Rivers preparing for 2016 curling provincials
- Details
- Published on Monday, July 20, 2015
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
First announced through this newspaper last March, more details were printed in April but on Thursday, July 9, the intent became official with the signing of a contract. Thirteen committee heads attended the meeting with Curl Manitoba to review the revised contract before chairperson Les Wedderburn signed the lengthy document. The contract was rewritten because for the first time in the history of Curl Manitoba, a provincial championship will be held in a curling and skating rink. Several sections of the contract required changes, or completely new information was added, regarding the skating ice which will be converted to curling sheets for the Jan. 5-10 event.
Rivers Curling Club last hosted a provincial event in 2007 in their old curling rink. Les told the Curl Manitoba representative a lot of next year’s volunteers are the same as before and that their collective “past experience will be helpful.”
The club is making plans to seat 600 people throughout Riverdale Community Centre in the viewing lounges and around the skating surface. Participants and coaches alone will number 160-192 for the Manitoba Canola Growers junior (20 years and under) men’s and women’s championship. The top 16 male and 16 female rinks, some with five players, from around the province will descend on Rivers the first week of January to vie for that provincial title. The finals are expected to be of enough excitement that Sportsnet TV has agreed to broadcast them.
Although Rivers currently has enough foam dividers to edge the four new sheets on the skating side, there are still 28 pallets of equipment to be hauled here from Curl Manitoba. Rivers has enough rocks for four sheets but because eight sheets will be in play at all times, some pallets will hold curling rocks and some a reverse osmosis water treatment plant (necessary for superior ice) as well as other paraphenalia. Curl Manitoba will also supply a three- by 15-foot banner to promote the event, which Rivers will use on winter floats in Rivers and Brandon parades.
“We also plan to have stocking stuffer event passes as we did before,” says Wedderburn. “The way this can be successful is to fill seats. Our community is tapped out sponsor-wise so we won’t pressure anyone to do that, but all will be given the opportunity to support us if they do want to. The potential exists for us to secure sponsorship from Carberry for Brayden Calvert, or even Winnipeg with Matt Dunstone.”
Calvert is the current pride of Carberry because this junior won gold medals at the World Curling Event in Estonia. Winnipeg’s Dunstone is a past Canadian champion and he won the junior berth bonspiel qualifier this spring.
As Wedderburn said in his April press release, "This is a community event, not just a curling club event.” To that end, the club is asking for general volunteers (all committee chairs have been filled) for door, registration, canteen, 50/50, janitorial, etc. If you would like to help, please contact Norman Short at 204-328-7107 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Be a part of this “ice-breaking” provincial event which is not only the first time a provincial curling event has been played on a skating surface, but also the first time in Rivers’ history that eight sheets are played at one time.
