The four-day curling extravaganza runs Thursday through Sunday, and will feature 20 teams from throughout the Lower 48, Canada and Alaska. It is the largest cash bonspiel in the U.S., offering a $16,500 purse and a first-place payout of $6,000.

Yukon Title Company took over as title sponsor of this year's tournament, replacing Auto Service Co./Subaru, which had sponsored the event for the past six years.

"This is the first time for Yukon Title and we're proud to have them as a sponsor," said Classic chairman Ken Persinger." Auto Service Company continues to sponsor the club, but is helping out in other areas."

This year's tournament has attracted a field of 20 teams, including five from the Yukon, two from Washington state and one from British Columbia. Nine local rinks and two Anchorage squads round out the field.

"It's nice to be able to get teams from Canada and the Lower 48 to come up here and compete," Persinger said. "Otherwise, we'd just be curling against the same teams all the time."

Canadian teams entered in the bonspiel include the 2002 Yukon champion Chad Cowan of Whitehorse, two-time world champion and 2002 British Columbia champion Pat Ryan of Kelowna and former Classic champion Dan Campbell of Whitehorse. Other Yukon rinks include Paul Cowan, Pat Paslawski and Curtis Prosko.

"There are about 36,000 curlers in the U.S. and 1.2 million in Canada," Persinger said. "We've got five teams coming from Whitehorse and one from British Columbia, so you know they're all good," Persinger said.

Cristin Clark and Brady Clark are entering out of the Seattle area. Brady Clark's team will include Fairbanks curlers Greg Persinger and Leo Johnson, a former U.S. junior national champion. Ken Trask of Seattle rounds out the team.

Scott Birr of Mankato, Minn., a former U.S. mixed national champion, also has a team entered in the event.

Local rinks will be skipped by Matt Rudig, Peter Lundquist, Gayle Hazen, Steve Birklid, Dave Hufman, Liz Ziegler, Roger "007" Moore, Jon Hufman and Ken Persinger. Ken Traxler and former Fairbanks curler Dave Hill, both from Anchorage, round out the field.

In addition to competing in the tournament, Ryan will offer a clinic for junior curlers from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

The field will be split into four five-team divisions for round-robin play, with the top two teams in each division advancing to the quarterfinals. The bonspiel is open to the public and there is no admission charge.

Fairbanks Daily News Miner