Mitch Calvert
FORT FRANCES—The Fort Frances Curling Club received a makeover of sorts over the summer—but that hasn’t helped increase registration numbers going into the new season.
“Numbers are a little down from previous years,” curling club committee member Tom Fry said.
“Primarily it was a few teams cutting back from two nights to one night, and there were some shuffles in the men’s league where we lost a couple of skips and two teams joined together to accommodate.
“But two full teams didn’t come back at all, and we’re still beating the pavement trying to fill in,” Fry added. “[We] have some phone calls out to those teams, but haven’t had any firm commitments yet.”
The curling club held its fall meeting Tuesday night, which Fry said would focus on general news and tying up loose ends, as well as touch upon the new-and-improved additions at the club this year.
“There will be a report on all the renovations that have taken place, including the new rocks that are now back and newly revitalized,” he noted.
“Plus, there’s been quite a bit of painting at the club and that is close to being done, and a report on what has transpired so far on the men’s [provincial] playdowns coming up [in February].”
In other news, Fry said the Tim Hortons “Timbits” curling program, aimed at those aged 12 and under, will continue this year, which he expects to be another success. He added the older age group now will be playing twice a week (on Tuesdays and Fridays).
It’s a different story for the local ladies’ curling program.
“A little low, but we’re looking for the ladies to show up [Thursday] and see what we can do to bump their participation and get a good core group out,” Fry said, referring to a meeting scheduled for Oct. 9 at 1:30 p.m. at the club regarding the possibility of starting a Thursday afternoon ladies’ league.
“We’ll see where we can go from there, but now it’s just a matter of beating the bushes to get out more curlers,” he stressed.
(Fort Frances Times)
