Dust the brooms off and practice reaching the hog line - the Uptown Curling Club’s biggest event of the season is returning this weekend.
Flin Flon’s biggest bonspiel will be held at the club, for both men’s and women’s teams. The ‘spiel this year runs from March 18-20, with both events running concurrently.
This year, like almost everything else in the world, the curling club has been impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The bonspiel is the first of its kind to be held in Flin Flon since the pandemic began, along with a seniors’ bonspiel held last weekend that saw seven teams take part.
“We were pleased to be able to do that again - COVID-19 has really put a kink into a lot of our events. We had scheduled the seniors’ bonspiel before that, but we had to close it down because of COVID-19 regulations,” said curling club treasurer Dela Chilson.
“We’re hoping to get back to a little bit of normalcy and we hope we have a good response for this bonspiel.”
While the pandemic has interfered with the club’s ability to hold events, it has been able to maintain league and recreational play throughout the winter. Numbers of teams are slightly lower than they were pre-pandemic.
“The numbers were fairly in line from where they were the year before,” said Chilson of the recent seniors’ bonspiel.
“We had 28 people this time and I believe we had 29 last time. It’s pretty much on track there, but this is the big bonspiel coming up. We’re hoping that we get 10 or 12 teams for the men’s and women’s.”
Efforts to continue promoting curling as a sport are continuing, including a program from local recreation groups providing adult curling classes for people interested in learning the sport. The net interest level has declined slightly, but new curlers will be taking part.
“We’re probably down a team from the previous time, when we could do curling before COVID-19. A lot of that has to do with age and injuries and some people just can’t curl anymore,” said Chilson.
The club will also hold a meeting for members March 16 at 7 p.m. in advance of the bonspiel, with information coming from the City of Flin Flon, which is tasked with operating the rink.
“We’ve asked our members to please attend and support our club,” Chilson said.
Entry fees are $180 per rink and are due March 15 - those fees can be paid for at the club’s lounge or by mail to PO Box 492, Flin Flon, Man., R8A 1N3.
