Cobourg

Sports-Ken Petrie

Ken Petrie

 

 

Kenneth Wayne James Petrie was born July 11, 1946 in Stratford, Ontario. In 1957 when he was 11, he and his family moved to Cobourg. In 1972 they moved to Furnace Street across from Memorial Arena where he eventually worked for many years.

During a month-long visit from his grandfather one summer, Ken learned to play ball which sparked a life-long love of sports. He was an avid bowler as well early in his life.

Unselfishly, Ken devoted most of his adult life to minor sports in Cobourg—namely: the Cobourg Community Hockey League (CCHL); Cobourg Legion Minor Softball Association (CLMSA) and Cobourg Baseball Association (CBA).

It was about 1965 when Ken was 19 that Layton Dodge recruited him to volunteer with the Cobourg Church Hockey League. He helped Gord Burdick Senior coach the St. Andrew’s Church League team. Thus began a life-long tenure with the CCHL until the organization moved from Memorial Arena to the CCC in 2011.

In hockey, Ken was a tireless workhorse helping out wherever he could whether it be as a coach, manager, trainer, fundraiser, Bingo volunteer, executive member, committee member, or just plain taking on responsibilities when necessary—when no one else would, he did if he could.

He was president of the CCHL a record 11 times (1979-82, 1985, 1993, 1999-2003) and was a long-time life member. He was OMHA contact person many, many times (a time consuming, huge responsibility), ice chairman, governor, tournament convenor, timekeeper/scorekeeper, budget committee member and astoundingly, many of these in a single hockey season. Those who worked with Ken didn’t mind helping him though—as he never asked anyone to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. It is on record that Layton Dodge called Ken “the driving force behind the CCHL”. Also, Past President, Jim Nairn is quoted as saying “Ken Petrie’s sense of community and love for the game is what kept him coming back.”

A source of great pride for Ken throughout his time in the CCHL was seeing all of Cobourg’s championship hockey banners hanging from the rafters in Memorial Arena. Also, he was extremely proud of the fact that the CCHL housed both boys and girls hockey (OMHA and OWHA) under the CCHL umbrella.

Ken’s happy cheerful demeanor along with his willingness to help, gave credence to the CCHL motto “Dedicated to Our Youth”. That was Ken Petrie through and through.

Besides the enormous amount of time spent volunteering with hockey during fall and winter, Ken loved spending the summer months coaching boys or girls teams in either softball or baseball. For many years he donated the trophies for the ‘golden glove’ competitions during Cobourg Baseball tournaments. And, little known to the general public, Ken Petrie throughout his time in sports often made sure that a kid on his team who needed a ball glove, hockey stick or whatever in order to play—and whose parents couldn’t afford it, was given what they needed from Sommerville’s.... he’d go into the store and square up with Clarke or Dave later.

Since the mid 1960s, Ken has compiled the most amazing record when it comes to provincial championship wins and claims 10 provincial titles with minor sports—hockey, softball and baseball combined: perhaps the most ever in Cobourg. They are listed below plus an EOBA championship.

The certificates commemorating Ken’s provincial championship wins are not very detailed as to the individual winning team names. However, in an article by Cobourg Star writer Darryl Thompson in 2005, Ken clearly states he had an All-Ontario hockey championship, one Ontario Girls’ softball championship, four Ontario Amateur Softball Association (OASA) championships and four Ontario Baseball Association (OBA) titles. The Ontario Championships are listed below. He coached baseball in Port Hope as well.

A provincial championship title captured by the Legion Squirt Red Wings Softball team coached by Ken and the late Tom Savage in 1967 was Cobourg Legion Minor Softball’s first ever provincial title. 

Ken's many certificates, citations, plaques and awards for service to community were at one time proudly displayed in his home. Some of them are listed below. Many are being added to the 'Collection' at the Cobourg and District Sports Hall of Fame website.

There were many hockey/ball teams Ken coached, some won awards. The many team photos, also being added to the 'Collection', are small proof of Ken's extensive coaching involvement.

In July 2013, Ken suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and moved to a nursing home in Port Hope where he resides today.


Ontario Championships

1967 - Cobourg Legion Squirt “A” Red Wings OASA Softball Team (with Tom Savage)

1970 - PWSA Martin’s Sunoco Girls Softball Team (with Audrey Warner). Ken’s sister Mary Checkley played on this team

1976 - Cobourg Legion Squirt “B” OASA Softball Team (with John Hayden)

1979 - EOBA Tyke  ‘A’ Champs with Sommerville Leprechauns Baseball Team (with Pete  Sweet)

1983 - Cobourg Legion Pirates Peewee ‘D’ Baseball Team (with Al Guernsey & Gord Latourneau)

1984 - Cobourg Bantam Baseball Team

1988-89 - Harnden & King ‘BB’ PeeWee OMHA Hockey Team (with John Donegan)

1990 - Legion PeeWee ‘B’ Pirates Baseball Team (with Ron Jay and Dave Clarke)

1998 - Cobourg Legion Midget “B” OASA Softball Team (with Bob Bateman)


Finalists

1972 - Thompson Plumbing & Heating Saints Midget Girls PWSA (with Ross Burgess and Les Stevenson)

1982 - Cobourg Legion Pirates PeeWee ‘C’ Baseball (with Dave Bemma & Bob Barkhouse)


Honours & Awards

1972-73 - Cobourg Church Hockey League “Coach of the Year Award” St. Andrew’s PeeWee North Stars

1976 - Certificate of Merit from the Cobourg Legion Minor Softball Association in appreciation of outstanding service to the youth of our community

1978/79 - OMHA Coach of the Year (with Dennis Whelan) in the CCHL

1980 - The Spooner Sport Award for outstanding contributions to minor sport

1981 - Cobourg Baseball Association’s “Jim Munro Memorial Trophy” for Coach of the Year

1983 - Cobourg Baseball Association’s “Jim Munro Memorial Trophy” for Coach of the Year

1984 - Cobourg Baseball Association’s "Jim Munro Memorial Trophy" for Coach of the Year to Ken Petrie and Wayne Wiggins

1987 - Sesquicentennial Celebration Award - Town of Cobourg - Angus Read

1987 - Canada Celebration 88 (Olympic Partner) - Certificate of Merit from the Government of Canada in grateful recognition of your contribution to your community

1990 - YMCA Service to Youth Award

1990 - Cobourg Baseball Association’s “Jim Munro Memorial Trophy” Coach of the Year Award presented by Frank Waghorn

1993 - OBA’s “Bantam Coach of the Year Award” from AAA to E levels (a province-wide citation)

1997 - Ontario Municipal Recreation Association Certificate from the Town of Cobourg given at the CCHL’s annual awards banquet with Layton Dodge

1997 - Life Member of the Cobourg Community Hockey League - inscripted on the CCHL Life Member Plaque

1997 - Life Member of Cobourg Legion Minor Softball Association

2001 - Ontario Minor Hockey Association - Letter of Commendation from OMHA President Pat Parlette 

2007 - Nomination for the National “RBC Hockey Heroes Award” 

2019 - Members of the Northumberland Baseball Association assume that Ken was a life member of the former CBA though no documentation 

By Rosey Bateman

 

 

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Softball-Margie Matthews

Marg Matthews

 
Softball-Margie Matthews

by Patsy (Currelly) Hand

Margaret Anne Matthews was born on May 15, 1960, in Cobourg. From a very young age, Margie was an abundantly talented, multi-sport athlete who consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

 

While in high school at CDCI West, 1974-1979, she played each year on the basketball, volleyball and badminton teams. She was on the track team and participated in javelin, discus, shotput and the 4 x 100 relay teams. It was in javelin that she excelled. In 1978 she was voted MVP of the basketball team, the volleyball team, she received a coaching award and was the school’s Athlete of the Year.

 

She was also awarded Cobourg's Athlete of the Year that year. In 1979, CDCI West created the “Matthews Award" which was presented to students for performance and leadership. After high school she played varsity hockey and basketball. She has been awarded Athletic Letters at all levels of school: public, high school and university levels.


Margie burst onto the provincial softball stage at the age of 12 when she played for David and Clarke Sommerville’s  Sinclair Mustangs. They were successful in capturing the Ontario Novice Championship in 1972. Here is how David recalls Margie’s contribution to the win in the qualifying tournament leading up to the finals….


At 14, Margie Matthews joined Paul Currelly’s Cobourg Angels Juvenile softball team and competed against players that were 18 and 19 years of age.
Margie’s talents continued to shine. While playing with the Angels, she won two more Ontario Titles at the Junior B level in 1975 and 1976. In 1977, Paul decided to start a Midget Cobourg Angel team and as Margie was still eligible to play at this level, he built the team around her.

She was the captain that year and won the batting championship. Her determination, positivity and talent motivated the team to achieve a higher standard of play. She continued to play with the Angels and won an Ontario title in 1979 (Juvenile). Comments from her coach, Paul Currelly follow: 

Margie left Cobourg for university and played Senior Tier I fastball with the Kitchener Kieswetters. She returned to Cobourg in 1984(Senior Tier II) and helped the Cobourg Angels win another Ontario Title. In 1985 Margie started a full-time job in New Hamburg and again left the area and played Senior Tier I softball with Kitchener.

She won their outstanding player award that year. In 1986 she was picked up by an opposing team, the St. Clements Suns to attend Expo ’86, a mini world tournament in Vancouver. In 1989 her team, the St. Clements Suns won an Ontario Senior Tier I Championship and went to the Canadians, placing 4th.

Margie continues to be an amazing athlete as a golfer. She has won 18 Club Championships (Stratford (16) & Craigowan-Oxford (2)). She played for team Ontario in 2004 and won a Canadian interprovincial title.

 

She won an Ontario 4-ball Tournament with MaryAnn Hayward in 2007 and an Ontario mid-Am tournament in 2009 (73-75-69). In 2011 she made the Ontario senior team that won a Canadian interprovincial title. She had a Golf Ontario Mid-Am ranking of 4th and 5th in 2009-2011.

Margie has not only been an amazing athlete but she also has coached volleyball and badminton at the high school level, coached softball at the Midget level and was assistant coach to the 1990 Cobourg Angels Senior Tier I fastball team that won the Ontario title and then went to the Canadian championship and placed 4th. She was a Softball Canada clinic instructor and has refereed volleyball, basketball and umpired softball.  

