48 - North Shore News -- VW/ednesday. December 8. 1999

SIBLING RIVALRY

forth Vancouver's hockey-playing Kariya brothers face-off against each other for the first time in the National Hochey League tonight. Paul Kanya and his Mighty Ducks uf Ananenn weicome rookie Steve Kativa and the Vancouver Canucks to the Arrowhead Pond at 7.30 p.m. The Ducks don't fly north to face the ‘Nucks until March 2. A third Kariya brother, Martin, has three goals and eight assists in 11 games with the University of

Maine Black Bears.

A former West Vancouverite made div- ing history Nov. 20 in the Caribbean.

George Bryan-Orr became the first Canadian to hold his breath and dive 54 metres without scuba gear. Bryan- Orr swam under his own power while following a mea- surement line to the 34-metre depth in a sport called: tree diving.

His dive took one minute and 50 seconds off the west side of Grand Cayman Island.

Free diving is a popular sport in the Cayman Islands where seven) national and international records have been set. Free diving record holders Tanya Streeter and Brett Ledlaster are Cayman Islands residents.

Bryas-Orr’s dive placed him within the cop five free divers in the world. By com- parison, the average scuba diver does not descend below 30 metres.

The dive was sanctioned and observed by officials of the Association Internationale pour le Development de PApnee, a France- based inter- national governing body for diving.

Conditions on the record day were near-neriect, Bryan- Orr told the News.

“I have not been diving with a wetsuit so I was count- ing on the sun to keep me warm while I was preparing for the dive,” he said. “It was a beautiful Cayman day, I was very concerned that the added pressure on game day would cause me to lose focus, but for the most part }] was able to block out the judges, videog- raphers, camera men and safe- ty divers and concentrate on my breathing.”

29,

Bryan-Orr, is a

COVERING

Canadian whe moved to the Cavman Islands a vear age te pursue a carcer as a chartered accountant: in’ the offshore financial industry. He met LeMaster, an American, while snorkeling.

“LT was tree diving before I

GEORGE Bryan-Orr cel- ebrates his record free dive in the Caribbean.

knew there was a sport called free diving. Now Tam ready to take it to the next level and go competitive, My goal is to compete in the world champi- onships in France in October 2000. There will be a number of challenges along the way, such as finding sponsors and training partners.”

Bryan-Orr said he has always wanted to represent Canada in a sport on the world stage. He wants to return home next summer and publicize the sport by attempting a record dive in Vancouver-area waters.

“Now [have found a sport in which I can do it. Setting the Canadian national record should let the international free diving community know thar Canada will be coming on strong this year.”

— Bob Mackin

TENNIS, ANYONE? _ .

Noth Vancouver 5 fashan Kurup bved up t0 ms number- one seeding last weekend in tens’ Mercedes-Benz Junior Inga Corcurt stop at the North Shore Winter Club. Kuruppu ron ihe boys under 18 singles draw when he beat Victoria's Nick Coutts 6-0. 6-0 in the final. Kuruppu is ranked 483rd in the world by tne International Tennis Federation

THE GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

FORMER North Shore resident George Bryan-Orr took a break from nis job as an accountant in the Cayman Islands Nov. 20 to set a Canadian free-diving record. He held his breath and plunged 54 metres in 1:50 without scuba equip-

ment.

Royals win bronze in “magica

Bob Mackin News Reporter

THE Handsworth Royals’ entire roster climbed over Mount Boucherie to claim the bronze medal at the provincial volleyball championships Savurday in Kelowna.

The Royals, the number four seed, beat the host squad of the B.C. senior AAA cham- pionship tournament in straight matches (25-19, 25- 18, 25-16).

“We plaved all 11 players in that bronze match,” said co-coach Neil Salkus. *That’s one of the things that’s most satisfine: that every one of the

11 players on the roster got into the match and made a positive contribution.”

