Dozens of local curlers braved the weather during the first snowfall of the year to attend the Estevan Curling Club's open house last week. The annual open house was held over two nights to allow people to get back on the ice, have some fun and throw some rocks.
Club manager Pauline Ziehl-Grimsrud said it's looking to be a fairly busy year at the curling club, and it all started this past weekend with an SCA Juvenile/Novice Camp. Forty-two kids attended, with half coming from Estevan and the other half from neighbouring communities.
The next event for the club will be the weekend of November 12-14, when they host the SCA Junior Men's Q-Spiel.
"It's important for the Junior Men's -21 and under- because if they if win one of the two spots here, they go right onto provincials," said Ziehl-Grimsrud. "So we expect a fairly high level of curling, and I'm hoping that we'll have a dozen teams."
As in previous years, adult leagues will be taking place at the curling club during the week. Mondays will be ladies' curling, Tuesdays will be home to the competitive league, Wednesdays will feature the recreational league, and the open league will take place on Thursdays. Timbits curling for kids in Kindergarten to Grade 5 will also be starting this Sunday.
"We also have afternoon curling from 1-3 p.m., Monday through Thursday," said Ziehl-Grimsrud. "You can either buy a membership or just drop-in, so you're not segregated to certain days. It's for men and women, and people can come as an individual or a team - whatever works. It's for anybody who wants to come out."
The curling club will also be trying something new this year, entitled "Youth League," which is for kids from Grade 6 to Grade 12, and will be held on Tuesdays from 6 to7:15 p.m.
It will comprise of 15 minutes to half an hour of instruction before the kids are broken into teams to play games for half an hour to 45 minutes. The league started November 2 and will go until Christmas.
"After Christmas, we will continue to have that time slot for that age, but we're looking at having more of a straight league," said Ziehl-Grimsrud. "It's new, and we're going to give it a shot. We've had people from other communities move into our club and say that it was quite successful."
This year, for the first time in three years, the curling club will not be hosting a major curling association event. According to Ziehl-Grimsrud, it's because they have been awarded so many in past years. She said they also need to start prepping for the 28-team Dominion Provincials, which they're hosting next season.
Registration is still being accepted for most leagues, although the Sunday and Tuesday ones are now full. For more information, contact the Estevan Curling Club at 634-3391.