As an athlete Margie has had many accomplishments in multiple sports and continues to add to these accomplishments but it is her talent, her work ethic, her enthusiasm and her love for sports that raises her above her peers.

 

Biography

COBOURG DISTRICT COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE (CDCI) WEST HIGH SCHOOL - 1974-1979

1974 - 1979 Participated on basketball, volleyball, badminton, and track & field (javelin, discus, shotput and 4x100 relay) teams. (Lots of awards) 

1975 - won midget javelin (92' 4") & discus(74') both South Kawartha records, Kawartha javelin (92'6") and placed 6th at C.O.S.S.A.

1978 - MVP basketball, MVP volleyball, Coaching Award, Athlete of the Year

1978 - Cobourg Athlete of the Year

1979 - Won Senior South Kawartha javelin  (98'5"), won Kawartha Singles badminton

1977 - 1979 President co-ed Athlete Association

1979 - Awarded newly created 'Matthews Award' for Performance and Leadership (awarded annually until school closed)

1979 - awarded 'Citizenship Award' (Burnett - Drope)

Awarded public school, high school and university athletic letters

Refereed volleyball and basketball throughout high school

Umpired one summer, girls Cobourg softball


SOFTBALL/FASTBALL

1972 - Ontario Novice Champions 'Sinclair Mustangs'

1975 - Ontario Junior B Champions, 'Cobourg Angels'

1976 - Ontario Junior B Champions, 'Cobourg Angels' (team was voted Cobourg Athlete of the Year)

1979 - Ontario Juvenile A Champions, 'Cobourg Angels'

1984 - Ontario Sr Tier II Champions, 'Cobourg Angels'

1986 - St. Clements Suns picked Margie up to attend the Expo 86 'mini world fastball tournament', held in Vancouver, B.C. Teams participating were  from Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Chinese-Taipei and the host Vancouver team

1989 - Ontario Sr Tier I Champions, Cambridge/St. Clements Suns

1989 - National Sr Tier I Championships Cambridge/St. Clements Suns (finished 4th)

1990 - Ontario Sr Tier I Champions, Asst. Coach, 'Cobourg Angels' 

1990 - National Sr Tier I Championships, Asst. Coach, 'Cobourg Angels' (finished 4th)


POST HIGH SCHOOL

1979 - 1980 Centennial College varsity College hockey- Co-MVP

1980 - 1981 Wilfrid Laurier University- varsity basketball team- Voted Rookie of the Year

1981 - 1982 Wilfrid Laurier University- varsity basketball team

1983 - 1989 competitive Senior womens  hockey- Kitchener and St Clements


COACHING

1978 - Midget girls volleyball - CDCI West

1979 - Midget girls volleyball - CDCI West

1983 - Badminton - CDCI West

1983 - Stratford Midget girls softball team

1983 - Softball Canada - clinic instructor

1990 - Cobourg Angels, assistant coach, senior fastball team


GOLF - 1993-present

2004 - made Ontario women's amateur team by placing 4th at ON tourney
- team Ontario won Canadian inter-provincial title

2007 - won Ontario 4-ball tournament with MaryAnn Hayward

2009 - won Ontario Mid-Am title at Markland Woods (73-75-69)

2011 - made Ontario senior team by placing 3rd at ON tournament
- team Ontario won Canadian inter-provincial title
- placed 8th at Canadian tournament at Whitevale G.C.

2009 - 2011 Golf Ontario mid-am ranking 4th and 5th 2009-2011

Won 16 Stratford Club championships, 2 at Craigowan-Oxford


 

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Strength-Kevin Fast

Kevin Fast

 

Kevin Fast

Born: April 13, 1963, St. Catharines, ON

Family:

Wife- Suzanne
Children – Abigail, Jacob, Matthew

Education:

North Park Collegiate, Brantford, ON.  Diploma  1982
McMaster University B.A. 1998. (Bachelor)
Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, St. Catharines, M.Div., 1992.(Master)
Concordia Lutheran Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind., D.Min., 2002.(Doctor)

Strength Sports:

Heavy Events amateur competitor 1994-1996
Heavy Events professional competitor 1996- still going
Games organizer 1996- still going
Competed in Canada, USA, Scotland, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, China, Singapore, Thailand and Germany

World Records:

Guinness World Record 1998– Heaviest truck pulled over 100ft – 16 ton
Ripley’s Record            1999– Heaviest trucks pulled over 100ft -2x16 ton
Guinness World Record 2001– Heaviest truck pulled over 100ft. – 27 ton
Guinness World Record 2003– Heaviest truck pulled over 100ft. – 28 ton
Guinness World Record 2004– Heaviest truck pulled over 100ft. – 51.4 ton
Guinness World Record 2007-  Heaviest truck pulled over 100ft  - 63 ton
Guinness World Record 2008– Heaviest truck pulled with arm wrestling – 8.5 ton

Guinness World Record 2008-  Most people walking on stilts for 100 m

Guinness World Record 2008-  Heaviest truck pulled over 100ft - 63.2 ton

Guinness World Record 2009-  Heaviest plane pulled – 208 ton

Guinness World Record 2010-  Lifted and held 500kg for longest time 42s

Guinness World Record 2010- Heaviest House pulled 40 ton

Guinness World Record 2011- Heaviest truck pulled with arm wrestling– 12 ton

Guinness World Record 2011– Heaviest vehicle pulled by two people – 75 ton

Ripley’s Record             2011– Most people back lifted – 22 people

Guinness World Record 2011– Lifted and held 500 kg for longest time 60s

Guinness World Record 2011-  Most people lifted with shoulders – 10 people

Guinness World Record 2013–Heaviest truck pulled with arm wrestling–12.5 ton

Guinness World Record 2013-  Most people lifted with shoulders – 11 people

Guinness World Record 2013-  Most cabers tossed in 3 minutes - 14

Guinness World Record 2013-  Heaviest sled pulled by Santa – 17.5 ton

World Record 2013- Stan Lee's Superhumans- Heaviest truck pulled - 140 ton

Guinness World Record 2014– Most cabers tossed simultaneously - 52

Guinness World Record 2014– Most cabers tossed in 3 min. by two people - 11

Guinness World Record 2014– Most cars pulled 5 meters – 15

Guinness World Record 2015- Most cabers tossed simultaneously - 69

Guinness World Record 2015- Most cabers tossed in 3 min by 2 people– 15

Guinness World Record 2016– Heaviest truck pulled with arm wrestling – 16 ton

Guinness World Record 2016– Heaviest vehicle pulled by two people– 91 ton

Guinness World Record 2016– Heaviest vehicle pulled by one person– 75 ton

Guinness World Record 2017– Heaviest vehicle pulled by one person– 109 ton

Guinness World Record 2017– Heaviest vehicle pushed by one person-  12 tons

Guinness World Record 2017– Heaviest vehicle pulled in seated position–12 tons

Guinness World Record 2018– Most cabers tossed in one hour – 122

Guinness World Record 2020-  Heaviest sled pulled – 18 ton

 

World Records set in Canada, USA, Italy, China.

Height: 5’ 9”
Weight: 300 lbs.

Charities:

Pulled trucks to raise money for:

Pull for Kids (Lung Association – Asthma)
Waumer Walk (ALS)

Tim Horton’s Kid’s Camp

Soldier On

McDonald’s Children’s Charities
Fire Prevention Week

Habitat for Humanity

Alzheimer’s Society

TV appearances:

TLC “World’s Most Awesome Record Breakers”
TBS, “Ripley’s Believe It or Not”
CTV “Canada AM”
CBC “The X”
Global “News Special”
Global “100 Huntley St.”
City TV “Breakfast TV”
Real TV
Discovery Channel “Record Breakers”
Documentary, “Good to Finish”
Discovery Channel “Daily Planet.”

ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox “Regis and Kelly”, “Anderson” “Steve Harvey”

AT&T Uverse – Record Breakers

History Channel - Stan Lee Super Humans

 

Museums:

Shoes are on display at Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, St. Augustine, Florida
Shoes are on display at Guinness World Records Museum, Niagara Falls, Canada

 

Books and Magazines:

Guinness Desk top calendar 1999
Guinness World Book of Records 2003
Guinness World Book of Records 2004
Guinness World Book of Records 2005

Guinness World Book of Records 2009

Guinness World Book of Records 2010

Guinness World Book of Records 2011

Guinness World Book of Records 2012

Guinness World Book of Records 2013

Guinness World Book of Records 2014

Guinness World Book of Records 2015

Guinness World Book of Records 2016

Guinness World Book of Records 2017

Guinness World Book of Records 2018

Guinness World Book of Records 2020

Guinness World Book of Records 2021

Ripley’s Believe It or Not 2005 (Blue Ed.)
Ripley’s Believe It or Not 2005 (Scholastic)
Ripley’s Believe It or Not “Odd-inary People”  

Ripley’s Believe It or Not 2011, 2013

Muscle and Fitness April 2005 (Ten Greatest Strength Feats)
Muscle and Fitness December 2005

Sports Illustrated Dec.11, 2009 Best Pictures of the Year

ESPN The Magazine Sept. 21, 2010

 

 

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Sports-Neil Cane Obituary

Sports-Neil Cane Obituary


Cane Remembered as Tireless Volunteer

Published May 24, 2012 Northumberland Today by Jeff Gard 

A big void has been left in the community of Baltimore.

Former arena manager and longtime volunteer Neil Cane died suddenly on Monday. He was 78.

There is no denying the legacy Cane has left in the Township of Hamilton and surrounding areas.

"My sympathies definitely go to the family and friends of Neil", Hamilton Township Mayor Mark Lovshin said when contacted on Tuesday. "Quite an asset for Hamilton Township to lose. He had his heart within the municipality. He was always there when we needed him. He will be sadly missed." 

Visitations will be held today from 2 to 4pm and 7 to 9pm at the MacCoubrey Funeral Home in Cobourg. A funeral service will take place tomorrow at MacCoubrey's at 11am with internment to follow at Cobourg  Union Cemetery.

