’ Cal boys gave an inspired per- CEB Me beet fr Soph Page B6 ~ Tenace Standard, Mey, Nweribar at, 180 “Once, Fin, just one time, we're going to go fishing together'and not mess up.”’ Findlay mumbles something inaudible and continues struggl- ing with the floorboards of the ’ inflatable. It’s a cold morning and I feel sorry for his unmit- tened fingers. _ While I wait, I cast back to: the time we decided to float the - Big River. Then it all began with me-struggling with my rubber _ boat. while Fin looked on. : With: the raft fully inflated, we were off over the riffle and rock of a .small tributary and were'scon swallowed up in the expanse. Of the main river’, The heavy. flows carried us from run: to-run until we reached a sharp bend with a'roar below it. - “The. canyon’s ‘upstfeam, isn’t it?’ I asked. "I’m not sure,” said Fin chin. 1 imagined ‘having to drag the ‘boat amile upstream to. avoid - being sucked into a, frothing cataract. “Let's beach the boat and - make it back to the road before. the river leaves it.’? Fin wadded a large fi ngerful ‘of Copenhagen behind his lower. ~ lip, - and considered my proposi- . tion. : “Maybe we should, 8 ‘Hie said, replacing the lid on ‘the tin, The road was farther away than we. thought. Our way was made interesting first by a swamp then by rdot ads and brushy- thickets: We. ‘Stopped halfway up the Jast cursed hill. “You OK, Fin?”’ I panted. “Get the iron hing,”’ said Fin before shooting some snoose brushward.. scratghing stubble, under his The Skeena Angler — We thrashed through’ the re- ' maining jungle —~T6ds, ‘oars and pump in tow — and’ stumbl- ed onto the highway. soaked j in, sweat. “You stick out you humb and I'll duck down:in thé ditch: with the gear,”’ I suggested. Fifteen minutes later-a Bic ku, before he returned. by Rob Brown 4 ‘in hig’, Suspensionless Audi Fox, leaned out the window and told n me he’. wasn't in the habit of picking up “hitch-hikers. . Where did I put that plug?”” ; ‘says Fin, and-1 recall the. time. ’ we put the tiny, two-horse engine, : sh: -om.. ‘the -same craft, «downstream in the Skeena’ for: P,_miles, then discovered we didn't pulled over. Fin climbed i in;: At. was another «fifteen :‘minutes. have the’ power to get “back -. Upstream, - Downriver . we: went — miles and miles downrivér — into the sathering darkness: of fan, the late afteriison, ; Fin looked at the small exter- nal gas tank alti xed to the out- side of. the puny.: engine, “Maybe. I shouid have put some gas in before we took. off, " "he: said laconically, « We're. ready,’ We: ‘carry, the boat to the end of the Jaunch, . fasten'on the big engine ~ the , nine-horse _: and we're: “off, slowly, -Whan we. each the Skeena, | FL * turn to Fin. “OX Fin, open her up ow,” I. ‘yell, ° : Fin’s ears fave. ‘been’ deaden- ed : by work in the: ‘mines, “What?” he yells back over the constipated howl of the mighty nine-horse: |) “Give ‘her some. gas —-operi . her up!’’ [ yell. as. we cavitate .. sideways downstream. “Ht ts wide -open,"’ says : Findlay who:has now.take ‘his..:rain-covered . glasse. discover navigation is ‘as’ With them as without. ‘““Waich out for: that bar;’ yell. There. is: no - answer “WATCH. OUT: FOR. THA BARI”, 5) “What?”? asks: Fin. ‘moment a before we hear the sad sound. of... the propeller, grinding ’ through o ; gravel to.a grinding halt. --We ‘slug: the’ boat: back ‘over: the bar and limp back upstream My while some cold bank fishermen. watch our plight from the other- > side of the river, pleased, no: ‘doubt, with the comic relief. ; On the oh-so-slow return trip, : I recall the time Fin and T went" : io the Kitimat: looking for-cut: throat trout but were blown off: the river by gale-force winds" whipping Up. ‘the valley: f froin Kitimat, : JEFF NAGEL 638-7283 TERRACE STANDARD Luck runs outon — Cal squad TERRACE — Caledonia’s ‘ senior boys soccer team round- ed out the year by placing 12th in the province at the provincial championships in Penticton, Coach Henry Dreger said the formance despite some bad luck. “We had two really tough