INSIDE
SPORTS MENU C2

“SKEENA ANGLER
ROB BROWN

(With Rob Brown taking a week off frown his
column, this week’s offering comes from
Malcolm Baxter. Normal service will be
resumed nex! week.)

Mark’s moment

Y GRANDFATHER was never big
on allending church. He was too busy
casting lures in the Kitimat River in
pursuit of salmon.

His answer to any criticism on this apparent
failing was he got as close to God fishing as he
ever would kneeling in the pews.

He taught me to fish when I was a mere fingerl-
ing..and outwardly made greal show of dis-
pleasure when years later I was the one to pull in
the fat coho on the Kilimat when he, past salmon
derby winner, was going through a two-year
drought.

He also had some good fishing stories which

made me wish, still more years later, he’d been
there when I hooked the best tale of my un-
spectacular angling career,
_ Mark was out from Ontario for the summer and
determined to calch a a mighty B.C. salmon be-
fore he left. I volunteered to assist, careful not to
reveal my own poor catch record. No point in
depressing him.

With just three weeks left in Mark’s sojourn we
altacked the river, alarms sounding at 4:30 a.m.
each day.

“With just three days left we hadn’t even had a

nibble. That was the day Alberto joined us.

We fished lazy.style, weights anchored on the

“river bottom leaving the spin-n-glo twirling in the
~ Curent.

~ AH we had to do was prop up the rod somehow,

- lay back and wait for the dream fish to hit

_ Last and set the rod in rocks so not even a
Great White could budge it. Mark propped his on
a forked stick culled from the bush.

Alberio didn’t even get that far, his weights and

. lure tangling in the brush behind him on the back

cast.
Being closest, and a helpful kind of guy, Mark

' promptly set out to help Alberto, yelling at me to

keep an eye on his rod.
Which I did.
Sort of.
Well, | did have my own 1o watch as well.

The salmon’s run for
jreedom was dragging the
rod it into the river.

But I did spot Mark’s rod move oul of the
comer of my tye a couple of minutes later. At

_ least I thought I did, but when I whipped my head
around to watch it intently, it was quite still.

So I went back to watching my own. And his
moved again.

Aud I whipped my head around again.

And his stick fell over, the rod fell flat on the
beach and the salmon’s run for freedom was drag-
ging it into the river.

- I made a valiant effort, sprinting as best I could
aver the rocky shore only to have the rod dis-
appear into the depths before [ could close my
hand onit.

Gone.

Did T mention this rod was brand new and bor-

rowed?

While we commisorated with a mortified Mark,
his bouyant lure suddenly popped to the surface
some 20 feet out.

J immediately deduced the line, and therefore

“the rad, had to be beneath it:

1 dipped inlo Grandad’s tackle box — willed to
me to show there were really no hard feclings
about that coho — and.-found a heavy lure
equipped with a huge and long-since banned tri-

~ ple hook.

Mark went lo work casting in the area of the
bobber, desperately trying to snag -the line and
thus retrieve the rod (hat didn’t belong to him.

~~ On the third attempt he felt resislance,

“7 think I’ve gotit,”’ he cried, just a millisecond
before. the salmon. leapl clear of the water. in a

” perfect, fighting arc.

- You've got a fish,'’ I yelled back.
“What do Ido now,” Mark wailed.’

“Don't panic,” I screamed, which of course
_ Teally helped him relax,

Despite all the hootin’ and holierin’, Mark did

‘land the fish and posed with a valley-wide grin

for the mandatory photos.

We never did recover the rod, but: Mark was
ae moa

You should’ve » been there, C Grandad,

TO THAT BANNER and the
enthusiastic cheers of fellow
ringetters, Terrace Tweens ar-
rived honie as 1994 Provincial
*C’ champions.

The first title at this level, the
team’s unbeafen march at the
Surrey championships underlined
the progress made in the five
years of local ringette.

Terrace’s opening match pro-
vided the closest result of the
tourney. Facing fellow north-
emers Quesnel, the Tweens out-
scored their Cariboo rivals 5-3.

Win two came agains!
hometowners Surrey/White Rock,
Terrace coming out 7-4 victors.

Final opponenis of the round
robin were Coquitlam/Port
Moody where Terrace were never

troubled in their bid to clinch first
place, over-running the
southerners 8-3.

With its offence now clicking,
Terrace went on the rampage in
the semi-final, § swamping
Burnaby/New Westminster 14-5
to set up a rematch against Ques-
nel.

Although Quesnel found the net
more often this time around, so
did Terrace, coming away with a
10-6 victory and the provincial
title.

The triumphant Tween team of
Heather Wilson, Kelly Prinz,
Amanda Hawkins, Sarah Watts,
Shaun Smyth, Jesse McCloskey,
Nancy Arbuah, Amber Toombs,
Jennifer Smyth, Lindsay Frezell,
Eric Smyth, Michelle Fawdrey

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 13, 1994-C4

and Kara De Jong were coached
by Dave Smyth and assistant
Natalie Christensen while Marie
Smyth handled ihe manager’s
duties.

Leading the Terrace attack
through the tourncy were Frezell,
De Jong and Prinz while Jennifer
Smyth provided excellent goal-
tending.