What George Quigley-who along with his wife Anne runs Baltimore Minor Hockey-will remember most about Cane is "his giving" and he expects he's not alone.

"That's what you'll hear from everybody," Quigley said. "(Cane was) always there for you. He would do anything."

Former Hamilton Township Mayor Forrest Rowden-who is a current Cobourg Councillor-was involved in municipal politics there for 18 years. He was mayor until 2006 several years after Cane had retired but still remained a loyal volunteer. In fact, a lot of the time Cane spent working while as an employee of the municipality for two decades could be considered "volunteer."

"Every 40 hours pay you gave Neil you had 80 hours work and that was a fact." Rowden said. "Neil felt that park was his backyard and he kept it just that way. He was so devoted to the community."

Rowden said Cane-who retired in 2000-hardly ever used his vacation time.

"He couldn't go on holidays because he figured he would be needed" Rowden said. "When he retired he was going to travel but Neil didn't want to leave the community. He wanted to be there."

"He was kind of like a legend" remarked Brian Marjoram "and I use that in a serious manner."

"Everybody knew him and everybody knew the work he did" added Marjoram, a retired teacher from Baltimore Public School. "He often did the work anonymously. He wasn't there for the accolades. He just did it because it needed to be done. He was one of those guys who grabbed the bull by the horns and got down to work. He was non-stop. No job was to big, no job was too small."

Marjoram worked closely with Cane on the Baltimore School Millennium Garden project. Some people Marjoram recalled, complained there was too much of an incline and they couldn't get up the hill.

"So Neil built stairs" Marjoram said, noting there was also a semi-circular student bench that could accommodate 30 children. "These projects, he would do many of them by himself."

Both Marjoram and Rowden credited Cane for helping to build Jacob's Ladder which leaves from County Road 45 up to Baltimore United Church.

Close friend Keith Curtis worked on many projects with Cane especially around the Baltimore Recreation Center. Curtis said Cane was always quick to lend a hand.

"He was just that kind of guy" Curtis said "When he was working (for the Township) he didn't just work for 40 hours; he worked the times he was needed. It could be midnight but if something needed to be done he would be there. He was just a great guy to be with."

Layton Dodge, the former longtime sportswriter for the Cobourg Daily Star said he always considered Cane to be "Mr. Baltimore" even though his contributions reached other communities such as Cobourg, Grafton and Cold Springs as well.

Dodge believes Cane was active in the Baltimore community for six decades. He also remembers Cane coming into Cobourg in the 1950s to referee all the minor hockey games with Lionel (Pat) Briand. They did it for free.

In addition "he coached just about anything there is to coach" Dodge said "and he was an excellent umpire; one of the better ones around."

Cane was involved with hockey, ball and figure skating in Baltimore.

In 2002 ball diamond No 1 in Baltimore was renamed the Neil Cane Diamond, a tribute to his contributions through the years.

Anytime there was rain Cane was quick to get outside and get the diamonds in shape as soon as possible. Often times portions of tournaments from other communities would be moved to Baltimore following rain delays just because the diamonds were ready to go due to Cane's work.

"The sports community is poorer because of his passing" Dodge said. "Everyone appreciated what he did. He was a hard worker. Anything that needed to be done he would do it. He was a great humanitarian and a real good Samaritan Extraordinaire."

Anne Quigley had just met with Cane this past week at the recreation center's outdoor summer canteen which is run by Baltimore Minor Hockey. She was going to get it ready for the season and phoned Cane.

"I knew better than to just go there and not tell him" she said. "Next thing you know he's there doing the grills and oiling them up and all the other things he's always done. He did them as a manager and he did them as a volunteer."

Next week he was going to help change the bulletin boards inside the arena.

"He was always still giving to minor hockey and any of the clubs here" Quigley said.

Quigley said Cane was known as 'The Boss'.

"He always took charge with whatever he did." she said. "It didn't matter if he was moving tables or chairs he directed everybody where they should put them and what the easiest way was."

Quigley said Cane earned all the respect that was shown to him. She recalled a time when the arena management board fundraised to purchase new fencing for ballparks which Cane wanted and was going to install. The rolls of chain-link fencing were delivered on a Friday night.

By the Monday, Cane returned to find all the fencing had been stolen. In a newspaper article Quigley said Cane voiced his disgust that someone had stolen from the community.

"The next night the phone rang and Neil said he had the fencing" said Quigley, noting she asked him "how?"

Ken Goodwin from Fisher's Foodland in Cobourg had read the story and offered to pick up the tab to replace the fencing.

In later conversations, Quigley talked to Goodwin about the gesture.

"(Goodwin) said "how do you not help someone when they have given so much to everybody?" she said "that's the kind of respect Neil had."

"Neil was the kind of person who was your friend, but he was your mentor too" Quigley added.

George Quigley said Cane offered his time very generously for minor hockey.

"We have to thank his family because we used him a lot and he didn't mind" he said. "He was with us a lot of times when he could've been around the house."

"Cane will be missed by the entire community" Quigley said.

"That's what it is; a community loss" he said.

Cane was the beloved husband of Shirley, father of John (Lena), Laurie  (Craig Dynes) Peter, Cathy and David and grandfather to Cody, Courtney, Aaron, Joshua, Jason (Deb) and Robyn. He is survived by his sister Ruth Bolderstone and predeceased by his brothers Lorne (Bus), Gordon, Bob, Doug, Harry (Mike), Ken, Allen, Percy (Bud) and several half brothers and sisters. He is fondly remembered by many nieces and nephews.

If desired, donations may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or Canadian Cancer Society.

 

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Hockey-Gord Brooks 1975-1987

Gord Brooks

 

Gord John Brooks was born in Cobourg September 11, 1950.

He played his minor hockey with the Cobourg Church League.

In 1967 Gord made the Cobourg Cougar Junior 'B' team.

The pages that follow, in this 'Story' 1975-1987 and in the

first 'Story' 1957-1975, of Gord's career were compiled and 

assembled by Beth, Gord's wife of over 44 years. 

 

 

 

 

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Bowling-Cobourg Short Mat

Short Mat Bowling Mats

SHORT MAT BOWLING – COBOURG CLUB HISTORY

It was at a meeting on October 13, 1998 at the prompting of Mrs Dorothy Allen, OLBA representative, when the Cobourg Lawn Bowling Club executive introduced the subject of starting up a club for Short Mat Bowling. 

The game of Short Mat Bowls, a very popular indoor sport played in the UK, appeared to be the answer for we Canadians to keep active and fit during the winter months. At present, 2021, the Cobourg Short Mat Club is active from October through to the end of April.

Short Mat Bowling by no means is restricted to the UK and Ireland but internationally thriving national associations also exist in Belgium, Sweden and Norway. Although a variation of lawn bowls, Short Mat is relatively modern, its origins appear to be wrapped in a mystery of folk lore and dates back to about 1926 in Belfast.

Once the presentation was finished there was no hesitation with nineteen lawn bowlers signing up immediately, and a further 20 names on the ‘interested’ checklist. Dorothy Allen, following up on a tip from John Schumann, wasted no time in arranging the use of the drill hall of the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment. A locker and storage room for the mats were also provided by the militia.  

Three 30’ by 6’ old carpet bowls mats were donated by Dorothy Allen and John Schumann. They were cut and spliced to make two 45’ regulation size carpets for Short Mat Bowling. Dorothy also advised us that three more mats (tournament size) were available on loan from the Ontario Association. Reg Longman donated a dolly which Emil Lindt converted into a storage vehicle for the mats.  

A committee was formed, and volunteers used their skills to build the fenders and equipment needed for playing the game. Other volunteers stepped forward to fill the needed positions to look after the financials, insurance, organizational needs, coaching and liaison with the Lawn Bowling Club who provided name tags and ‘Jacks’ on loan until we were able to purchase the correct heavier ones later in the season.

 

AND SO THE BOWLING BEGAN – October 17, 1998 to April 29, 1999

The original 19 members grew throughout the season to 47.  The highlight of our first season was hosting the 1999 Ontario Short Mat Bowling Championships on March 6th and 7th. With the help of the Niagara Falls Bowling Club who loaned us four additional mats we were able to accommodate eight mats of pairs. Bowlers belonging to clubs from Chatham, Bradford, Niagara Falls, Burlington, Oshawa, Brampton, and Cobourg entered the competition.  

Fred Stringer (Tournament Chair), Ross Adams (Drawmaster) and Peter Kurita (Umpire) presented the winning teams with a handsome silver trophy and prize money. Participants enjoyed dinner at the Cobourg Yacht Club thanks to Myrtle Wardman and Dorothy Allen. The Cobourg Town Crier presented gifts and souvenirs. 

In 1999 with the expert guidance of John Simpson we were successful in obtaining a Trillium Foundation Grant totalling $8,000.00 to be paid in two installments. We initially purchased four new mats from Verdi Sports Limited, UK which we received in January 2000. Two more mats arrived in September which enabled the 2000/2001 season to increase in membership to over 70.

Eventually the club raised enough money to purchase a seventh mat in February 2003. Typical cost of a single mat including shipment from England, customs, and trucking charges amounted to approximately $2,000 Canadian.

 

 

IN-CLUB AND OPEN TOURNAMENTS

We endeavoured to hold in-club tournaments once a month, often with a theme such as ‘Autumn Leaves’, ‘Snowflake’, ‘President’s Tourney’, ‘Skip-A-Long Loonie’ and ‘the Springfest Tournament’ which has been an annual competition with the Brighton Short Mat Club for many years. Another annual tournament was named the “John Schumann Tournament and Pizza Party” in honour of John who bowled well into his 80s.

Most of the in-club tournaments included potluck lunches or perhaps reservations for dinner in a local restaurant afterwards. A record of the winning scores were kept and an AWARD printed and posted on the club bulletin board each month for all to see.

 

PARTIES AND CAKES

Every Christmas would be celebrated with specially planned events to include the members and their spouse or guest. Arrangements for dinner, entertainment, dancing, a gift table and of course the special guests – Mr and Mrs Clause. Often there would be games, puzzles, or something unexpected distributed to the gang. One year each person was handed a ‘santa hat’ and was told that they must wear it all evening or possibly be asked to perform a silly dance or recite a poem or something. No one took off their hat that evening.

