Burnaby's own curling champs

Burnaby’s own curling champs
Here and Now column by Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Feb. 19, 2003

Burnaby RCMP Staff Sgt. Cal Fister is typically at his best when he puts local criminals on ice.
But this week, the head of the Hastings Brentwood community police office is cooling off on some ice of is own, as he joins his B.C. champion daughters at the Scott Tournament of Hearts Canadian Women's Curling Championships taking place this week in Kitchener, Ontario.
Fister, who serves as a sort of chief of police in the northwest side of the city, is also the coach of the remarkable young team that defeated the defending Olympic bronze medallist Kelley Law rink at the B.C. championships late last month.
Team Fister, as they're known, consists of skip Toni Fister, who works for GreyLine Tours; third Teri Fister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada; second Denise Byers, who works with the Fraser Health Authority; and lead Angela Strachan, a senior program coordinator at Science World.
The team hails from the Golden Ears Winter Club in Maple Ridge, and said they had to rely on a good old-fashioned work ethic and a whole lot of fun to claim their first-ever provincial crown.
"We were stunned, it was just deer in the headlights," skip Teri told the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times.
While the team was sporting a less than stellar 1-4 record after their first weekend of play at the Scott Tournament of Hearts, the Fister rink has certainly shown they have the tenacity to battle back.
Last month, they won the B.C. championship after finishing in a four-way tie during the round robin portion of the provincials. The Fister sisters won despite a 7-4 loss to the Law rink in the round robin, despite facing a three-point deficit after seven ends in the semifinal game, and then they still had to rally for three points in the ninth end to win their final game at the provincials.
Good luck, and let's hope the rest of the week has more positive results for the Fisters.

Fine cooking

We always knew they were one of best, now the folks at the Pear Tree Restaurant in the Heights have another accolade to put on their menu.
Ryan Stone, a 21-year-old apprentice chef at the delightful north Burnaby restaurant, is off to the Canadian Federation of Chefs and Cooks Knorr Junior Team Culinary Competition being held this week in Toronto.
Stone is a student in Vancouver Community College's culinary arts training program, the largest of its kind in the country, where he studies under award-winning coach Harold Bonowski.
"I'm looking forward to the sense of performance and being in front of an audience," said the youthful chef-in-training.
At the championships, Stone and teammate Tobias Grignon will have four-and-a-half hours to create a four-course meal that consists of an appetizer, soup, entree and dessert. They also have to include Arctic char, prawns, chicken, pork tenderloin and a mystery ingredient in their creations.
To judge his abilities for yourself, check out the Pear Tree restaurant at 4120 E. Hastings, near Gilmore.

Colour them musical

Local songwriter-guitarist Bernard Boulanger and his band The Colorifics will be hosting a CD release party this Friday night at the Silvertone Tavern on Commercial Drive.
Where There's Smoke is the second CD for the dressed-up pop band that first made its name on the local music scene in the mid-1990s when they were regulars at the infamous Blue Lizard Lounge.

A fine accounting

Kudos to Burnaby's own Donald R. Willoughby, who was honoured with a fellowship by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia last week.
The FCA designation was bestowed because of Willoughby's very long list of community service contributions, which include serving on the board of directors for the Vancouver Friends for Life Society and work with the Residences for Independent Living Society.
Willoughby is the managing partner for HLB Cinnamon Jang Willoughby & Co., which specializes in forensic auditing, business valuation and management consulting.
He is also very active on a long list of professional committees and subgroups and is the current chair of the ICABC professional conduct enquiry committee.