In April 2008 Leonard (Mac) Jones was looking for a way to get the day curlers and the night curlers of the club to interact more. Mac realized that most day curlers delivered stones with a stick while the majority of night curlers used a slide delivery. That is when he “threw down the gauntlet” to slide curlers and proposed an annual bonspiel that would pit stick curlers against slide curlers at the Cape Cod Curling Club. Mac approached the President at the time, Russ Lemcke, who asked him to work with the Curling Committee Chair, Michael Minior in developing the event.
The proposal was a simple format with 6 stick teams and 6 slide teams. The teams play 3 games each in a round robin format. The bonspiel would be determined by total stones, the winner being either the stickers or the sliders rather than an individual team.
Mac provided scheduling and scoring details in a hand-written letter to Mike Minior. In the proposal Mac provided an option for a fourth game on Sunday morning but the final agreement for the bonspiel kept only the Friday and Saturday games. The Sticks vs Sliders bonspiel was born.
After Mac passed away in 2011, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to rename the Sticks vs Sliders Bonspiel the “Mac Jones Sticks Vs Sliders Bonspiel”. The first few bonspiels were won easily by the slide curlers but the stickers have won their fair share as well and the event has become a favorite of the club.
Click here to view the proposal submitted by Mac Jones