We also organized ‘end of season’ parties. Rented a hall, caterer, entertainment, square dancing lessons. And did we like cake? We made a cake for JOE’s 80th, we made cakes for the Schumann Tournaments, and for the invited Brighton Short Mat Club. If something needed to be celebrated, then we made a cake.

 

THE BIG MOVE 2007

Whereas we always enjoyed our time at the Armories and the special attention of the Sergeant who was always more than happy to help us, the drill hall had no natural light. We didn’t mind the challenge of the uneven concrete floor, or attempting to avoid running into the columns and walls with a stray bowl. The somewhat tight spacing of the carpets was quite a challenge as well and so we felt it was time to consider a change.  

With construction completed in 2007 of the new Cobourg Community Centre on D’Arcy Street, we made inquiries of the cost of renting a gym, year-round storage space for our carpets and equipment in a secure location, and an available meeting room. Negotiations were made and costs agreed upon, the days and time periods scheduled, and we have been enjoying the sport of Short Mat Bowling at the CCC ever since. But unfortunately, no cake, pizza or drinks are allowed in the gym.

 

WORLD SHORT MAT CHAMPIONSHIPS IN SWEDEN 2018

At the start of the 2017 short mat bowling season the club joined the newly formed Canadian Short Mat Bowling Association (CSMBA). This meant that Cobourg bowlers were eligible to compete in the first National Championships to be held at the JJ Mat Club in Etobicoke in November 2017. The Championship was also a qualifier for the 2018 World Championships in Stromstad, Sweden.

Cobourg had six members competing - Martin Foxhall, Ralph Hewitt, Dave Jones, Nancy Fargo, Louisa Arthur and Bill Arthur. Gold and Silver winners in each event (singles, pairs, triples, and fours) qualified for the twenty member Canadian team. Martin Foxhall won gold in the Pairs and silver in the Singles but was unable to take his place on the Canadian team due to other commitments.

In the Nationals a player could enter more than one discipline in the week-long event but not in the Worlds. Qualifiers could only play in one discipline and because of that ruling the fourth place Triples team of Bill Arthur, Louisa Arthur and Nancy Fargo were selected since members of the Triples teams in silver and bronze positions had already qualified in other disciplines. Additionally, Ralph Hewitt got a wild card selection based on his performance and played in the Pairs.

In March 2018, the Cobourg bowlers made their way to Sweden for the three-day event. Short mat bowling is a far more widespread sport in Europe than in Canada. The Europeans have regular tour events whereas in Canada it is a sport played primarily for social reasons. The Canadians knew they would be very much the underdogs but, as in any sport, they were proud to be wearing their Canada shirts and representing their country.  

It is a moment they will always remember marching into the arena for the opening ceremony. There were short mat bowlers from ten other countries - England, Wales, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Italy, India, Denmark and Germany.

The Championships were held over three days and each team played a six-game round robin. Despite some valiant performances the Canadian team recorded few victories, and the Cobourg members did not win any of their games. Unfortunately and in defence of the Arthur/Fargo triples team they were badly hit by sickness. Louisa Arthur had to pull out of the team on the first day whilst Bill was also recovering from sickness. 

A spare was drafted into the team for Day 1. Louisa was able to play on Day 2 but not for the final game on Day 3 by which time Nancy Fargo had caught whatever was going round. Despite the problems the team enjoyed the experience and learned some valuable lessons which would serve them well for the future. And it is fair to say, had some enjoyable social events and made new friends.

In November 2018, the second Canadian National Championships were held again at the JJ Mat Club in Etobicoke. Since the World Championships are only held every two years the 2018 National Championships were not a qualifier although performances would result in ranking points for the 2020 Worlds.

Martin Foxhall was once again prominent winning two gold medals and one silver.  Bill and Louisa Arthur were also competing in Triples again but with Mike Place on this occasion and they won the gold medal defeating the top two seeds on the way.

 

HOSTING THE CANADIAN SHORT MAT NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN COBOURG 2019

After two National Championships at the JJ Mat Club, CSMBA was looking for a new venue for the 2019 Championship competitions and approached the Cobourg club with a request to host the Championship games in November. After a lot of organization by club members the necessary arrangements were made to ensure the availability of a gym and adjoining lunchroom at the Cobourg Community Centre for the six-day event.  

Club volunteers took turns to serve tea, coffee, beverages and food and snacks to the bowlers between games during the week. Much gratitude to sponsors and donors for over $2,800.00 raised to help cover expenses.

Holding the event in Cobourg was a great success with competitors from Brampton, Burlington, Cobourg, Kingston, Niagara Falls, Ottawa and Toronto complimenting the facilities and the warm welcome of the Cobourg club members. Holding it in Cobourg also meant more entries from Cobourg members who enjoyed the opportunity to compete against some excellent bowlers without having to travel out of town.

No disrespect is meant to the Cobourg Pairs team of Mike Place and John MacKenzie, but they were the big surprise of the Championships taking gold in the Pairs and automatically qualifying for the World 2020 Championships in Belgium. They even surprised themselves!

As was the case in previous years there were some players who were multiple winners and so selection came down to performances in 2019 and 2018. As a result (and not because he was a CSMBA Director and selector) Bill Arthur was selected to play singles and Louisa Arthur as a member of a triples team.

However, then came COVID-19 and the World Championships in Belgium were postponed and are scheduled to be held in 2022. The National Championships were anticipated to be held in Cobourg again in 2020 but also had to be postponed. They are now scheduled for November 2021 in Cobourg. 

As a footnote to this article, 22 years after that initial meeting on October 13, 1998, some of the members who helped establish the club still enjoy the camaraderie and friendly competition of Short Mat Bowling. To name a few - Malcolm and Myrtle Wardman, Basil and Jean Fox, Ross Adams, Marilyn McMillan, Martin Foxhall, Dianne Lauder, and Donna Longman.  

And this article would be incomplete if I did not mention Harry Knapper, a long-time member of the Cobourg Lawn Bowling Club for over 50 years, a Cobourg Short Mat Bowling Club member of 20 years and still active in both sports at the young age of ‘in his late 80s’.   

2018 World Championships in Sweden.  Part of the Canadian team of 20 Nancy Fargo, Ralph Hewitt, Louisa & Bill Arthur

2019 Canadian National Championships in Cobourg Mike Place, John MacKenzie Gold in Pairs presented by Elaine Houtby (VP CSMBA)

************************************

Description of the equipment and basic rules of play

Short mat bowls is an indoor version of lawn bowls and is played with normal lawn bowls. It is played on a foam backed carpet which is 45 feet long and 6 feet wide. The mat has the required lines permanently marked on it. A wooden fender is placed at both ends to simulate the “ditch” in lawn bowls and to keep the bowls from rolling off the mat. A wooden block sits in the centre of the mat. Players have to avoid their bowl contacting the block on their way down the mat. The fine shape of each bowl imposes a 'bias' which causes the bowl to follow a curved route. The 'jack' is the target that sits near the end of the mat.

A short mat game can have a variable length of play. The length of play is normally an agreed number of ‘ends’. At the Cobourg club a game is usually eight ends.

In serious competition matches, such as the Canadian Nationals and the World Nationals a higher number of ends are played. Typically, this will be twelve ends minimum.

In club games teams will usually be pairs or triples. In pairs each player rolls four bowls. In triples it is three bowls each.  At national and international levels there are four disciplines, singles, pairs, triples and fours.

To start the game the winner of the toss decides which team will play first. The skip of the team playing first places the jack on a central line and at their preferred length. After that the team that wins the end plays first.

Short mat bowls is very similar to lawn bowls in that the object is for each player, or team, to take turns rolling bowls down the mat in an attempt to getting as many of the bowls as close as possible and closer to the target, the 'jack', than their opponent. The main difference is in the size of the playing area and the presence of the block midway down the rink mat. The presence of the block is to reduce an attempt of players knocking their opponents' bowls away from the existing position.

Players are encouraged to use the natural bias of the bowls to manoeuvre around the block and any other bowls or indeed, promote an existing bowl. Any bowls that touch the block, or land in the ditch area are dead and are removed before the next bowl is sent. A bowl which has touched the jack en route to the ditch, remains 'alive' and will count in the scoring. The skill in playing short mat bowls comes from the bias of the bowl and the skill of 'delivering a bowl to a position where it either counts in the score or is used as a defender, blocking a route to change positions.

The game is equally enjoyed by all ages as age has no bearing on the ability to bowl.

 

Source: Donna Longman


     

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Submitted byLeslie Noble (not verified) on Fri, 01/26/2024 - 15:02

After reading about the forming of your club we in Wasaga Beach are interested in working with your club to help us to get started here in Wasaga Beach hopefully you can help in any information that we will require to grow like your club has Thanks looking forward to meeting some day in the near future

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Hockey-Gord Brooks 1957-1975

Gord Brooks

Gord John Brooks was born in Cobourg September 11, 1950.

He played his minor hockey with the Cobourg Church League.

In 1967 Gord made the Cobourg Cougar Junior 'B' team.

The pages that follow, in this 'Story' 1957-1975 and in the second 'Story'  

1975-1987, of Gord's career were compiled and assembled

by Beth, Gord's wife of over 44 years.  

 

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Hockey-Steve Smith

Steve Smith 90-91

Edmonton Oilers Legend: Steve Smith

Reprinted w-permission Greatest Hockey Legends.com by Joe Pelletier

It never mattered how good of a defenseman Steve Smith became. And he became a very good one.

But he will always be remembered for The Goal!

It is one of the most famous goals in Stanley Cup playoff history, if only for all the wrong reasons. Smith accidentally puts the puck in his own net in the third period of a tied game seven, putting his team on the brink of elimination. The two time defending champion Edmonton Oilers never recovered, and are knocked out of the playoffs by their arch rivals, the Calgary Flames.

Smith was just a rookie then. Such a devastating occurrence could easily have wrecked many a young defensemen's career. While most people will remember Steve Smith for the mistake, people should remember him for his resolve and becoming one of the better defensemen of his era.

Success in hockey never came easy for Smith.

