A new point system used for the scoring format helped make this year's Canadian Tire Sportsman's Bonspiel one of the bigger events hosted by the Whitehorse Curling Club so far this season.

The event was held Friday to Sunday and featured 30 teams in total, which is more than double the amount of teams that participated in the bonspiel from the previous year.

"I am proud of the response to the bonspiel (regarding) the number of players, particularly when you consider it has been -45 C below," said Clarence Jack, chairman of the Canadian Tire Sportsman's Bonspiel. "It exceeded my expectations in every way."

Last year's scoring method for the Canadian Tire Sportsman's Bonspiel was the traditional way of tallying a curling game by adding however many points scored by a particular team, in an individual end, to their overall game total. The point system format awards a total of three points in each end, giving the winner two and the loser one.

Jack said there are advantages to using the point system.

"Here, the most you can get if you win an end would be two points and it wouldn't matter whether you scored seven points or six points you still only get two points for that end," he said. "It allows the less competitive curlers more opportunity to do well."

The point system also allowed for a closer overall competition, which saw several teams still vying for shot at winning the bonspiel by Sunday afternoon. Each team played four games over the three-day event, regardless of what their overall ranking was in the standings.

Doug Gee's rink ended up winning the sportsman's bonspiel, scoring 54 points over the course of the four games. Gee's team finished with a record of 3-1 and scored 14 points in the first game, 15 in the second, 11 in the third and 14 in the fourth.

Gee's score was just one point ahead of second place Mike Menzies' team and two points better than Jimmy Buyck's rink.

This was a men's bonspiel with an entry fee of $50 for adults and $25 for juniors. Juniors curlers are 18 and under. The ladies bonspiel, sponsored by New Way Crushing, was held in November and featured the same scoring format.

Curlers competed for a wide variety of Canadian Tire merchandise, ranging in price from $40 to over $200. There was no grand prize and instead each curler on the top 20 teams was able to pick one item in the order in which their team finished in the standings. Also given away in a draw prize was a set of golf clubs, valued at $400, which only participants in the bonspiel were eligible to win.

The event also featured a banquet that was held on Saturday from 6:30-8:00 p.m. The banquet was free for the curlers in the bonspiel and $15 for all other guests.

Another new addition to this year's sportsman's bonspiel was a poker tournament, which was also free to the curlers and held on Saturday from 8:00 p.m. to midnight.

Only participants in the bonspiel were able to take part in the poker tournament and the top four players were awarded a prize.

Jack, who is also the vice-president at the Whitehorse Curling Club, said switching to the point system was an improvement for the bonspiel and made it more competitive.

"Other years we would have strong teams coming and they would win the bonspiel every time," he said. "The really weak teams, the teams that didn't curl very much, they wouldn't get a prize, they would be finished early. This allows the less competitive teams to curl right to the end."

He said that he expects next year's sportsman's bonspiel to be even better.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we had even more participants next year," Jack said. "Once the word gets out and more people know how it's run and how they will be treated, it will be even bigger."

Gee said it was great to win the event and he liked the new addition of the point system.

"It's great to have this many curlers out this year and this points format made it so just about everybody was in it," he said. "Nobody knows who is going to win until the last game is played and everybody is here through the whole event and everybody knows when they are going to play."

This is Gee's second victory of the season at a bonspiel and he selected a weather station for his prize. He said winning the sportsman's bonspiel ranks fairly high on his list of accomplishments in the sport and added "It is always good to win a bonspiel."

Gee said his team came in with the goal of having fun.

"We didn't come in here to win it," he said. "We came in to have fun and winning it is a bonus."

Gee said he looks forward to defending his title at the 2009 Canadian Tire Sportsman's Bonspiel.