breaks,” he said. ‘‘First we were put in a pool against the third-, out and fifth-ranked te it rovince;;-and - second y We seat wo-of our best: players to injuries. ” David Wolfe was lost to a broken nose, and Rick Dhami suffered a badly sprained ankle. That aside, Dreger said Cal gave it their all in the face of greal adversity. They took a heavy pounding at the hands of third-ranked Centennial, of Coquitlam, fall- ing 7-1 in their first game. But then they put together a tighter scoring contest in their 2-1 loss to fifth-ranked Sutherland of Vancouver. Cal had a default win over Spectrum, which pulled out, and in place of that game played toa 2-2 tie with Kamloops. On the consolation side they lost 4-1 to Steyeston before coming close again in a 3-2 loss to Powell River, Top scorer for Cal was Brian Allen with four goals, and Dreger said Richie Piattoni was also a major factor in the Caledonia offence. The provincial championship went to Victoria's Mount Douglas team, which defeated Burnaby Central in the final by a 2-] score in overtime. Cheering section — THE VIEW from the bench, in the NHL, sometimes, si Minor Hockey, where everyone is played regularly and often, it' their legs and exercise their vocal cords between shifts. These , on Kitimat’s atoms in an exhibition. game Saturday afternoon. ignals trouble with the coach; But in Terrace S a chance for youngsters to'rest' Terrace atom players were taking Midgets tangle in Williams Lake | Contributed Terrace’s midget reps had good results in their first meeting this year with teams outside the tri-city Rupert- Kitimat-Terrace league. The team travelled to Williams Lake to compete in the annual.Caesars Inn ‘AAA! midget tournament two weekends ago, The ‘AA’ Ter-. race team came home fifth out of eight teams competing there. Terrace opened up with a nail-biting 2-1 victory over Nelson. . Terrace goals were scored by Dennis Bannister. and Chris Wilkinson, : who also assisted on Bannister's goal arid was chosen game MVP, “The Terrace squad next faced White Rock and came up short . with a $-1 loss. Dennis Ban- - nister was ‘the’ only ‘Terrace: midget to score in the ‘hard- fought two-way. battle. ':R Matthews . Was’ chosen “fer MVP for his gutsy effort. up just shy in a. 5-4 loss. Backstopped by the inspired... goal- “tending of Ken Giesbrecht: and led again by Dennis Ban- hister, Terrace almost pulled of | an upset against the’ heavily * southern: team.- ‘Giesbrecht won, the game star " award and. Bannister pumped j in” fayoured three goals and one assist... The: -goal-tending | «duo of | TERRACE. — It wasn't a winning ex- ”. perience, but it was certainly a learning one ‘ for two: Terrace ringette teams ‘The next morning they were fi ghting to stay alive in a must-.. - win semi-final against Kelowna, . and after.a valiant effort, came. in: Prince George. | Térrace’s juniors — who won the provin-. claljunior ‘C’ title‘last year — began facing ““B, the next level up, at the Prince © 7 George invitational tournament Noy, 9-12. E the tournament by defeating Burns Lake in a 6-1 blowout, but . then"fell to the:Prince George juniors 6-1 and’ lost out to’ Vanderhoof $- 0, The Ter- iniors also played an exhibition game Juni “They. opened _-Giesbrecht! ‘and'Kevin Hitt com- .. § Sees “bined” for’. the “lowest goals. — “against average. in the tourna- : ‘ametit, nS And last. ° “weekend, ‘Kitimat’ to; defend their cham Plonship title in. the Kentro the. midgets were travelling to's; competing Thornhill team Sth in province TERRACE — Thornhill’s junior boys volleyball team pro- ved they’re among the province's best by rolling inta the finals at the 24-team provin- cial championships in Penticton and bringing home fifth place. “We're the fifth best team in the province this year « and - [° H. think that really says Something : | about these kids “and” “this school,’ team coach’ Ken Pound said last week. He said the team cruised through their pool with a 4-1 record, losing only one game to a Castlegar school, which even- tually finished second overall, ‘They