He was never drafted by a junior team. He grew up out of the scout's radar in the tiny town of Cobourg, Ontario. When his teams traveled to tournaments, scouts were unimpressed with the gangly kid who found his big body too awkward to be effective.

Smith stuck with the game, and by age 17 he grew to 6'3" and 180lbs, enough to catch the attention of his hometown London Knights. Smith, who was actually born in Glasglow, Scotland of all places, made the team, though played the first half of the season as the 4th line right winger.

By his NHL draft year he filled out to 225lbs, and played regularly on the blue line. Despite his promising skill set, he was a mid round draft pick, selected 111th overall by the Edmonton Oilers.

Smith was not even the highest selected Steve Smith of his draft class. Taken in the 1st round, 16th overall by Philadelphia, was another Steve Smith, this one of Sault Ste. Marie.

That Steve Smith was supposed to be more of a sure bet, but he only played in 18 career NHL games.

Meanwhile the Oilers Smith went on to become one of better defensemen of his era, playing in 804 games, scoring 72 goals, 303 assists, and 375 points while winning three Stanley Cups and a Canada Cup.

We would be remiss to not mention his career 2139 penalty minutes, which is amazing given that he was not a noted fighter. Smith was an intimidating monster back on the blue line, not afraid to impose his 6'4" 220lb body on any incoming forward.

Blessed with balance and agility on his skates and ridiculously long reach, Smith was tough to beat one on one. He was also very good at reading the oncoming plays and was always in good position to defend.

Smith was much more than just one dimensional shut down defenseman. He had surprising mobility, able to cover more ice and maximize his physical impact. He could rush the puck out of the zone when needed, but more often than not relied on an effective first pass out of the zone to key the transition offense.

Smith had a solid offensive game, relying mostly on slapshot from the point. His shot was not particularly overwhelming, but he had a good knack to get the shot through traffic and on net.

Smith persevered after the playoff disaster to become one of the Oilers best defenders. When the Oilers recaptured the Stanley Cup in 1988, captain Wayne Gretzky immediately handed the silver chalice to young Smith.

As the dynasty became dismantled over the next few years, Smith became the Oilers top defender. At the same time he became a bit a whipping dog for coach John Muckler. Muckler obviously recognized Smith's resolve and used that to continuously prod him. He recognized Smith's unique package of skill and size, and wanted to use old-school coaching techniques to see Smith reach his potential.

Like so many of the Oilers Stanley Cup stars, contract disputes forced Smith out of town. In October 1991 the Oilers moved Smith to Chicago in exchange for Dave Manson and a draft pick used to select Kirk Maltby. Smith had sat out the Oilers training camp and was prepared to sit out the beginning of the season in search of a new contract.

In the first two seasons with Chicago Smith became a steady standout along side Chris Chelios in Chicago. Injuries derailed Smith's career over the final four years in Chicago. Twice Smith broke his leg, and he constantly battled a bad back. Smith would miss more games than he would be able to play in.

The Blackhawks did not want him in 1998. The back injury scared all teams away except for, of all teams, the Calgary Flames.

Smith joined the Flames and put in a yeoman's effort, playing through the pain to participate in 69 games while providing a badly needed veteran presence.

Smith's back would give out though. Combined with a severe concussion suffered against Minnesota, Smith would appear in only 33 games over the next two seasons, eventually being forced into retirement and behind the Flames bench as an assistant coach.

 

Source: Posted by Joe Pelletier Greatest Hockey Legends.com

 

 

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Hockey-Steve Smith - The Goal!

Steve Smith 1987 sesqui parade

happy birthday, 1986: fuhrsie was late getting back in the net, and smitty just tried to cut the corner

 / PUCKSTRUCK.COM/STEPHEN SMITH

 

It was his birthday, of course, happened to be. I can’t say how much that multiplied the misery for the man in question, if at all, or how much of a sting he still feels, 32 years on from that day in 1986 — like yesterday, April’s last — when, as a rookie defenceman for the Edmonton Oilers, he scored what has become hockey’s most famous self-inflicted goal, which I (obviously) don’t have to specify further due to how notorious it is, though maybe I should all the same (just to be clear) by naming the man now synonymous with putting a puck past your own surprised goaltender: Steve Smith.

Calgary was in Edmonton that long-ago day, playing Game 7 of the Smythe Division Final. Smith was 63 games into his career with the Oilers, who were hunting their third Stanley Cup in a row. He’d just turned — was still not finished turning — 23. The score was tied 2-2 when, at 5:14 of the third period, Smith found himself behind his own net, rapping the puck off Grant Fuhr’s leg, into that net, to score the goal that not only won the reviled Flames the game but eliminated the Oilers from the playoffs.

So, a big mistake. But other defencemen have done what Steve Smith did, in important games, as have lots of forwards. He’s the only one to have had his entire career as a hockey player reduced to a single misdirected pass. As recently as 2016, a writer in a major American magazine referred to Smith as having suffered “perhaps the most devastating embarrassment the NHL has ever seen.” Really — ever? How is it that his goal has become both the exemplar for hockey self-scoring and, for Smith, the act that has come to define an otherwise distinguished 16-year career on NHL bluelines to those of us who were watching the game in the 1980s? And how can that be fair?

 

I take this all a little personally. Smith is a player I’ve followed with special interest since he first skated into the NHL. At first my attention was almost entirely nominal. He’s not much older than me, and grew up in Cobourg, Ontario, just to the south of where I was in Peterborough. I ended up taller; he managed to win many more Stanley Cups than I ever could. It wasn’t hard to imagine his career as my own. No problem at all: I’ve got way more imagination, in fact, than I do actual hockey skills, so it was easy to fancy myself out there, numbered 5, in William-of-Orange/Oiler colours, alongside the most exciting players of the age, Gretzky and Messier and Kurri and Coffey.

Smith wasn’t exciting, but I liked his lanky style, which had just a hint, in those early years, of my own trying-too-hard clumsiness. I felt for him in 1986, and maybe even thought I could help him shoulder the burden. I couldn’t, of course — how could I? For a long time, years, any time I got on the ice for a beer-league game I did think demon thoughts about shooting the puck past my own goaltender midway through the third period. I never did it, though I’m pretty sure some of my teammates expected me to, also — especially the goaltenders.

•••

Smith’s old goal is old news, but it’s also (like everything else) as current and quick-to-the-fore as your Google search window. Search (go on) and the page that beams up with an efficiency that’s easy to mistake for eagerness shows Smith prostrate on the ice after the goal and tearful in the dressing room.

The goal has eternal life, of course, on YouTube. Funny Moments In Sports — Steve Smith Scores On Himself the footage there tends to be titled, and the commentaries run on and on. Some of them do their best to exonerate Smith —

Grant Fuhr should have been hugging the post when Smith attempted his pass

— while others are more interested in forensic dissections:

After about 50 viewings over 20 years, I finally see how it happened… Fuhr’s stick came downwards just as Smith passed the puck, and it went off Fuhr’s stick and in, Smith thought there was a lane there to clear it cause Fuhr’s stick was up at the time… does that sound right?

There’s every degree of pity, and plenty of character-witnessing—

Poor guy

if i didnt know any better it looks almost as if that was purposely done. but still i feel sorry for smith

this isnt funny

i played for steve smith. greatest guy in the world.

People enjoy the goal as entertainment —

lol you know whats funny. next season, when the oilers played the flames in the saddledome, flames fans would yell “SHOOOOT!!” when smith was behind his net looking for a play LOLOLOL. by the way, the 07 stanley cup was won by almost the exact same “anti-play”

and also count it as revenge —

Steve Smith is also the guy who made a dirty play that took Pavel Bure into the boards and hurt his knee. Bure was never the same again. Smith took out the most exciting player in the game at that time, what a jerk.

A conclusion drawn by some online commentators on the Smith goal?

oilers suck.

More formal reviews of what happened were plentiful, of course. Terry Jones was one who described the goal for newspaper readers the next morning with minimal drama:

When Steve Smith passed the puck from behind his net and hit goaltender Grant Fuhr on the back of his left leg, the puck bounced into the net, breaking a 2-2 tie and breaking the backs of the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions.

Jones wrote for The Edmonton Sun, so the headline went for maximum blare:

       BIGGEST BLUNDER EVER?

For a lede he went with “one of the biggest bonehead plays in the history of all sport.” There was a lot of that. Infamy is another  word that repeats through subsequent accounts of the goal, almost as abundantly as gaffe. Mentions of mortal wounds and witness protection programs follow on allusions to the caprice of the hockey gods. The Oilers’ collective overconfidence was seen early on as a contributing factor to what happened to them via Smith’s own goal, along with their arrogance.

Smith’s birthday featured prominently in the coverage, e.g. Rex MacLeod’s Toronto Star lede asserting that he will never forget the one in which he aged a lifetime.

Often recalled in the aftermath was the fact that Smith only played that night because Lee Fogolin was injured.

Flames’ winger Perry Berezan got the credit for the goal as the last Calgary player to touch the puck. “I think I am the only man in history to score a series-winning goal from the bench,” he said later. “I had dumped the puck into the Edmonton zone when I was front of my own bench, and I didn’t even see it go in. I remember how strange it was on the bench when the goal was scored. It was quiet. We were asking, What just happened? and guys were saying, Steve Smith bounced the puck off of Fuhr. It’s a goal!

 

That’s a later take, so far as I can determine. On the night, Berezan was quoted as saying, “This is too unbelievable to be true” and “I couldn’t dream it any better.”

There was wide acknowledgement in those contemporary accounts that Berezan was the only native-born Edmontonian on Calgary’s roster, and that his birthday was Christmas Day, following which he grew up as an Oilers’ fan. Also: his uncle was the organist at the Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum.

Berezan’s sympathy took year’s to emerge into the wild: until 2016, in fact, when Ben Arledge at ESPN The Magazine stirred the grave of Smith’s unmeant goal. This is the piece wherein you’ll see Smith’s mortification rated “the most devastating” the NHL has ever witnessed; other than that, it’s plausible. Berezan, interestingly, tells Arledge that he wanted to say something to Smith back in ’86, but he was 21, and some of the Flames veterans told him never to feel sorry for a beaten opponent, and so he kept quiet, not a word. “But,” he says, “I felt terrible for the guy.”

