[caption id="attachment_3400" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="SCC's Paula Lancaster accepts the Capital Cup from ACC President Kevin Ryan"][/caption]

Congratulations to our SCC teams for contributing to the win of the 8th Annual Capital Cup Bonspiel over the Albany Curling Club by a close score of 147 to 136. This yearly Albany-Schenectady Friendly bonspiel (for total points) was held on December 20th and is played between the two clubs with each club alternating the hosting duties (SCC hosted this year). Schenectady held onto the Cup for the second year in a row and with this win has evened up the club victories at four titles each.

Twenty-one teams competed in Men's, Women's and Mixed competitions for the right to hold the coveted Capital Cup for the year. This year was the best attended event in recent history and was the third closest contest, with the clubs' scores knotted at 113 points through four of the five draws. This is a great event to introduce new and novice curlers to the sport (and to bonspieling) with the competition decidedly friendly and casual. Thank you to the SCC and ACC participants for taking time out of this busy holiday season to compete! Bonspiel chairman Dennis Quinn also thanks Sheree for staffing the bar all day and the fine ice crew for the excellent conditions. Albany will be hosting this event during the 2015-16 season and we look forward to trying to keep that cup!

[caption id="attachment_3390" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="2014 10 and Under Winners: Scott Brennan, Steve LeMon, David Longbrake, Jeff Howles"][/caption]

Congratulations to Team Brennan in winning the 2014 Men’s 10 and Under bonspiel that was held at SCC December 12th through 14th. Scott Brennan led his rink of Steve LeMon, David Longbrake and Jeff Howles to victory over SCC’s Team Samaniuk. Team Samaniuk, which was actually skipped by Dan Muller, had a great run in this event landing in the A event finals against the reigning champ Brennan (the same team won this event in 2013). Bob Samaniuk, Tom Holbrook and Steve Wood rounded out the team.

Congratulations to all of the event finalists and winners:

A Event – The Brooks
Winner: Schenectady – Brennan: Scott Brennan, Steve LeMon, David Longbrake, Jeff Howles
Finalist: Schenectady – Samaniuk – Dan Muller, Bob Samaniuk, Steve Wood, Tom Holbrook

B Event – The Garber
Winner: Albany – Howels: Stu Howells, Adam Weber, Scott Sommerville, Chip Helms, Roger Becker
Finalist: Broomstones – O’Neill: Michael O’Neill, Michael McKenzie, Brian Carey, Greg Eisenhaurer

C Event – The Griffin
Winner: Ardsley – Gallegos: Matt Gallegos, Jordan Becker, Steve Hartz, Teddy Germain
Finalist: Schenectady – Stoffer: Chad Stoffer, Kirk Wallace, Bryan Gonyeau, Joe Perrotto

D Event – The Fitzgerald
Winner: Philadelphia – Fitzgerald: Mike Fitzgerald, Peter Dalton, Mikahil Rybak, Nerijus Tamutis
Finalist: Utica – Scherer: Joel Scherer, John Collea, Tim Conboy, Erich Krumme

E Event – The E Event (pointspiel)
Winner: Schenectady – Gomes: Kevin Gomes, Keagan Shaw, Mike Call, Brent Lehman
Finalist: Broomstones – Mills: Jeff Mills, Pete Della Pella, Eric Waldow, Todd Kay

This yearly event is for men who have 10 years of curling experience or less. Thank you to all who travelled to SCC to participate and to SCC’s Mike Luft (and all of the other volunteers) for chairing this event.