John Timothy Kelly Stearne (July 2, 1958 – May 9, 2016) was a Canadian curler from

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. He played

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

for the infamous

Paul Gowsell Paul Gowsell is a Canadian curler from Calgary, Alberta. Gowsell hit the men's competitive curling world by storm in the late 1970s with his unorthodox antics. Playing career Gowsell was the first skip to win two World Junior Curling Champions ...

rink which won two

World Junior Curling Championships The World Junior Curling Championships are an annual curling bonspiel featuring the world's best curlers who are 21 years old or younger. The competitions for both men and women occur at the same venue. The men's tournament has occurred since 1 ...

. As a member of the Gowsell rink, Stearne won

Canadian Junior Curling Championships The Canadian Junior Curling Championships is an annual curling tournament held to determine the best junior-level curling team in Canada. Junior level curlers must be under the age of 21 as of June 30 in the year prior to the tournament. The even ...

for Alberta in 1976 and 1978. This qualified the team to represent Canada at the 1976 and 1978 World Junior Championships, respectively. In both events, the team captured gold. After graduating from juniors, the team went on to win the Alberta Men's Championship in 1980 and represented Alberta at the

1980 Labatt Brier The 1980 Labatt Brier was held from March 2 to 9 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary, Alberta. Rick Folk of Saskatchewan defeated Al Hackner of Northern Ontario to win his first Brier title. Teams Round robin standings Round robin results Dra ...

in their hometown of Calgary. The team finished in third place and never returned to the Brier. Stearne moved to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, in 2005. He died there at age 57 after suffering a fall on May 9, 2016. He reunited with the rest of the Gowsell rink for one last bonspiel in November 2015.

References

Calgary Curler Kelly Stearne Dies at 57 - Calgary Herald

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stearne, Kelly 1958 births 2016 deaths Curlers from Calgary Canadian emigrants to Australia Sportspeople from Adelaide Canadian male curlers