 

I doubt that Lanny McDonald was one of those unnamed veterans implicated here — that just doesn’t sound like Lanny. In the moment, right after it was over, McDonald made clear that Smith really had no choice in the matter. “When I saw the goal go in,” McDonald confided in the Calgary dressing room that night, “I couldn’t believe it. Then I felt it was meant to be. We did a lot of praying in this room and God finally answered our prayers.”

Huge, if true.

At the time, the Oilers seemed to have no inkling that He’d forsaken them. Over in their room, they were still focussed on the passion of Steve Smith.

“It’s not his fault,” Wayne Gretzky was saying after the Oilers had failed to tie it up. “One goal did not lose these playoffs.”

Rex MacLeod of The Toronto Star described him and several of his teammates as “red-eyed from weeping. “It was an unfortunate goal,” Gretzky said. “We tried not to let it bother us. We tried to keep our energy at a high level and I think we did. It was a big disappointment, but I’ve had a few before. It hurts when you’re good enough to win and you expect to win. That’s tough, but we lost fair and square to a team with a lot of heart.”

 

“I don’t think anyone in this room should be pointing a finger at another guy,” Gretzky also said. “I think you should look yourself in the mirror.

That raw-eyed 99 from just now I imagine standing there with his gear only half-off, naked to the shoulderpads, sadly sockfooted. But by the time Robin Finn of The New York Times got to studying him, he was showered and dressed. “His face freshly scrubbed and every burnished hair in place,” Finn wrote, “he stood and faced wave upon wave of microphones and pointed questions. He wore a white shirt and a brown tie flecked with dots of royal colors, and flecked, too, with stray tears. But Gretzky was in control, and the only evidence of his distress was in the fluttering of his eyelids as he politely answered all queries concerning his dethroning.”

Grant Fuhr said, “It was right on the back of my leg. I was trying to get back in the net, but I didn’t expect it to go through the crease.” He told someone else, “I can never recall a goal going in like that. You never expect something like that. I’m not real big on losing.”

Smith played not another second of the third period following the goal he scored on Berezan’s behalf. That was Edmonton coach Glen Sather’s decision, of course. “I feel sorry for Smith,” he told reporters when it was all over, “but I told him he can’t let it devastate him. He’s gonna be a good hockey player. I still think we’re a great hockey club, but I guess we still have some growing to do.”

 

Smith was devastated, but that didn’t stop him from facing the press. His eyes were wet and red, according to most accounts; Al Strachan, then of The Globe and Mail, has him “sobbing.” Either way, he would be roundly commended for failing to hide himself away. “Sooner or later I have to face it,” he said. Of course he was expected to explain what had happened. “I was just trying to make a pass out front to two guys circling,” an Associated Press dispatch has him saying. “It was a human error. I got good wood on it, it just didn’t go in the direction I wanted.”

Was there not one of those scribbling correspondents who might have stepped up to give the man a hug?

I guess not. Smith went on talking. “I’ve got to keep on living,” the papers all reported next day. “I don’t know if I’ll ever live this down, but I have to keep on living. The sun will come up tomorrow.”

 

It did, revealing new newspaper analyses of what Smith had wrought. George Vecsey of The New York Times called it a “true disaster.” Another reporter there tracked down Rangers’ defenceman Larry Melynk. He’d started the season as an Oiler, only to lose Sather’s confidence and have Smith supplant him before a trade took him to New York. “I would have fired it around the boards,” Melnyk opined. “Just stay with my game. Shoot it around the boards.” He wasn’t gloating, though. “What happened to him could have happened to anybody.”

There were examinations of what had gone wrong with the Oilers for every taste, including the worst possible. David Johnston of The Gazette felt sure that once “hockey pathologists” got around to conducting an autopsy, they would discover that the team had been suffering from “cancers” of both the soul and the mind, which would account for their having (“like Ernest Hemingway”) “turned their formidable weapons on themselves and committed suicide.”

•••

After I published my book Puckstruck in 2014, I had several conversations with passersbys at bookstore events who saw my name on the cover and lit up under the lightbulb that appeared over their heads.

Them: Hey. You played for the Oilers.
Me: No, no, not me, different guy. Better hockey player in terms of … everything hockey. And I go by Stephen, mostly.
Them: Oh. So you wrote Steve Smith’s biography?

No. That’s a book, so far, that’s still to be published. Smith hasn’t seen fit to/hasn’t had time for/has no interest in autobiographying — maybe one day? Several other frontline Oilers who’ve written memoirs have, of course, revisited that night in ’86.

 

Start with Kevin Lowe, whose autobiography/history of Edmonton hockey was guided by Stan and Shirley Fischler. Champions (1988) has this to say:

Steve Smith, our big young defenseman who had replaced the injured Fogie, was behind our net in the left corner looking to make our standard fast-break play. That means the puck goes up the ice pretty quick. Unfortunately, Steve kind of bobbled the puck a bit and he never did get good wood or a handle on it. Since he knew that the objective of the play was to do it as quickly as possible, he moved the rubber without having all the control he should. The puck just sprayed off his stick, hit the back of Grant’s left leg and went into the net. Just like that!

Here’s Jari Kurri, from 17 (2001), in an autobiography he authorized himself to write with Ari Mennander and Jim Matheson:

He tried a long cross-ice pass, but it bounced off the leg of Fuhr and into the net. Fuhr wasn’t hugging the post and Smith was a little too adventuresome. When the puck went in, Smith dove to the ice, covering his face, looking like he wanted the ice to open and swallow him up.

Grant Fuhr has published a couple of books of his own, starting with a manual for would-be puckstops, Fuhr On Goaltending, written with Bob Mummery’s aid and published in 1988. The Smith goal might seem like a perfect teaching moment for such a project as this, but there’s no mention of it, not on the page headed Asleep At The Switch, and not in Communication, either. “Be alert, concentrate on the puck, and stay in the game,” Fuhr advises in the former; in the latter, he specifically references teammates handling the puck behind the net. But only, as it turns out, to remind novice goalkeeps that a defenceman back there must be kept informed about incoming opponents. “Keep up the chatter,” he says.

 

In 2014, with Bruce Dowbiggin lending a hand, the goaltender published a fuller memoir. But Grant Fuhr: The Story of a Hockey Legend doesn’t go into even as much detail when it comes to “the lovely Steve Smith goal” as Fuhr did the night of. The playoffs, Fuhr concedes, ended on “a crushing note,” which marked “kind of a gloomy end to a gloomy month:” his father had died two weeks earlier. Next up: the Oilers were only a few days into their off-season when Sports Illustrated published an exposé alleging cocaine use by sundry Oilers, including Fuhr.

“That month,” he concludes, “kind of turned everything bad.”

Number 99 got his account out in Gretzky: An Autobiography (1990), which he crafted with Rick Reilly’s help. Here’s how they frame the goal:

Steve Smith was this big, good-looking defenseman of ours, only twenty-three years old, a future star, a Kevin Lowe protégé. He is a real smart player, but that night he made a mistake. He took the puck in our own corner and tried to clear it across the crease: the cardinal no-no in hockey. It’s like setting a glass of grape juice on your new white cashmere rug. You could do it, but what’s the percentage in it? Without a single Flame around, the puck hit the back of Grant’s left calf and caromed back into our net. Hardly anybody in the arena saw it but the goal judge did. The Flames suddenly led 3-2. It was a horrible, unlucky, incredible accident, but it happened. Steve came back to the bench and, for a minute, looked like he’d be all right. But then he broke down in tears.

The fact that Gretzky’s most recent book, 99 Stories of the Game (2016, assist to Kirstie McLellan Day), makes only passing mention of Smith, and none of his infamous goal, might seem to signal that the story has been wholly written, nothing more to say. Two books from 2015 undermine that notion.

 

I briefly held out some hope that Gail Herman’s Who Is Wayne Gretzky? might prove to be an existential tell-all by 99’s rogue therapist, but it’s nothing like that.

It is, instead, a handsome 106-page biography intended for younger readers. It’s abundantly illustrated by Ted Hammond and (if it does say so itself) “fun and exciting!” The young readers it’s intended for, I’d have to say, would be non-Canadian and hockey-oblivious. If you are such a youthful person, an 11-year-old, say, living on a far-flung Scotland Hebride that wifi has yet to reach, and yet still, somehow, you’ve developed a curiosity about hockey that so far hasn’t divulged what exactly Brantford, Ontario’s own paragon could do and did, then this is just the book for you, congratulations, and hold on: you are going to learn a lot about Gretzky.

You’re also going to come away with a full understanding of Smith’s renowned goal. Chapter 8 is the where you’ll find what you’re after on that count, the one entitled “Dynasties and Dating.” The latter has to do with what followed after Wayne went to a basketball game in 1987 in Los Angeles and this happened: “American actress and dancer Janet Jones came over to say hello.” More important for our purposes here is what happens two pages earlier, back on the ice as the Oilers battle for the 1986 Cup, and well, guess what.

 

To Herman, no matter what Steve Smith did, the puck had its own agenda:

Oilers defenseman Steve Smith skated to the net to stop a goal by the Flames. He tried to clear the puck. But the puck hit the Oilers’ goalie, Grant Fuhr, on the leg. Then it bounced into the net.

The graphic generosity Herman pays to Smith is worth noting, too: in Chapter Eight’s six pages, he features in no fewer than three line-drawings, which is as many as Janet Jones gets, just before she becomes Mrs. Gretzky in Chapter Nine.

The Battle of Alberta can’t compete when it comes to illustrations. But what Mark Spector’s 2015 history of the years of Oiler-Flame rivalry lacks in artwork, it makes up with what may be the definitive post mortem, devoting a full 15 pages to what happened that night in a chapter titled “The Right Play The Wrong Way: Oiler Steve Smith’s Unforgettable Goal.”

 

Spector begins by recounting how, in the immediate aftermath of what he calls “the worst experience of [Smith’s] life,” the wretched defenceman found a grim joke to offer. “I got good wood on it,” Spector has him telling reporters. “I thought the puck went in fast.”

Maybe that’s right. But looking back at the contemporary accounts, only the first phrase seems to have appeared in any of the immediate coverage of the game in the spring of 1986.

