SUNDRE — With registration wrapped up for the local curling club, regular league play is expected to get started early in November following an opening weekend offering a course introducing new players to the basics.
“We’ve got a learn-to-curl clinic on (Saturday, Nov. 5 from 1-4 p.m.) and we’re hoping to have the ice in prior to that,” said Lonnie Halladay, Sundre Curling Club president, later adding during an Oct. 20 phone interview that the organization was amid its annual clean-up and prep following the farmers’ market season.
“I believe the plant should be started up this weekend,” Halladay added, optimistic the sheets would be prepared ahead of the clinic.
“Anybody that is interested in getting their broom out and dusting it off, we would be happy to entertain them."
The club hopes to make arrangements to have at least one experienced curler for each of the rink’s four sheets “so people can get some basics and maybe stretch a few muscles that haven’t been stretched.”
While advanced registration for the clinic is not required and participants are welcome to just show up, Halladay nevertheless encourages anyone who might be so inclined to contact any club member for more details.
Registration for regular season league play wrapped up on Tuesday, Oct. 18 with enough people signing up to form a Tuesday evening men’s league, a Tuesday afternoon seniors’ league, a Wednesday afternoon women’s league, as well as a Thursday evening open league, he said.
“Right at this time, we don’t think that we’ve got enough participation for a ladies’ evening league,” he said. “But that may change; it’s hard to say. We haven’t finalized that – if we get enough participants, then we would run a ladies’ evening league.”
Regular league play will get underway the week following the clinic when the seniors’ league hits the ice on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and the remaining leagues flowing in right behind, he said.
The men’s bonspiel is slated for the first weekend in December, with the seniors’ bonspiel taking place the following week, he said.
“There’ll be two bonspiels before Christmas,” he said.
And while there are no substantial changes this year to for example fees or the process behind scheduling ice time, Halladay said the club hopes to reintroduce a program that for more than two years has been dormant due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are going to explore going to the school and talking to them about a juniors’ program,” he said. “It’s kind of gone by the wayside the last couple of years. So, that’s one of the things that we’re looking to do here in the near future.”
Halladay also sounded optimistic about making arrangements to meet with appropriate school personnel to explore possibilities.
“We’ll do everything in our power to get the junior program going because that’s the lifeblood of where we’re hoping to go with curling,” he said. “There will be all kinds of efforts to resurrect that junior program.”