Spokesman Sharon Prinz said
Terrace ringetters were under-
standably pleased with the result,
particularly given last year’ S Gx-
perience.

Bumped up al a level just prior
to the provincials, the team had
problems being competitive that
time around.

But now the association is
wondering what effect this year’s

SECTION Cc
MALCOLM BAXTER 638-7283

Welcome home champs!

triumph might have, said Prinz.

Terrace could find itself moved
up to Junior C, the division in
which they won their first
championship five years ago.

Less welcome would be d move
to the Tween ‘B’ bracket where
over-age players are not allowed,
That would force two players off
the team and mean they’d have
no chance to play at the provin-
cial level.

That’s because the small pool
of players to draw from here
means Terrace can’t find enough
older players to make up a team,

However, Prinz said the assaci-
ation was hoping a proposed
amendment to allow over-age
players at the ‘B’ Tween level
will go through before noxt year.

Reyann solid gold in Ju-Jitsu

WHEN THE time came to hand
out the Most Improved Teen
trophy at this year’s Terrace Ju-
Jitsu competition, the winner was
no surprise.

Reyann MacDonell had earned
the prize with a fine exhibition of
skill that brought her gold in the
Junior 12-13 years individual
event and another in the Junior
teams.

Not bad for someone organizer
Jean Galli said wasn’t even sure
at one point she wanted to enter.

Also pulling off double gold
performances over the two-day
meet was Stavros Davourdis.

After teaming up with Mac-

. Donell and Brian Palahicky for

that Junior team win, he collected
his second in the Qpen Junior
event.

And Peter Ramus got better the
longer (he competition went on.
After opening with a bronze in
ihe PeeWee (6-7 years) individu-
als, he moved up in the PeeWee
teams and then crowntd the
weekend with a gold in the Open
PeeWee,

Approximately 50 competitors
from Terrace, Smithers, Kitsum-
kalum and Williams Lake took
part with the host tcam taking all
but one gold,

Kitsumkalum’s effort was
spearheaded by Travis Spalding
who picked up silver in both the
Juniors (10-11 years) individual
and Junior teams.

For a full list of results, see °
Score Board on page C10,

PEEWEE ACTION. ‘Kristian Shaw (left) and Peter Ramus take to the mats at the annual Terrace.
Ju-Jitsu Invitational meet to decide the silver medal in the PeeWee (6-7 years) division.

Magic moment for Masset rink

Pr: aia f}

one 1 2 Je

A TOUCH OF MAGIC, The appearance of ex-world champion .

Ed Lukowich at this year’s Loggers bonspiel added extra spice
for the northwest teams that ended up playing him.

LOU LAFRANCE
bended the ferry bound for the
mainland and the Loggers
Bonspiel in Terrace, he never im-
agined who'd be waiting.

Members of the Misty Isles
curling club in Masset,
Lafrance’s rink didn’! discover
Ed Lukowich was playing until
they arrived here.

“Fast Eddy’: Canadian . and
world champion, the man who
first proved Howard was not in-
vincible at this year’s Briar and in
doing so sowed the sceds. of
doubt that B.C’s Rick Folk
reaped in winning the 94 nation-
al title,

Once he discovered the ‘Magic’

rink was there, Lou quickly de-

cided, ‘I wanted to meet him.’*
Like everyone else, Lou figured
that meant staying in ‘A’ Event.

After. a comfortable win in his |

first game, Lou made the shols
when they counted to squeeze an
extra-end. victory. against the
Brown rink of Kitimat.
“Three more wins and we meet
him,’’ Lafrance said after’ the
game. :
Thal hope faded when a fourth

game loss sent him crashing to ~

‘D’.,.until Rick Yule of Prince
George came to the rescue and
dropped Eddy to the same event.
With both back on the winning
track, Lou got his wish Sunday
morming in the semi-finals of *D’.

Now put yourself in Lou's.

shoes, .

You've -been -curling for just:
three years. This is the fitst time.

and near-wintiers. in the Le
bonspie tel.

you’ ve skipped at a bonspiel. And
you’re playing one of the finest
curlersinthe world.

And when you come to throw
your hammer shot in the first end
you're facing six red counters, all
his.

The hit-and-stick rescue shot is
there but the ice is running

‘Straight and the rock will fall and

clean miss if you pet ihe weight
wrong,

Miss and the game is over right
there,

“*] just threw everything off, I
had to make the shot,’ Lou said
later.

He did just that and punched the -
air in celebration.

It got better in the second, a

sical of two pulling them 3-0 up
and riding the clouds.
The ride ended in the fifth when :
Lukowich toak three to grab a 5-4
lead then quite simply buried the:
Islanders.
After a pause for photos” with .
the ‘Magic’ rink, Lou came off

--the ice smiling es broadly as-any. - |

winner in the bonspiel.
Whatever the scoreboard : said, =.

he and his leammates were wine A

ners.
* They’d faced ‘the best ‘and: ac
quitied themselves well. | *
By the way, Lou, Edd:
he'll be back next year. :
Want arematch?.  -

“See page C2 for other whiners