SUNDRE – Curlers of all ages and abilities had an opportunity to play this past weekend in the local club’s first sturling bonspiel in years.
The inclusively casual tournament format features teams of two players who have the option of choosing between a slide or stick delivery, with one player remaining at the opposite side of the rink from their teammate with no sweeping between hog lines throughout six ends of play.
There in the past have been attempts to host a sturling spiel in Sundre, “but of late, this is the first one that we got going,” club president Lonnie Halladay told the Albertan.
“It’s been fairly popular in the Didsbury area; they’ve got sturling leagues going there,” he said, adding the sturling curling format offers more of an inclusive approach that caters to all ages and abilities.
The spiel in Sundre brought out 20 teams for a total of 40 players March 25-26, including some locals as well as visitors from Didsbury, Eagle Hill, Olds, Westerdale, Cremona and Water Valley, he said.
“It was very good; people had a good time,” he said. “It was well received. We had people coming down just to socialize and have a bite to eat.”
Don Krebs and Wayne Jackson defeated Nels Brian and Barry Rock to win the A event, while Colin Jorsvick and Nick Fisher defeated Bev Konschuh and McKenzie McEllhinney to claim the B event title. Kevin Humphrey and Wanda Humphrey defeated Darcy Grudeski and Karen Grudeski in the C event.
The club’s 2022-23 season is now almost over and will be concluding this coming week with the windup open bonspiel that runs March 30 to April 2.
There are 28 teams registered to play in the open spiel, which will feature a variety of men’s, women’s as well as mixed teams, he said.
“It’ll be a full house,” said Halladay, adding the ice plant will likely be shut down on Sunday following the open bonspiel.
Once the ice has melted, he added plans will be getting underway to prepare for spring and summer activities like the Sundre Farmers’ Market.
