The 75th annual Farmer and Farmerettes bonspiel officially wrapped up on Saturday, January 12 at the Gary Moe Autogroup Sportsplex. The event is a week-long event held for farmers, farmerettes, businessmen, and businesswomen.

To celebrate the end of the tournament, participants were treated to an all-day food buffet and a number of raffle prizes that were donated by the bonspiel sponsors.

Traditionally, the bonspiel teams were composed of three farmers and one businessman who enters the bonspiel as a single. As result, the team compositions allow for curlers to meet new people and create new connections.

According to Graeme Rice, farmer bonspiel committee chairman, “This year we had 50 teams and 50 businessmen paired up on the men’s side and on the ladies side, we had 12 teams. We had 62 teams altogether which is up about four teams from previous years.”

All participants played at least four games of curling.

Although there is an increase in curling teams for bonspiel, Rice also says, “As the years have gone on we have fewer farmers and so the teams of three aren’t necessarily made up of three farmers.”

Despite a decrease in farmers, the event is “the biggest event that the curling club puts on every year,” says Rice, “It’s always a good time.”

Being that the curling club is a non-profit club a large number of businesses and organizations around Lacombe sponsor the event.

“Our mandate is just to support the sport of curling in Lacombe,” says Rice continuing, “We get lots of really great sponsors that we couldn’t do the bonspiel without. It’s all run by a board of volunteers.”

The bonspiel teams may be composed differently as time goes on, but curling has remained a beloved sport in Lacombe and certainly has become a part of its history.

Team Reagan Fuhrhop won the top prize for the Farmer division, winners of the Farmettes Division was team Gail Perepelkin.