The Brandon Memorial Bonspiel — Reflections
January 30/31 2026
BY IAN DAVIES
It’s somewhat difficult to understand the full significance of the Fred Brandon Memorial Men’s Bonspiel.
If you take the time to look at the trophies (there are two of them) that record the winners of this annual bonspiel, you’ll find winning teams identified going back over 100 years. I find it somewhat mind-boggling to think back to that period to contemplate what life was like on a daily basis – automobiles were in their infancy as engineering oddities; communications were words of mouth or written on paper; early industrialization was rampant; Canadian cities were experiencing dramatic growth; social justice was intensely debated and demanded; child labour was tolerated; women were fighting for the right to vote; trade unions were arising; the average wage in Canada was 13 cents an hour
Yet Fenelon Falls residents decades ago enjoyed curling as a sport or past-time. Curling was a thing then, and it still is now. How did it fit into life and lives over all those years? … A matter for speculation and wonder … well we continue in these times, and the Brandon bonspiel happened this year at the end of January.
Planning the Brandon
We endeavour to draw as many teams from other clubs as possible – it is part of the nature of this particular bonspiel. There are over 40 curling clubs within 2 hours drive of Fenelon Falls. If we peruse their web sites, we find most actively promote and host many bonspiels during each season. The availability of teams to visit from other clubs appears to be impacted by this and other factors; to experiment, we tried changing the date of the Brandon from late February to the end of January.
For our event this year we had representation from Coldwater, Omemee, Mississauga and Cataraqui; we also enjoyed competition from 8 home teams. The bonspiel was strongly competitive, enjoyable and a worthy celebration of its tradition.
Handley Lumber has sponsored this event in the past, and provided generous support again this season. Please take the opportunity to thank the folks at Handley Lumber for the great community support anytime you can.
As convenor for the event, I’m humbled by the efforts of so many folks in our club who helped out with organization, communication, operation of the bar and kitchen, activities and logistics. I have to say that being a member of our club is a great social experience, but being involved in organizing events for the club doubles the exposure and fun. Special thanks go to Bruce Hooey (coaching organization and communication), John Shaw (bar management), Mary Carr (activities coordinator and drawmaster/scoremanager), Jeff Marshall (ice technician) and the many amazing kitchen volunteers led by Stacey Sherwood.
We ran two draws (“early” and ”late”) with three rounds of games for each draw, beginning on Friday evening, then Saturday morning and afternoon. There was much hearty gameplay, consumption of sumptuous food and other sustenance, and enthusiastic conversation. All-round a most enjoyable event.
Winners of first, second and third places for each draw received prizes. Overall winners, with the highest point-count across both draws are memorialized forever on the newer of the two trophies on display at the club. This season that honour is received by four enthusiastic young lads (all around 20 years old, give or take) – a most impressive achievement. While we have the greatest respect for experience and wisdom of the older competitors, I am not the only one that enjoyed seeing a new generation of competitive talent achieving recognition.
Appreciation and congratulations go to:
- Tom Keys-Brasier (lead)
- Willem Hancin (second)
- Nathan Baroni (vice)
- Liam Mathers (skip)
… hailing from Cataraqui (Kingston).
Thank you, FFCC BoD
I would like to close by expressing appreciation for the Fenelon Falls Curling Club Board of Directors. Almost everyone that is involved in organizing or helping with activities of the club are volunteers – including the Board members. We have roughly 190 actively playing members in the club, many of whom have been board members at one time or another. I’ve participated as a board member for a few seasons, and I want to say that it is interesting, challenging, and fulfilling being part of the FFCC Board. It is a great way to learn more about how the organization operates, and the overlap of various responsibilities, and to participate in bringing experience and thoughtfulness to bear regarding prioritization and facilitation for keeping the club running. I strongly encourage members to talk to folks on the Board about Board activities and responsibilities, and consider being board members yourselves; some responsibilities require specific experience (such as building maintenance or accounting), others allow application of easy to learn procedures (such as tracking advertising and assisting with communication and membership enrollment). You can find the Club Executive group on the website. The FFCC Board ensures the framework is in place, in-season and between playing seasons, for all of us to enjoy curling each year; most of what we do is behind-the scenes, but very important to the success of the club.