opened the _ Playoffs ,With a 2-0 walkover win over “Penticton High and advanced to | the next stage to face McNicoll . Park, also-of Penticton. ; ~ In likely the hardest-fought . Match of the tournament, the Thornhill spikers clawed their way through three extremely close games before coming out on the losing end of a 2-1 finish. - Counting total games in the three-game match, they would have won it, taking 42 points to .McNicoll Park’s 4t. Thornhill dropped. the first game.to the Penticton school 14-16, then stormed’ back in. the-. second game with a'15-10 score to stay alive, before falling 15-13 in the tie-breaker. “It was really, really close,'” - Pound said, adding the drained ‘- ’ Penticton players were knocked ~ off.in short order.by their ‘next opponents in the # quarter-finals. - White 5-0,. closer. badminton: Players iumned:. out-Nov, 10.1] for ithe local club’s Terrace Ope f ‘Doubles touroament, ~On the women’s side, ; Terrace’s Fran Mann id Karen Oldershaw took. first place, Followed by runners. up Judy Flaherty ang Rea . ae i, hetond, and Nae: oy inne and Diane Ce sd, against the older Prince George Belles, who they lost to by-a 5-0. score. , Terrace’s younger. petite team — irst major out-of-town tournament to Burns Lake’ GL and to Prince George But their next two Bames were. much. They «. dropped the .third to... ~ Vanderhoof 7-4 but then pushed Prince George Red to the limit before losing 4-3, -*The last two- games could have. easily gone the other way," said coach Merrill’ . Myers. “'The tournament was really: 00d . TERRACE — More than’ 3s | iam divistons, Ina’, ‘fight —in their lost ” Men‘s doubles action saw . Mark: Flaherty team up with ‘Bob Warren to win the ~~ event. They. beat out second place Steve. Weir and ‘Steve Dee. Third went to wp Tuoml and Norm Parry “and Chris Barber and Chuck Cey picked up’ ; fourth-place honours, © -" ~ The competition in mixed. doubles was separated into <. experience — especially for the petites.” Their next big competition is the No be, thern ‘B’ tournament in Burns Lake Jan: _ 19-20, After that is the Northern B.C, - Winter Games, : which is-expected to draw” about six northern ringette teams, : "Myers said the local girls wilt continue io “play league games whenever possible with. - Burns Lake, Vanderhoof and Houston. He — : said Terrace may alsa, along with the other, three communities, field a combined zone. rep team to go to the B.C, Winter Games. .cy Condon, with Dan _ Tuomi, and Karen Older. : - ghaw the’ ‘anners-up, Ihc He noted a few of Thornhill’s key players were suffering from minor injuries that would nor- mally have prevented’ them playing. “Three of my guys ended up playing that final game hurt, and they put in a real gutsy ef-. fort,’’ he said. “For a school. this size, ¢ other coa es Were, tna geet on ‘with sik ree Thornhill’s Shawn Palagian was one of the players among the 24 teams that tournament organizers picked out of the crowd, naming him to the -se-° cond all-star team. _ “It’s probably been the most ~ successful year that Thornhill” has ever had,” Pound said of the exploits. of this year’s . volieyball squad, “I. thought _ last year’s team was great, but. these kids have more drive, are | more intense and work harder’ than any team I’ve ever coached —.and that includes. Lower, Mainland teams,’’ The team includes captain Kurt Muller, Shawn Palagian, . Dennie King, Chris Tomas, | Brett Kluss and Bretton Over- ton as the starting six, and B.J. Hansen, Dereck Muller, Kevin Thodt, Scott Blanes and Steven ‘Maxim. Manager was Jamie Gilham.. ‘The team was to travel to Prince Rupert over last weekend to try to win the zone cham> pionship — which was this’ year. played after the provincials ‘(— in an attempt to take the ‘title away from Kitimat: and: id bring it to Thornhill. “4 ‘it was Mark and Judy Flaherty fending off . challengers Bob Warren. and : Mal Lue. - . The ‘B? flight.winners - were Norm Parry and Nan- °° filght Pail Gipps aud Diane _Cey. fell just short, taking = - | d.spot belind Renato rand: Seine Pang.