Reporters at the scene who took down “I got good wood on it” tend to have heard what came next as “it just didn’t go in the direction I wanted.” (Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe heard “but not in the direction I hoped.”) The original is self-deprecating rather than actually humorous, and doesn’t so fully support Spector’s framing premise that Smith was “having a laugh at his own misfortune.” It’s no more than a minor mystery, I’ll grant you. But given the descriptions of the mood in the Oiler room, and of Smith’s own demeanor on the night, I’m skeptical that anyone heard him jibing about the speed of the puck that night. From what I can glean, Spector’s amended version doesn’t seem to have shown up before a 2010 article of Jim Matheson’s in The Edmonton Journal.

Otherwise? Spector calls Smith another mobile defenceman who could fight and play. He describes him as gangly. He asserts that he took nothing for granted and (cleverly) not good enough to feel any entitlement.

 

Spector does provide a valuable service in breaking down just what Smith was attempting to do. As Kevin Lowe tells him, this was the Oilers’ new quick-up play designed to catch an opponent offguard as they dumped the puck in and changed. The centreman and maybe a winger would be waiting high up on the opposite boards, over by the penalty boxes. “You just went back and you almost didn’t look,” Lowe explained. “You just forced it up to the spot.”

But then: “Fuhrsie was a little late getting back in the net, and Smitty just tried to cut the corner a bit.”

“He’s gonna be a good hockey player,” Glen Sather said back on that April night, and so it proved. When the Oilers roared back in 1987 to win another Cup, Smith and his story arc’d to a perfect redemptive close. “A year after Smith’s mistake,” Spector writes,

after the Oilers had regained their place atop the hockey world with a seven-game ouster of Philadelphia in the Final, Gretzky made a classy gesture when he handed the Stanley Cup to Smith and sent him off on a celebratory whirl around the Northlands Coliseum ice.

It didn’t end there, of course. As noted on the Oilers’ own Heritage website,

Smith persevered and became one of the key players of the team’s drive for three more Cups in 1987, 1988, and 1990. Smith best year came in 1987-88, when he scored 12 goals, added 43 assists, and received 286 penalty minutes. Smith proved he was a tough customer, and the disastrous goal was nothing more than a fluke.

 

Gretzky has gone even further. Diligent, down the years, in making sure Smith’s name stays cleared, Gretzky has even claimed that the Oilers were actually fortunate to lose in ’86. “I know that sounds strange,” he’s reasoned, “but sometimes you lose for a reason. After that season, we made some changes, got hungrier, and stopped thinking we had sole rights to the Stanley Cup. Maybe Smith won us two more Cups. Who knows?”

Smith himself has said that the whole experience was life-changing. “It taught me humility,” he told Spector. Ben Arledge talked to him about this, too, in the ESPN piece. “I really believe that incident had a lot to do with making me a much humbler person,” Smith said to him. “It probably taught me more about humility than a person could ever learn. From that day forward, I sincerely cheered for people. I didn’t want to see people fail. I didn’t want to ever see people have that type of day.”

 

Mark Spector’s Battle of Alberta chapter comes with a fairly perfect ending, in which Smith tells of playing a subsequent pre-season game in Calgary. The fact that Spector doesn’t bother to date it could indicate that he (a) preferred to render it as legend as much as a fact or (b) couldn’t be bothered. It did happen, on a Tuesday night, September 25, 1990, in front of a crowd of 20,132 fans who, as usual, called for Smith to “shooooot” every time he touched the puck. Smith was prepared, having warned Oilers’ goaltender Bill Ranford that there might come a point in the game where he actually did just that. “And,” Smith told him, “you’d better fuckin’ stop it.”

And so it happened, in the first period, that Smith lobbed a backhand at Ranford that the goaltender did, indeed, save. Smith raised his stick to the Calgary faithful who, it’s reported, laughed.

“The whole place stood up and gave me a standing ovation,” Smith tells Spector. “It was kinda cool. For the most part, they left me alone after that.”

 

Source: Stephen Smith author of Puckstruck

"It’s rare to find a book that makes me proud to be Canadian" -Michael Winter 

 

 

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Shooting-Winchester Plant Opening-Closing

Winchester marks


COBOURG PLANT OPENS DOORS TO PUBLIC SATURDAY

Reprint from Cobourg Sentinel-Star June,1970

This is Winchester Canada's big week in Cobourg. The company and its 265 employees have just moved into their new 86,000 sq. ft. plant on Brook Road North, and on Thursday official dedication ceremonies will be held. This Saturday - June 13 - citizens of Cobourg and district are invited to visit the new plant and see how world-renowned Winchester and Cooey guns are made. Employees were the first to open the celebrations with a big family tour a few weeks ago.

On Thursday, with Cobourg resident and Canadian president and general manager John E. Feldhaus as host, the new plant will be dedicated at 2 p.m.. Attending will be Alex Carruthers, MPP, Durham, Russell Rowe MPP., Northumberland, Mayor Jack Heenan and members of council, with Rev. George Malcolm, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and chairman of the Cobourg Council of Churches giving the invocation. 

Special company guests in Cobourg will include Harlow Reed, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of the $1 billion-plus parent U.S. Olin Corp and William L. Wallace, Winchester Group vice-president.

The company has recently moved from its former plant in the town's west end, where it had been located since coming to Cobourg in 1929. Winchester Canada Limited sells a full range of Winchester guns imported from the U.S. as well as those made in Cobourg. There is also an ammunition plant at Cobourg. 

Beginning in Toronto as the H.W. Cooey Machine & Arms Co. Limited, in 1903, its founder was a machinery specialist. During World War I, the company produced small arms parts and other machinery, always conscious of quality and good design.

Just after the war Mr. Cooey himself designed the famous Cooey .22 caliber rifle which soon became well recognized across Canada as well as internationally. By 1929, there had been several expansions in Toronto and Mr. Cooey bought a vacant plant in Cobourg and the company came here. During World War II of course, war production was vitally important to the Cooey plant, and out came parts for guns as well as training rifles.

In 1961, when Mr. Cooey died the company was sold to the then Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp., under the Winchester-Western division. Several new lines were brought into company activity, a large expansion of plant and office space undertaken, and employment began to jump from under 100 up to today's 265.


Here's Winchester's Management team

Cobourg's Winchester plant is headed by an energetic management team with Canadian president and general manager John E. Feldhaus at its head.
Mr. Feldhaus joined Winchester Canada in October, 1968 after 18 years with the U.S. parent company. He is a graduate of Westminster College, Fulton, Mo., and has an MBA from St. Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. 

In 1950, he became a management trainee with the U.S. company, and moved successively and successfully through positions as a business research analyst, marketing assistant, assistant to division general manager, to marketing research manager, assistant director of sales to a 1967 posting as director of market planning. Just under two years ago, he came to Cobourg to head Canadian operations. In the community, he is a director of the Chamber of Commerce, and involved in church and Boy Scout activities.

Many of the other executives are also well known.
Charlie Thompson, director of manufacturing, joined the company early in 1967, and is a former materials manager at Canadian Trailmobile and project manager at Canadian Westinghouse. He is a professional engineer, graduate of Upper Canada College and University of Toronto. 

Frank Moore, director of marketing, has been with the company since 1962. He is in charge of marketing, sales and distribution of Winchester-Cooey firearms and Winchester ammunition throughout Canada. Under his direction also come product service, advertising and public relations, field force, customer service, market planning and the Quebec branch. 

Previously, he was a sporting goods manager in Vancouver, a merchandise manager for sporting goods in Winnipeg, then a Winchester field representative for seven years before becoming director or marketing last year.

Jim Morse, controller, has been two years at Winchester. He is in charge of accounting, analysis, office administration. Previously he was a financial analyst with Massey Ferguson and Ford of Canada. He is a graduate of University of Toronto with a BA and MBA. 

George Cook, manager of technical services, has been four years with the company, and is responsible for quality control and new product design and development. He was a toolmaker in the U.K., a gun fitter with the British armed forces, and a toolroom foreman in guided missile division of English Electric Company in the U.K.

Harold Nelson, industrial relations manager, since 1966 is known throughout the Cobourg community and is very much involved in a number of community ventures, including the IAPA, Cancer Society and Chamber of Commerce. He is responsible for the usual duties of personnel and labor relations, but also for a special duty of "community relations". Previously he was with Canadian Westinghouse in personnel work.

Bill Long, manager, ammunition manufacturing, has been with Winchester since 1962. He was in the Canadian armed forces from 1943 to 1959 and was then ammunition plant superintendent for Gevelot. He is commanding officer of the local Air Cadet squadron and a member of the education branch of the RCAF Reserve.

Costs $2 Million

Total cost of the new Winchester plant is well over $2 million. When work began on the 50-acre site last summer, costs were estimated at $2,198,000.

Ontario Development Corp, a provincial government agency, granted a $250,000 forgivable loan to help finance the project; the loan does not have to be repaid, provided the company meets certain conditions over a six-year period. It was provided under the province's "Equalization of Industrial Opportunity Program".

*********************

45 Winchester employees over 15 years with firm

Reprint from Cobourg Sentinel-Star June, 1970
 
Winchester Canada is proud of its many long service employees. While it has been a steadily growing company - now with 265 people or three times its figure of 10 years ago - there are still several who have been working with the company from its earliest years in Cobourg. Steve Niles and Walter Lloyd both started within a few days of each other in October, 1929 with H.W. Cooey Machine and Arms Company Limited. They now have nearly 41 years service.

