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Grande Prairie Highland Games Results for June 10, 2007
The Scoop!
The day started out like it always does when we make our annual trek up to the lovely city of Grand Prairie
cloudy and cool with the ever present chance of rain. Add 9 beefy dudes in skirts and a lot of BS and you have the X version of the Grande Prairie Highland Games.
Our plan for the day, which we agreed to the night before in Mike Staals room over a couple of Lucky Lagers, was to do a light / heavy rotation. So we started the day with the light open stone. The stone we used was a little over 16lbs. and was the same stone used last year in GP. You know THE stone. Refer to the Forum for further details. Anyway Aaron Andronyk started the crew off with the first throw of the day in the Open Stone and had a decent 27 footer, which he would later increase to 292 for an 8th place finish. There were some okay throws but she would not fly today as the top throw did not even go 38! The top three looked something like this; Dave Laidlaw (3710) Mike Staal (372) and Bobby Brown at 3611.
By now Mother Nature was starting to smile upon us and the sun was trying to sneak out just in time for the 56lb WFD. Bobby had the pleasure of starting this one out and would end up with a decent 259 throw as his best. Scatman Joe Taylor would set the early mark to beat at 304. That mark would get him second in the event with only Stuffy (he had a cold) Dave Roe bettering him with a 314 toss. Skinny Dave Laidlaw (under 3 bills for the first time in a long time) rounded out the top three with a 2811 go. I should mention at this time that we had a nice little fella join the fun all the way from Ft. St. John B.C. I think Jim Coles was only about 61 and 280lbs. with not a lot of extras if you know what I mean. In his first games ever he did some sort of backwards spin underhand bowling technique that got him 239with the 56. Once he learns how to do this
..oh my!
Next up we had the light hammer (see the theme setting in?) and Kelly Strachan was up first. Having not touched the hammers until GP he tossed a nice 894 start it off throw and would later break the 90 foot barrier ending with 907. Paul Keufler ended his light hammer with a personal best throw of 70 feet while Dave L and Mike finished third (961) and second (1069)respectively. The big man in this event was Joey T who bombed out around a 6 foot PB which landed 1111 away from the trig! Outstanding!! JTs added a little size and apparently some strength this year and wants to play.
As it was time for a heavy event we added the 22lb Braemer stone next. This event would come down to final throws to decide the event winner. Davey R started it off with his best effort of the event going out 2710. Kelley was also in the 27 range with big Jim hitting 287. Aaron and Paul had a little trouble getting this rock to go anywhere and were relegated to sub 25 throws. When the smoke cleared Staalsy came through on his last attempt going out 336 followed by Dave L (326) and Bobby B at 305.
Seeing as though we ran out of light events we got right into the crowds favorite event the caber. Mike S and gang chose a heavy 16 footer to play with. Not too much to say here other than there was some good pulls but try as we might this stick would not go over for the majority of us
..that is until Mike Staal came out for his final attempt. His first two attempts were close but THIS time he really gave it all he had and was rewarded with a 1:30 turn and another event win!
With the end of the competition day in sight we turned our efforts to the WOB another heavy event! Paul, who was being encouraged (Paully want a cracker?) by some young fans as he threw managed 10 as did Kelly my meatballs are cold! Strachan. Bob, Jim and Aaron (first time in awhile) made 11 but were denied at 12. Jim certainly has the power to do well in this event once he figures things out. The Daves end up with 12 feet although Sniffles Roe gets at least 13 if there is no bar to go over! But as it should have been the two best performers of the day, Mike and Joe, are the last men standing. They both hit 136 (another 1 pb for Joseph what a day he had!) and ended up splitting the points in this event. The crowd was really into this and these two did not disappoint!
With an absolutely perfect day of throwing behind as well as the best crowd we could ever recall the hardware was handed out. The ageless one came through when he had to so congrats Mike Staal for an excellent outing! Well deserved but why did the winners jacket look like it was tailor made?? Second overall was JT who had an awesome day and looks like he is really finding his form. The slimmed down version of Dave Laidlaw rounded out the top three with the remainder of the field looking something like this:
4th Dave Roe,
5th Bob Brown,
6thJim Coles,
7th Kelly Strachan,
8th Aaron Andronyk and
9th Paul Keufler.
Great day, Great guys and even more important Great FUN! Until next year!!
- Bob "El Presidente" Brown
2007 Gallery
2007 Video
Results
| Open Class |
| Athlete | Braemar | 56# WFD | 22#
Hammer | Open
Stone | 28# WFD | 16#
Hammer | 17' 105#
Caber | 56# WOB | Points |
| Mike Staal | 33'6" | 31'3" | 87' | 37'2" | 58'2" | 106'9" | 1:30 | 13'6" | 15.5 |
| Joe Taylor | 29'5" | 30'4" | 88'1" | 34'5" | 59'2" | 111'1" | NT | 13'6" | 23 |
| Dave Laidlaw | 32'6" | 28'11 | 79'3" | 37'10" | 58'10" | 96'1" | NT | 12' | 26 |
| Dave Roe | 27'10" | 31'4" | 76'11" | 34'7" | 64'3" | 95'6" | NT | 12' | 28 |
| Bob Brown | 30'5" | 25'9" | 70' | 36'10" | 54'7" | 89'2" | NT | 11' | 38.5 |
| Jim Coles | 28'7" | 23'9 | 67'3" | 34'4" | 42'7" | 70'2" | NT | 11' | 50.5 |
| Kelly Strachan | 27'6" | 21'7" | 69'11" | 33'4" | 49'11" | 90'7" | NT | 10' | 52 |
| Aaron Andronyk | 24' | 21'4" | 64'1" | 29'2" | 40'10" | 70' | NT | 11' | 59.5 |
| Paul Kuefler | 22'1" | 18'6" | 51'9" | 26'11" | 41'8" | 70' | NT | 10' | 67 |
Past Results: