be as far as they go, however.

This is a time of year, after all, in which
news reports of 2 bunyon on Brett Hull's
toe take-on a magnitude of importance

" normally only accorded global events like

_ the Gulf War.

The Gospel

With some races likely to go down to the dying

_ minutes of the season’s final games, the playoff pic-

ture is still somewhat cloudy. !
However, based on:an exhaustive analysis of the
teams, players, dietary habits, and birth signs, ‘the
following fearless. predictions are offered.
Just remember; though, if these prove amazingly

~ accurate, you read-it here first. If hopelessly wrong,

all knowledge of this column wilt be denied in any
‘subsequent legal action. -

-» -’ Campbell Conference

:. & Finsel Town triumph in the Smythe? Nopel
The Kings will‘look impressive enough through the
first rdund but will get. burned by the Flames. ©
The Blues appear hurt by the recent trade but are
probably ‘still the best bet in the Norris. But a long

series against the Hawks Will leave them too tired to

stop Fleury's'lames who will be eager to wipe out
the memory of last year’s disaster. .

- .. Wales Conference

of the list. They won't be around as long as Bruins

" (LA), Francis (Pitts), and Stevens (St.L).

On the face off, the Bruins are just too good for.

AR Parc 2 AR
d nightmare visions of the Canucks pulling off

FEVER |

any of theis Adams division rivals. However, they
perhaps rely too heavily on Neely, Janney and Bour-
que. Despite a nagging fear Montreal could just pull
off-an upset, logic dictates Boston — with a prayer
none of their big three gét injured.

In the Patrick, the division where logic is most like-
ly to go out the window, look to the Penguins to

Boston’s goaltending and defence will prove too
much for the Penguins.

The Final Final

Calgary v. Boston, the one that should have hap-
pened last year. In terms of the pool result, who wins
the Stanley Cup is immaterial. It's now just a ques-
tion of who has how many players left and how big
the lead/deficit is.

It can also be the beginning of the real agony —
watching another poolster relentlessly close the gap
as the two teams prolong the series to ensure the prize
is snatched ‘away. in the 19th minute of the third
period ofthe seventh game.

«The Pick
And what does-all the above translate to in terms
of who to pick? — on
If it’s a draft pool, Hull and Oates have to be top

and Flames players, but they are scoring machines,
The rest of the order -looks like MacInnis and
Fleury (Cal), Neely.(Bos), Nieuwendyck (Cal), Gret-
zky (LA), Mario Lemieux (Pitts), Janney and Bour-
que (Bos), Gilmour (Cal), Recchi and Coffey (Pitts),
Jeff Brown (St.L), Makarov (Cal), Stevens (Pitts),
Suter and Roberts (Cal), Christian (Bos), Sandstrom

After that, you start deciding whether a top scorer
on a team lasting only two rounds is a better bet than
a less prolific player on Calgary: or Boston. That's
because it's total points that decides who wins, not
how many players you get to the final.

"As far as the ‘pick-any-20 plus’ system is concern-
edj a cautionary note, Although it appears obvious —
you load up on Calgary, those who did just that jast
yéar pald'the price when they were extinguished ¢ar-
iy. So hedge your-bets by taking no more than five

players from any one team. |

ads Or, (ree: sea! “Without a -
boat there was no possibility of

“a fish here. l walked back to the

car and drove.to the end of the
bay. 2-0 Aes

_ The beach was covered with
stones and sea plants; it crackl-
ed underfoot, On the far side,
plumes of white exhaust rose in-
to the sky and lights flashed in-
termittently. A trio of ducks
flew by, their wings whistling.
The air smelled much more salty
than it had further inland.

1 threw as much line-as' 1
could manage in the direction of
the aluminum smelter, then
stripped it in quickly.

Despite the meagre chances
of a fish, despite having in-
dustry working industriously all
around, the experience was a

good one, Ted probably would
have enjoyed it, I reckoned.

‘Ghosts’
on the

court

TERRACE — The Kermodes
hit the court at the provincials
and fell apart,

Caledonia’s high school boys
basketball team defeated Cor-
relieu, of Quesnel 85-72 to win a
berth in the i6-team Mar. 13-16
provincial championships. But
then the Terrace team
disintegrated, getting blown out
of the tournament in two
straight devastating defeats.

‘+ “St was terrible;”: said Ker-

‘mode coach Cam MacKay.

“They were ghosts on the court.
It was sad."

There was no sign of the
spirited Caledonia team —~
pumped by their northwest
rivalry with Prince Rupert —
that smashed the overconfident
Rainmakers at the zone finals
earlier this month.

Instead, apparently content
with just winning a berth, they
went down to defeat by 30-plus
point margins al the hands of
the Centennial Centaurs, and
Victoria's St. Michael’s Univer-
sity, The Richmond Colts even-
tually won the championship.

“We shot about 24 per cent,”’
MacKay said, ‘‘and our high
scorers were way off their usual
numbers."” |

He said two of Caledonia’s
steadiest top gunners — Paul
Manhas and Geoff MacKay —
were held to just a dozen points
between them in both games,
compared to their usual 30 to 40
point per game joint tally,

“They weren’t happy with
their performance at all,"’
MacKay added. “The whole
team was a ghost — the
weren't there,’’

“Tt was a very disappointing,
discouraging trip.) 8 05."

Sportcaster |

: .
off the air
TERRACE — The voice of
sports on local radio left the air-
waves for good this month. |

Len Harrington, CFTK's
sportscaster for 20 years, made
his final broadcast Monday,
Mar. 11 after getting his lay-off
notice from Skeena Broad-
casters last month. :

A local representative of the

. National Association of Broad-
cast Employees and Technicians
{(NABET) said . Harrington

chose not to try to ‘bump!’
another employee. with. less
seniority. ER

Company officials said the
staff cuts were made as a result
of falling advertising revenues:

Skeens, Broadcasters « vice-

. president Tim MacLean refused

comment last week when asked
what the radio and_ television
station's plans are for:covering
local sports in Terrace."

=