First place winners of the men’s hockey tournament, New View Renovations. 
First place winners of the women’s hockey tournament, Chicks With Sticks (in blue) posing alongside the Hockey Queens, the 2nd place team (in red). 
First place in the outdoor volleyball tournament went to Team Lennon. 
La Gang de Spare took 2nd place in the outdoor volleyball tournament. 
Jameson Nicol’s 1st place winning ice sculpture. 
The Langlois family were the 2nd place winners of the ice sculpture competition. 
Hockey pool winner Fernande Jarbeau (left) receives her winnings from Chuck’s Hockey Tournament organiser Michel LaBelle (right). 
Student volunteers Justice and Jayden McInnes were an instrumental help for organisers of the Field Carnival. 
Volunteers are tired but happy participants had a great time
Suzanne Gammon
Tribune
Field’s winter carnival is a celebration of the frosty season, but this year’s bitter cold didn’t help attendance, especially at the outdoor activities, according to co-organizer Linda Leduc. Still, West Nipissing’s last remaining winter carnival packed a lot of fun into an ambitious nine-day program, and “those who did attend had a blast,” she states.
Leduc says several groups in Field come together to organize the event, with each taking on their own activities: the Golden Age Club makes meals, the volunteer fire fighters tackle the hockey tournaments, the recreation committee puts on kids’ games, the Knights of Columbus serve a big breakfast and so on. This year, the Compagnons des francs loisirs, from North Bay, also contributed with a circus-style show at the school in River Valley, which saw the gym full of families enjoying the amusements on Monday, Feb. 2.
Asked why the small community stretches the carnival over such a long period, making it all the more onerous for the small groups of volunteers, Leduc says it’s because they can’t hold the women’s and men’s hockey tournaments on the same weekend, so they need to do it over two weekends. “We have to have activities in between, during the week too, or else it cuts your carnival in two,” she notes.
The women’s hockey kicked off the carnival on January 31, with three teams battling it out on the Field outdoor rink from 9:30 am to the end of the day. In the end, the Chicks with Sticks iced out the Hockey Queens in a 3-2 win after a hard-fought final, leaving the Ice Angels in third place. Daniel Chèvrefils predicted the result, winning the women’s hockey pool and a cool $250. Tournament organizer Michel LaBelle says the winning team gave back their prize to the Field Firefighters Association for future activities. “We are very grateful,” he expresses, praising all the players.
Men’s action dominated the closing weekend, with the maximum 8 teams duking it out from Friday to Sunday, Feb. 6 to 8. As usual, the roster was full but Leduc admits there were fewer spectators than usual at the outdoor rink, likely due to the extreme cold as well as some youth hockey tournaments that kept some families away. Still, there was plenty of excitement on the ice as New View Renovations and Labelle Bros faced off in the final on Sunday, Feb. 8, with New View taking the title and bragging rights. Fernande Jarbeau predicted a 6-0 win and took the hockey pool prize of $250.
