About a month or so ago, long-time local curler and six-time club champion at the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club Paul Deschene had made it known that the Edward Jones Bonspiel would be his last competitive curling venture.

In fact, by the time 7:00 a.m. arrived on Monday morning, Deschene was on the road to Florida - but not before he and his team of Jamie Morphet, Pat Croizier and Craig Ramsey had captured the “A” bracket of the bonspiel last weekend, at his home venue, thanks to a 7-6 win over Bruce Munro.

“I am looking forward to retiring down here and the warmer weather,” said the 62 year-old who was reached at his place in The Villages, a retirement community / area that has grown to the size of the City of Greater Sudbury and located some 40 miles south of Ocala.

As it turns out, his new / old team would give him one heck of a send-off.

“I have played with all of them, but not as a team before, per se,” said Deschene. “This is the first time we’ve all played together.”

“We figured we would give it a shot and see what we could do.”

With the NOCA playdowns in North Bay pulling away at least some of the local curling talent from a competition they would typically otherwise support, it was left to countless other familiar names in these parts to step up and secure some hardware.

Joining Bruce Munro on the runner-up rink were Duncan Bell, Mark Borgegelli and Matt Marjerrison, with the foursome of Sean Brabant, Gilles Dugas, JP Harmon and Shayne Smith taking "B" bracket bragging rights with a win over Kamdyn Julien, Ryan Sims, Eva Andrews and Kelton Tellier.

Capturing Division “C” were Tom Cull, Gerry Carriere, Max Cull and Shane Robineau, getting the better of event organizer Patrick Chartier and his crew of Rich Schmidt, Chris Jillings and Steve Pellatt.