Eight hours per day, with a 45 minute break for lunch sounds like a hard core work day, except when you've spent it at the Royal Canadian Legion in Princeton, this past weekend.
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56 was host to the 2011 Provincial Cribbage Tournament held March 5 and 6.
After play-offs in their local branches and Zone areas, 90 plus players traveled to Princeton from across British Columbia to compete for their chance to win top spot in the Provincial Tournament, securing a position for the nationals to be held in Chomedey, Quebec April 29 to May 2.
Singles and doubles played off in a eight hour tournament Saturday and teams on the Sunday.
The players were shuttled to and from their motels by the Princeton Posse bus, fed and entertained right at the Legion. Saturday evenings dance entertainment was provided by Allison Productions. Participants were all given a "goodie bag" containing necessities for the day, ie) water bottle and snack, deck of cards, crib pegs and an information package on Princeton.
Local Legion member, Bernadette Kelleher, was presented with an 'Irish Crown' by some of the players—which she wore proudly. "It has been a freakin' amazing weekend—thanks to all the new friends," Kelleher exclaimed.
South Okanagan & Similkameen Zone Commander, Bud Sadegur extended huge thanks to tournament organizer, Sharon Paterson and crew for the excellent job they did over the weekend.
Sadegur presented congratulations and trophies to the weekends winners.
Fred Maniak, North Central Vancouver Island Zone, moves on to nationals for singles, Bill Miron and Erick Nielsen, Peace Arch Zone for the doubles and for teams, the North Okanagan Zone; Dale Cooper, Kathryn Moulding, Rod Hartfielder and Roy Turner.
"Well done," "Very impressed," and "What a great weekend," were just a few of the comments made by the tournament participants.
Members of the 'Team' winners, said the local Legion members did a "great job, made everyone feel very welcome, they had a lot of fun," and that they were "pretty excited and ready to go to Quebec!"One player, Bob Kosolofski did beat the odds (1 in 15,028) and got a 28 Hand.
Organizer Sharon Paterson, extends her thanks to the local businesses for the donations for the crib players and an extra special thank you to the crew who helped make this event such a success.
Thanks to: Jim Martindale, Wayne & Jan Terepocki, Jim Turner, Roberta Baron, Jerry & Patty Rodgers, Lina Frose, Karen Norrington, Bernadette Kelleher, Jean Lindsay, Linda Ghiloni, Faye Niska, Wayne Cummings, Jean Bowles, Myles Downey (Chase), Sandra Marshall and to the Branch 56 Ladies Auxiliary.