Ontario men's curling championships in nearby Dorchester, Feb 2-8
By Mark Schadenberg
INGERSOLL
– Sometimes I wish I had maintained a thorough archive, but I
didn't.
Could you imagine if
I had saved all the nostalgia stories, all the researched biographies
on athletes and local sporting folks like Catherine Bond-Mills, Brian
Paton, Ed MacQueen, June Bell, Hazel Baynton, Orv Hodgins, John Glassford and the
list goes on and on.
Oscar 'Lefty' Judd
What
about Ingersoll southpaw hurler Oscar Judd (pictured twice)? Sometime, around 1993 I
met him at his house in Ingersoll and we chatted baseball for more
than two hours. Judd pitched in the majors and is considered a
sporting icon in Ingersoll and was inducted into the Canadian
Baseball Hall of Fame (in St Marys) in 1986.
Born
Feb. 14, 1908, Judd would pass away Dec. 27, 1995.
I
was sports editor of the Woodstock Sentinel-Review from 1992-98 –
seven years – and wrote a feature story on him covering his
greatest moments and thoughts as a member of the Brantford Red Sox,
Philadelphia Phillies, and the InterCounty leagues. Judd's best
season was 1943 with Boston as he went 11-6 with a 2.90 ERA in 23
appearances (20 starts). Lefty Judd also was 11-12 with the Phillies
in 1946, and posted an overall career mark of 40-51.
While
I will not be making a phone call, I would hope a
'head-and-shoulders' picture of Judd is still on file at the S-R, but
I have no idea if they have maintained any filing cabinets. When I
was there, we stored olde photos on 'Zip' discs but that too is now
old technology.
Why
I'm a writing about Judd today?
The
town of Ingersoll – read the links below – is recognizing many of
its top athletes at a museum (Ingersoll Cheese & Agricultural
Museum) display, until April 18. Ingersoll has a rich sports history and next month the Ingersoll & District curling club is hosting the provincial men's curling finals known as The Tankard.
Curling
The
main reason sports is on the minds of all residents of the Ingersoll
area is that the town's curling club is the official host for the
Ontario men's curling championships, Feb 2-8 in
Dorchester. The 11-team event is slated for Dorchester (Thames
Centre) as that municipality has a twin-pad arena including one with
very modern ice-making equipment (at the Flight Exec Centre complex)
as needed to convert hockey ice to four curling sheets.
The
'Clash On The Thames' finals will be broadcast on Sportsnet at 12:30 on Sunday, Feb 8,
while many of the round robin draws and earlier page-playoff-format
games will be aired live on Rogers (Cogeco too) around the province.
The
field for the Dorchester event is beginning to take shape as
defending champ Greg Balsdon will be joined by (pictured) Mark Kean (Innerkip /
Woodstock despite many placing him in Toronto or even Stoney Creek areas), John Epping, Joe
Frans, Ian MacAulay, Cory Heggestad, plus Jon St Denis, Colin Dow,
and finally rising star Aaron Squires of Kitchener.
The
Dow team includes Tankard veteran John Steski, and Dow himself has
previously competed at the provincials including a stint on Bryan
Cochrane's quartet.
Squires,
who is actually from St Thomas, is moving up the rankings quickly as
a previous Ontario junior champion and also known for OUA success as
skip (CIS bronze in 2014) of the Laurier Golden Hawks. Squires was
the team which beat Glenn Howard 8-4 at regionals to force the
legendary 8-time consecutive Ontario champ Howard to compete in the
challenge round. At the national junior championships, Squires went
5-1 in round robin, but would eventually finish fourth overall.
The
field will be completed this weekend (Feb 16-18) with the challenge round
bonspiel granting the last two spots and the likes of Glenn Howard,
Wayne Middaugh, Rob Rumfeldt, Rob Lobel, Pat Ferris, Brent Ross,
Wayne Tuck and others all battling in Bradford.
Just last year (2014), the Woodstock
Museum recognized 100 years of the Perry Street Arena (It had opened
in 1914) and the Winter Olympics by hosting an exhibit detailing area
winter sports history.
LINKS:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion
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