A fever is sweeping its way across Kempenfelt Bay — curling fever.
This week, Canada’s top amateur curling competition underway at the Barrie Curling Club. After the last end is played on Sunday, the winners of the men’s and women’s competitions will be named Canada’s best amateur teams.
“To get here, each team has won its club championship and its regional championship,” says the event’s host committee chair Tony Marquis who led the organizing of the event. “The winners will go on to play the top amateur American teams in September.”
Beyond bragging rights, members of the 28 teams are competing for provincial and territorial pride. Each has sent at least two four- or five-person crews — one male and one female. Ontario, which has both a northern and southern curling association, is being represented by two men’s and two women’s teams.
“The champions are also invited to play against the winners of [the professional league] at an invitational event,”says Jordan Keon, the skip Thornhill-based southern Ontario team who has won the men’s competition for the past three years. “Two years ago, we played against Brad Gushue. Of course, we lost — but it was great.”
With Keon’s team undefeated halfway through the competition, history appears likely to repeat itself. On Wednesday afternoon, Keon and teammates Ryan Werenich, Curtis Samoy and Trevor Talbott, played their fourth game against the highly touted Newfoundland and Labrador team skipped by Randy Turpin. In the first end, the home team hurled away the Rock team’s rocks, scoring three points. While the easterners scored two points in the second end, the Ontarians never surrendered their lead.
With three straight losses, the Nunavut men’s team, which is skipped by Wade Kingdon, may not have had much luck on the ice. Its players, however, believe their long trip has been entirely worthwhile.
“It’s the curling event of the year,” says team member Hunter Tootoo, who also served as Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard from 2015 to 2019. “This one is great event, and I’ve been to six or seven of these.”
At 61, Tootoo is one of the oldest athletes competing in the event. He jokes that the team might have done better with someone else — but that finding one might prove difficult.
“Our club is the only place you can curl in Nunavut — and we’re in three time zones. We’ve got about 40 members right now and don’t usually get the chance to compete against players of this calibre.”
The competition remains fierce in the women’s league. While the P.E.I. team (skipped by Amanda Colter) is undefeated after playing three games, the Quebec (Gabrielle Lavoie) Saskatchewan (Samantha Yachiw), Manitoba (Deb McCreanor) and Nova Scotia’s (Michelle Armstrong) have each played four games with only one loss. According to unconfirmed rumours, however, the Nova Scotian team is the bookie’s favourite.
“I’ve been blown away by the standard of play,” says Marquis. “They make it look so easy to throw a 44-pound rock 150 feet away with pinpoint accuracy look easy!”
This is the first national curling competition to be hosted by the 148-year-old Barrie Curling Club. He says Curling Canada chose the city after the club delivered a spectacular pitch to Curling Canada which was produced in conjunction with Tourism Barrie.
“We felt we had the facility, the ice surface, the hotels and the city to make it work. Curling Canada agreed,” says Marquis. “This has taken us hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours, but it has come together. . . . Because Taylor Swift’s concerts in Toronto overlapped with the event, we had to shuttle everyone up from the airport.”
The volunteers also worked to secure the financial backing of the Canadian government, as well as from 17 corporate partners, including Home Hardware, Points Bet and TSN. “We’ve had such exceptional sponsors that we don’t have to charge people at the door,” he says. “In lieu of charging, we’ve asked patrons to bring in non-perishable goods or to donate to the Barrie food bank.”
According to Marquis, each game has brought in about 200 spectators. He adds that the members of the Barrie Curling Club hope the interest generated by the event might help raise the profile of the sport with locals. “During the pandemic, our membership numbers cratered. We went from more than 600 members, to about 400.”
While it recently crossed the 600-member threshold for a second time, Marquis says the cutting-edge facility could accommodate many more new players. “My advice to anyone who moves to a new city is to join the curling club. It’s a great way to make friends.”
He adds that the sport is particularly well-suited to families, as it is relatively safe, appropriate for players of most ages and encourages good sportsmanship.
“Curlers are a different sort of person. The game is played with no referees — you call your own rule infractions. It’s a game for gentlemen — and gentlewomen. Gentlepersons, that is!”