Handsworth = controlled the match from start to finish and managed to overcome an injury to Lindsay Bailey in the second game. Bailey collided with a flag held by a dinesman and left the game briefly with a bruised shoulder. Genn Ichnson ably substituted for Bailey while she recuperated. Lauren Makelke also came off the bench and saw action. The tean’s lone Grade 10 player, Kelly Ramsay, got a chance to play and heiped Handsworth stay on a winning trail.

“It genuinely was a team win, It was one of those mag: ical matches where everything worked.”

In the carlier semi-final,

the Royals lost a disappointing three-set match co Parksville’s Ballenas secondary (25-13, 25-21, 25-15).

The number-one ranked Ballenas went on to beat defending two-time champion North Peace of Fort St. John 3-1 in the final (19-25, 25-12, 25-20, 25-14).

“We had a great season,” Salkus said. “Ballenas did not lose a match to a AAA school this year. They were the class of the tournament — and deserved the gold. The girls were disappointed, vou always go in with ambitions to be provincial champions. We were clearly a team thar didn’t have the balance of the offence or defence that could match Ballenas.”

Ballenas, he added, was

stocked with players that have been together five years on the same school and club team.

The Royals, the top Lower Mainland team, began the tournament with a 2-0 win over Me. Baker of Cranbrook on Thursday and proceeded to bear Langley’s Walnut Grove and Victoria's Belmont by 2-1) scores to complete round robin play on rop of group D. A 2-0 win over Port Coquitlant’s Riverside began the single-knockout playoff round. The Rovals got by GP. Vanier of Courtenay 3-1 ina quarter-final match.

West Vancouver's Sentine! Spartans were second in group Bo owith opening day wins over Gleneagle of Coguitins and Burnaby North and a loss to: Mount

match”

Boucherie. The Spartans were knocked out of playott con- tention with a 2-0 loss to Vernon’s W.L. Seaton (25-21, 25-16).

The Argyle Pipers won its first match against Riverside, bur jest vice Thursday to Rallenas and Penticton to fin- ish third in group A. They still had a chance in che champi- gaship round but fell 2-1 to Walnut Grove (21-25, 25-22, 17-35).

Sentinel’s Julia Hlynsk: and Handsworth’s Jessi Martin were named to the tournament’s second all-star team.

The Royals benefited from strong play through the mid- dle by Claire Poliquin. Martin, Bailey and Erin Gjernes also made an impact.

owners

AS the story is told, in March of 1926, Frank Patrick in Vancouver gota momentous phone call from his brother Lester in Montreal.

Lester was there coaching his Victoria: Cougars against Montreal Maroons, who were in the process of dismembering the defending Stanley Cup champions trom the B.C. capi- tal.

“Frank,” he told the broth- erly owner of the Vancouver Maroons, “some of the players back here are being paid as much as $10,000 a season. {t's positively immoral. We're done. We can’t compete any- more.”

Those may not have been his exact words, but the senti- ment was right on. Within a few weeks the Patricks, the largest pushes in the six-team Western League, superintend- ed the biggest clearance sale in the history of pro hockey.

For slightly over $300,000, the expanding NHL acquired all che western players and major league hockey disap- peared from western Canada until the Canucks, ina later expansion, arrived in 1970. The sale totally stocked new teams in Detroit and Chicago, largely stocked another new one, the New York Rangers, and turned the two-year-old Boston Bruins into a winner.

Today, as Yogi Berra allegedly said, it’s deja vu all over again. Except some of those salaries have gone up from $10,000 73 vears ago to $10 million 23 days short of Y2K. And the crisis has expanded beyond the West. It’s Canada-wide, Toronto excluded.

Ortawa ream: owner Rod Bryden has put the Senators up for sale, his final gambit in a game of chicken with the fed- eral Liberals, If they don’t come threugh for him — and by extension for the rest of the NHL's Canadian rump — with substantial tax breaks, the Senators will be leaving the nation’s capital for the third time in an ofFand-on existence there dating back ro 1893.

Wall the national. ruling parry cave in? Doubtful. If it

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