Yet another one of Canada鈥檚 fun winter pastimes is crokicurl. This game is a large scale hybrid of curling and the board game Crokinole.
Crokinole is part of many families so why not combine it with another popular winter sport, curling? The best part is any age can play.
The idea is to get as many rocks to the centre as possible, knocking out your opponent鈥檚 rocks with the end goal to score more points than the opposing team. In this case, instead of using curling rocks, coffee tins were filled with water, which makes them a little bit lighter than the standard rocks.
Bernard Steele and Richard Swallow of Windthorst decided to start building the outdoor Crokicurl rink between Christmas and New Year鈥檚 and finished it up just last weekend, despite the weather being a little bit too warm at times.
鈥淚 had seen it last year at Winnipeg at The Forks,鈥� explains Steele, 鈥渁nd I said 鈥楬ey, why can鈥檛 we do this鈥� here in Windthorst.鈥�
Swallow was definitely on board to go ahead and help build this for the community.
鈥淟et鈥檚 get outside and have some fun,鈥� says Steele.
鈥淲e found the instructions and the rules on the internet,鈥� explains Steele, 鈥渁nd it went from there.鈥�
It hasn鈥檛 been up and running for very long yet but there have been some people making use of it. There鈥檚 also a fire ring there for a bit of a warm up or if you鈥檙e just a spectator.
Communities from all around seem to be interested in this latest outdoor sport especially since the pandemic hit everyone hard this winter.
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Talon Swallow gives a quick demonstration of how the game of Crokicurl is played while teammate Preston Jones watches and waits for his turn at throwing the rock. Photo by Laura Kish
