Lucas Punkari
Local curlers will have to wait a little longer to get their first slides of the season in at the Fort Frances Curling Club.
The start of the season has been pushed back from next week until the week of Oct. 24.
The reason for the delay, according to curling committee chair Ron Silver, is due to the completion of the new geo-thermal system there.
“We’ll have everything in there by [Oct. 11] but it takes some time to get the ice ready and that, so we’re looking to get started now for the 25th,” he explained.
The installation of the new geo-thermal system is the major change at the club this year.
It was approved by the general membership at the end of May, with construction on the project starting in early August.
“The drilling is complete and all of the lines are in the ground, so basically right now it’s just basically the installation and getting the equipment into the building that is taking place,” said FFCC president Ron MacKinnon.
The geo-thermal system will be used for the club’s ice-making process, along with providing heat and air conditioning around the club—resulting in an estimated annual cost savings of $26,000-$30,000.
As for the actual on-ice play for the upcoming season, club membership numbers are expected to be the same as last year, although numbers are a little bit low at the moment.
“I think that’s just because guys are still trying to find that fourth or fifth player,” MacKinnon explained.
“We want to stress the fact that there are spots still available, and that we at the club will do our best not to turn anyone away.
“If someone is short one curler, you can give us a call at the club [274-6667] and we can help you out,” he added.
While the club will not be holding any provincial playdowns this season, it will host the Region 1 playdowns for the Northern Ontario men’s provincial championships Jan. 5-8, with the winner advancing to Sault Ste. Marie in February to compete for a chance to represent the province at the Tim Hortons Brier in Saskatoon in March.
As for local events, this year will see the return of an open mixed bonspiel to the club on the weekend of Nov. 18, which is an event that hasn’t taken place in a couple of years.
“It’s something we’re trying this year to get people interested in that event again,” reasoned Silver.
“It’ll be a two-day event with three guaranteed games, and the only requirement is that there has to be at least one member of the opposite sex on each team,” Silver noted.
Another big change to the curling schedule this coming season is the fact that the annual men’s International bonspiel will be moved up from its traditional March date to the last weekend of February, where it will be preceded by the annual ladies’ bonspiel the weekend prior.
“It was kind of a slow bonspiel last year with only 18 teams taking part,” Silver said.
“So that was why we decided to move the event up from the end of March to the end of February, just to get a little more interest,” he added.
