SUNDRE – The local curling club’s sturling league seems to have picked up some steam since being introduced last season.
“It’s become popular,” said Sundre Curling Club president Lonnie Halladay.
Last year marked the club’s first proverbial kick at the can with the sturling league that was launched with the intention of offering widespread appeal to all ages and skill levels.
In 2022-23, there were eight teams in the sturling league playing on Monday afternoons, whereas this year the club has a dozen teams playing at that time, said Halladay, adding there are another 12 who also play on Tuesday evenings.
Last season, the men’s league played on Tuesday evenings but there were only 16 curlers involved, he said.
“We don’t even have a men’s league here this year; everybody’s moved to the open league on Thursdays,” he said, adding that shift left open a void on the Tuesday evening time slot that opened the door to try expanding the sturling league.
“It’s been quite successful,” he said.
The sturling league hosted a one-day bonspiel on Saturday, Feb. 24 at the Sundre Curling Club’s rink, with a blend of 16 teams from Sundre and throughout Mountain View County coming out to play.
Every team got to play three games, which were less about winning titles and more about just getting out to enjoy some time on the ice, he said.
“It was good,” he said about the turnout.
“We had to scramble a little bit because life changes for people; you know, some had to drop out and we had to recruit others,” he said.
But overall, he said everything went well.
The format of sturling curling, which involves teams of two, also makes the sport more appealing to more casual players.
“You just stay at one end and throw (the rocks) to the other, and your partner throws them back,” he explained.
“It’s six rocks, six ends, and one game is about an hour long.”
The spiel did not have the regular round robin approach leading to finals and instead was split up into four pools, he said.
“Each team was dedicated to one pool,” he said, adding teams won a modest prize per win.
“You played each team one time and if you won you got an envelope, if you lost, you didn’t. If you tied, you split the envelope,” he said, reiterating the emphasis on providing the curlers with more of a fun, recreational opportunity than a serious competition.
So there weren’t any teams crowned with any titles.
“It’s so tough to tell because we didn’t even keep track,” Halladay said with a chuckle when asked if there were any winners to mention.
“It’s the same as what we did on our last sturling spiel and people seemed to be happy with it so we repeated the exercise,” he said.
The season is fast approaching the end, with the annual Sundre Oilman’s spiel scheduled for March 8-10 followed by the wind-up Open Spiel that’s lined up for April 3-7.
