From the Hack... September 2013!
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Here it is only September 9th and I’m writing my first FTH of the season!
Why so early? Because the season is starting early! The first event of the season will be the Swing and Sweep Golf and Curl Tourney Bonspiel on Saturday, October 5th.
The day includes 10 holes of golf at the Bridges with lunch, and then two short four-end games on the ice with a perch dinner to follow at the club. Sounds like lots of fun and a great kick-off to our season. For more information and to register call Tracy Beattie at 519-842-3745 or head to our website at www.curltillsonburg.com.
There are limited spaces so get your entry in early final date to register is September 27th.
Our Tillsonburg Curling Club season this year gets off to an earlier start due to the success of last year’s renovations made through our Trillium Grant which will allow our ice technician Dale Fanset to have the ice ready to go by Oct. 5th.
Members will notice more changes and renovations to the club that have been completed over the summer. The two Pauls have been busy in the bar improving accessibility, storage and making our hard-working bartenders’ jobs much easier. Our thanks to Paul Belcher and Paul Corrigale for spending their summer working hard for our benefit! Tracy Beattie also helped with the completion of the bar so thanks to her as well.
Les Peter had a group of men in to help remove the sand from the rink area where we had discoloured ice last season that should be rectified by the work done.
The men’s locker room has a new look thanks to Bill Young and his crew of volunteers and the kitchen has been painted and refreshed by the Ladies working under the direction of the kitchen conveners Yonna DiLella and Lorna Law, plus a new fridge has been purchased.
Most of the money for renovation projects came from the proceeds of the club auction held back in April which exceeded our expectations yielding more than $11,000. The Board will put any excess funds toward future projects and capital expenditures.
Info ‘packages’ have gone out to members this week from the club. If the club has your e-mail address it will be delivered by e-mail, if you haven’t seen it in your Inbox, check your spam. It should have come from tillsonburgcurlingclub@gmail.com.
If you don’t use e-mail it will come through regular mail delivery. Everything in the package can also be accessed by going to the club website. Also keep up to date with all the happenings at the TCC by following us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TillsonburgDistrictCurlingClub.
It’s always exciting to start a new year, but this year being an Olympic year is even more exciting because of the interest that usually comes for our sport.
This November 5-10, Kitchener will host the Road to the Roar competition which brings together 12 each of the top Men’s and Women’s elite teams who are still trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials or Roar of the Rings in Winnipeg in December. Two men’s and two women’s teams will go out of this event to the Roar, but if you look at the teams participating you can see it will be a very close battle to succeed and move on.
Canada of course is probably the toughest country to qualify out of for the Olympics, as so many teams are capable of carrying our banner into Olympic competition. Tillsonburg has a ‘keen’ interest as Travis Fanset, Dale’s son who curls for Team McKean, have qualified for the Road to the Roar and would love your support for this competition. Team McKean will have their work cut out for them to get by teams like reigning Brier champ Brad Jacobs, Brad Gushue, and Quebec’s Team Menard. In the Women’s event Alberta is well represented with six different teams, but with names like Scott, Holland, Kleibrink, Bernard, McCarville and Horgan it will be a real battle for the teams that get out of this event to the Trials.
In the summer off-season there have been several significant manoeuvers by teams to position themselves for the Olympic Trials, a major one being John Morris stepping down from Team Martin who had already qualified for the Roar of the Rings. He has been picked up by Team Cotter who curl out of BC. Morris, who was Kevin Martin’s vice and won gold in the Vancouver Olympics, stunned the curling world by leaving the Martin team last spring, although if you watched the Brier and then the Player’s Championship you knew it was coming. He has been replaced on the team by David Nedowhin who has been a long-time opponent of the Martin team when curling for the Randy Ferby team. He and his wife Heather have worked out the logistics of the two of them competing in the Roar.
Another happening which also stunned the curling world was that the fifth, Matt Dumontelle, for Team Jacobs, who won the Brier and the silver medal at Worlds, tested positive for a banned substance and has been banned from competition for an anti-doping violation by the World and Canadian Associations for the next two years. Matt has admitted his error and there will be no appeal on his behalf. He did not curl in the World Championships, so the Jacobs team remains unaffected by these results. Curling has already commenced for many of the elite teams and already Team Gushue has a big win under their belts with top prize at the Swiss Baden Masters World Curling Bonspiel in Basel Switzerland where they beat teams like Ulsrud and Edin.
This past weekend in Oakville at one of the first big cash spiels of the season team Jacobs defeated team Koe to repeat and take the top purse. On the women’s side of the spiel Sherry Middaugh and her team had an extra end win over team Auld. All these teams are trying to position themselves so they are ready for the ’Road’ in November or the ‘Roar’ in December.
It certainly promises to be an interesting year for curlers and curling fans. Watch for my next column in two weeks where I ask the question, “Why curl? Curling Rocks!”