George Dawe joined Cooey in 1931; Albert Dawe in 1934. By June 18 this year there will be 18 employees with over 25 years service. That's the anniversary date of Maurice Alderson's joining the company in 1945. There are 44 Winchester people with 15 years or over with the company; 54 with 10 years and over. Following is the list of present-employees with 10 years or over service with Winchester or Cooey, and the dates of their joining the company:

OVER 40 YEARS
1929    Steve Niles    Walter Lloyd    
OVER 30 YEARS
1931    George Dawe        
1934    Albert Dawe        
1937    Harold Mason        
1940    Harry Lamble    Howard Boundy    Hayden Lean
OVER 25 YEARS
1941    John Hilliard    Clarence Hynes    
1943    William Lingard  Laura Batchelor  Phyllis Cochrange
            Erwin Hie        Carson Andrews    Norah Wilby
1945    Neil Hobart      Albert Speirs         Maurice Alderson
OVER 15 YEARS
1946    Louis Davey        
1947    Ruby Kemp    Ruby Lean    Marion Long    John Ling        
1949    Mary Bourgeois  George Heeley   John Wielonda
            James Ford    John McEntee    
1951    John Kniff       Cecil Sherwin    Ruth Bolderstone
1952    Charles Dewey   William Wamsley   Herbert Kniff
            Helen Oliver   Phyllis Ling    Ralph Farrell
1953    Irene Dawe  Austin Gall  Reta Wood  Bernice Massey  Jack Bell    
1954    Edward Bell   Patricia Petruk    
OVER 10 YEARS
1957    Dora Boundy   Frank Ferguson    Edith Ford
1958    Arnold Holdsworth   Kevin Perrow    Grace Griffiths
            Hendricus Jacobs        
1959    Douglas Sopher    Henry Raggers    
1960    Owen Cooney        

*********************


Winchester Closing Will Change Their Lives
BY SUSAN EDWARDS

Reprinted from Cobourg Daily Star October 9, 1979


Winchester Canada in Cobourg is closing at the beginning of the new year. The assembly and manufacture of guns, rifles and ammunition presently employs about 300 people in a town of 11,000.

"The prospect of being unemployed bothers you," said a woman employee who asked not to be identified, "because you don't know what's next." The employee, a woman in her early twenties, works in the ammunition plant assembling and packing .22 caliber bullets. She has worked for Winchester in both the firearms and the ammunition factories for five years.

“You don't know how many shifts you'll be on," she said. “Right now I'm in a car pool with some people who work here and my babysitter knows my schedule." She lives with her husband and young child in a hamlet near Cobourg. They have their own home and have a small loan to pay.

"There are going to be a lot of us out there looking for work," she said. "Chances may not be that good of getting something right away. You put your name in a few places and wait and see."

Winchester Canada is the second biggest employer in Cobourg. According to the town's figures for 1977: General Foods Ltd. employs 925 people, United Tire 230, General Electric 210 and General Wire and Cable around 200. There are a number of smaller factories with work forces of less than 100.

The employee said that she will be looking for a job in a plant after Winchester closes. She likes working in a factory, she said. "The pay is better. You come to work, do your job, leave and you don't have to think about it ". Although she has received her notice - along with 46 other employees who will be leaving November 23 - she has not actively searched for work because there is a possibility that the manufacturing business may be purchased by another company.

According to Norman Cant, the director of operations for Winchester Canada, a company, so far unnamed, has offered to help finance a deal which would include the participation of both management and workers. A similar arrangement was made with the employees of Pioneer Saws in Peterborough a few years ago when it was scheduled to close.

Ever since the Winchester management announced on August 21 that the manufacturing and assembly plants would be phased out, Cant has been looking for a new owner. At the time of the announcement, Cant said that the company had three options to investigate for the disposal of the physical facilities. 

The first, he said, would be to find a group which would be interested in purchasing the business as an on-going concern. "We want to sell the plant with the equipment and the existing labor force."

The second, he said was to sell the plant, the machinery and the expertise of the employees to a metal wood industry.

The third option which he mentioned was to sell the company's assets, the buildings, which consist of two plants, one with 122,000 square feet and the second of 12,000 square feet, the equipment and the 63 acres of land, 32 of which are serviced, as separate parcels.

However, in August, Cant said that the management "was not ready to take that direction yet." It is November and he is still negotiating to sell the business.

Cant has a vested interest in finding a company to purchase the firearm business. As soon as he winds up the affairs of Winchester Canada sometime towards the end of February, he too will be looking tor work. Cant who is fiftyish and has a house and family in Cobourg said "I'm energetically seeking a new owner because that is the way I'm going to remain employed." He added immediately, "I firmly believe that this business could make a go of it."

His statement is not just wishful thinking. The H.W. Cooey Machine and Arms Company operated in Cobourg from 1929, the year it moved from Toronto, to 1961, when the Olin Corporation bought it and placed it under the supervision of the Winchester Group, whose head office is located in New Haven, Connecticut.

In fact New Haven is the place where the decision to close the manufacturing and assembly plants of Winchester Canada originate. The sales and distribution offices will remain open.

The Winchester Group is one of five within the multi-national Olin Corporation, whose head office is in Stamford, Connecticut. Apart from the Winchester Group which produces fire-arms, ammunition and components for military, industrial and recreational use, the Olin Corporation also owns chemical, paper, home, ski and water businesses in 23 countries around the world.

According to Cant, each group within the Olin Corporation. including the Winchester group, operate as a separate entity and must "stand on its own feet." Winchester however has not been standing firmly for a while. Duncan Barnes, a spokesperson for the Winchester Group in New Haven, said that the company has not shown a profit for several years.

He said that the group's losses were one of the reasons that Olin’s third quarter profit for 1979 dropped to $10.8 million from $18.3 million in 1978. He said that the gains in the other groups covered the losses in Winchester. The poor profit record of the Winchester Group, Cant said, resulted in a study in early 1978 of its world-wide operation in order to learn "what the company was doing wrong and what it was doing right."

The report, Cant continued. recommended that the group concentrate on manufacturing the higher-priced recreational firearms rather than guns and rifles throughout the price spectrum. The operation in Cobourg produces the lower priced Cooey range of firearms which, Cant said, no longer fits into the future of the Winchester Group.

Cant went on to say that because the lower priced firearms are being discontinued in the United Stales as well as in Canada, there is room in the American plants to make the Winchester rifles and guns which are presently assembled in Cobourg. The parent company's decision to specialize, Cant said, also fit with the fact that the assembly division of Winchester Canada became unprofitable when the Canadian dollar started to decline.

He said Winchester which was a net importer of goods was losing 14 to 17 per cent on the dollar whenever a shipment of parts for the Cobourg plant crossed the border and each time Winchester Canada transferred money to the Winchester Group in New Haven. Consequently, in August, Winchester Canada announced that production would be phased out in an orderly manner over the next few months."

One woman employee remembers that Tuesday afternoon. She said that they had heard a lot of rumors beforehand. "We thought the place had been sold and that the management had not told us. When we heard that it was going to close down we said That’s it."

Joe Leduc, a shipper, and the vice president of the International Association of Machinist-local 788 had also heard rumors before the announcement. He thought that there would be layoffs and cut backs, but not that the business would be closed down. He said that he was shocked when he heard the announcement. 

"Then after about two weeks I became disappointed. Disappointed because it seems that a multinational corporation has come into this country, taken what it wanted and pulled out. When the company fell onto hard times in Canada, it left." Perhaps, Leduc is luckier than most of the 207 people who presently work in the plants. As he sits on the union committee he will remain on the job until the end of the year.

Nevertheless, he will be out of work in January and despite an array of working experience which includes waiting on tables in a cocktail lounge, driving an ambulance, guarding prisoners and working in a garage, the 51- year-old Leduc thinks that he will have a hard time finding work. "It's tougher now to get a job,” he said. "My age will be a problem."

Leduc has not started to look for another job yet as he has not been given his notice - Winchester is giving 12 weeks notice to every employee - and he said it would be unethical to look for work until he has received it. Although he owns his own house outright and does not owe any money, Leduc doubts that he would be able to manage on less than his present pay cheque. 

"I don't think I live extravagantly or have a high lifestyle," he said, adding, "I live on the lean now." "I would take a job within a 25- mile radius of my house, he continued. "I don't want to move. I have worked all my life for the home I have now."

Winchester is trying to help Leduc and others find work. Allan Jeffers, the director of administration and personnel, said that the company has joined forces with Employment and Immigration Canada, and together they have organized two committees, one for salaried and one for hourly-rated employees to place people in new jobs. 

The committees are staffed by two members of the group concerned, two people from management and the chairman of the program, Mr. Clifford Cadd, an outsider with no interest other than to help. Jeffers said that the employees are asked to complete a questionnaire listing their skills and interests, then Cadd, he continued, "goes out and pounds on doors."

The company is also holding outplacement seminars for managers, technologists, and supervisors, who, too, will soon be out of work. Jeffers explained that the seminars are conducted by a representative from Olin. Their purpose, he went on, is to put people in the right frame of mind to find a new position through self-analysis and evaluation, resume and letter preparation and recruitment and interview plans.

Finally Winchester has taken the management from other local industries on a tour through the two plants to show them the variety and types of skills which their employees possess, Jeffers said. Jeffers is concerned about the problems the employees will face while looking for work. In the new year, he will be facing them too.

Although Jeffers, who is 40, married and has two children and a house to support does not want to be unemployed, he said that he was not frightened by the prospect "I'm going to be as positive as possible,” he said. “I will move if a good career opportunity develops. I'm not closing the doors to any job.” 

It has been the union, the International Association of Machinists, local 788, which has been actively seeking support from all levels of government for any company which purchases the firearm business from Winchester Canada. Ben Burd, the president of the union and the union committee has talked with Alan Lawrence, the federal minister for corporate and consumer relations and Larry Grossman, the provincial minister for industry, trade and tourism. Both promised unspecified aid to the company which offers to purchase the firearm business.

Burd and his committee have also approached the Cobourg town council to ask for a 50 per-cent reduction in municipal taxes for the first year or years to the company which purchases the business. Members of the council said that they thought the proposal had merit and that they would discuss it further. In spite of the efforts of management to find a buyer and the union to round up government support for it, the business remains unsold and the company is starting to wind down its operations.

Thirty-six people will he laid off on November 10 and 47 on November 23. By the end of December, all 207 plant employees will be out of work as well as about 30 of the office staff. In Cobourg with retail sales of approximately $50 million a year Winchester's annual payroll of $3.5 million will be missed; however, probably not as sorely as the individual pay cheques.

"I'm working now and getting a pay cheque," said one woman employee. "When I don't have my pay cheque, then I will know what it is like." Right now, when I go shopping. I don't worry about prices " she continued. "When I am through here, I will have to think about them."


 

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