A pair of Flin Flon curling teams will vie for provincial glory next month.
The Golden Gals rink skipped by Dianne Burwash and Don Holmes’ senior men’s side will both head south for provincial bonspiels in February.
Burwash’s rink qualified for their provincial draw in Dauphin from Feb. 1-4 by winning a regional playdown.
“There was a playdown. Three teams participated, it was double knockout. The Burwash team came out on top,” said third Donna Hurst.
Holmes’ team qualified for provincials on Dec. 16 by beating a rival side from Thompson. The provincial men’s bonspiel will be played in Winnipeg on Feb. 22-23.
While curlers in the north maintain a passion for the sport, their numbers are dwindling.
“Nobody came from Thompson, The Pas or Snow Lake,” said Hurst, who added in the 12-team provincial field, only one team hails from the north.
“The north, because we’re so low in volume for curling participants, only has one team to represent the region,” she said.
Hope springs eternal for the game, however. Members of the Burwash rink have reached out to area schools to get kids interested in curling once again.
“We’re just in the process of getting young people back in here from the schools,” said Burwash.
“I believe there was a high school girls’ team or a couple of girls’ teams from Hapnot,” added team member Pat Meyer.
“There was nobody for them to play with, you know,” said Burwash.
Burwash also said that advocating for curling for kids has started to pay dividends.
“We’ve got Ruth Betts on board now and we’re waiting for hear from McIsaac,” said Burwash.
