SUNDRE – After last being held in 2019 just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sundre Seniors’ Bonspiel last week bounced back into action.
“All of the senior teams that are in our league played,” Lonnie Halladay, Sundre Curling Club president, told the Albertan during a follow-up interview.
Among the 15 teams that from Dec. 6-9 played in three events were rinks that came to town from Cremona, Olds and Eagle Hill, he added.
“People had a good time,” he said. “They were appreciative of us carrying on with it.”
It was the first seniors’ bonspiel in Sundre in two years; the last event – which has traditionally been hosted in December – was held in 2019 just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And the players seemed ready to rock.
“I think everybody was enjoying themselves,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to curl during the day and not have to get there in the evening.”
People stayed around a while to socialize over a little refreshment and see who won the day’s 50-50 after each draw, but there were otherwise no late nights to ensure everyone could rest up for the next day.
Halladay hailed the organizational efforts of Les and Donna Waldroff, who both “do an awful lot of work in putting the bonspiel together.”
Asked whether the spiel went off without a hitch, he said a power outage on Dec. 8 caused a minor but certainly not insurmountable delay.
“That kind of slowed things down; it’s tough to curl in the dark,” he said with a laugh.
But after a barely half-hour break, the lights were back on and the curlers didn’t wait any longer to get back on the sheets, he said.
“So, we really didn’t miss a beat.”
The power outage, experienced in parts of Sundre, was caused by a squirrel that tripped a breaker after inadvertently getting itself electrocuted on a utility pole.
Halladay praised the hard-working FortisAlberta crews for so quickly responding to restore power, by extension enabling play to resume sooner than later.
The lunchtime banquet was held on Dec. 7 with Kelly Cunningham, the club’s food and beverage manager, preparing “a fantastic meal,” he said.
During every day of the bonspiel, 50-50 tickets were sold to help the club offset its operating costs, he said.
Although he did not have a specific dollar figure at his finger tips, Halladay said the club at least made a little bit of money on the bonspiel without having to dig into their limited savings.
Town council recently approved in the municipality’s latest four-year operating budget an annual contribution of $10,000 for the curling club. Among the emergent maintenance and upkeep required at the facility is a substantial roof repair estimated to cost about $100,000.
“The town has already committed money to it, we’ve got money to it, we’re trying to get some matching money out of the provincial government,” said Halladay. “But we’ll see how that shakes out.”
The club’s leadership endeavours to stay on top of upgrades and also has other projects in mind.
“The flooring in the lounge for instance is still original from 1988,” he said. “There’s lots of things that we can do to spend money if we get the money to spend. But it’s a slow process and you know, you don’t want to take on more than you can afford.”
The seniors’ bonspiel was the club’s last event of the year, with the open mixed four-player bonspiel scheduled for Jan. 19-22.
