MANITOULIN—The team representing the Little Current Curling Club at the recent National Curling Club Championship attained their goal.
“Overall, we did well; we were there to compete and win,” stated Ron McQuarrie of the Little Current Curling Club rink, as he reflected on the local rink’s strong showing at the National Club Championship held in Winnipeg two weeks ago.
“We finished with a three-win, three-loss record in the round-robin format of the nationals to qualify for the playoffs,” Mr. McQuarrie explained. “And in the three games we lost, it was on the last shot of each game.”
The Little Current rink, which was made up of skip Jordan Chandler, vice Kyle Chandler, second Ron McQuarrie and lead Jim Bickell, beat the British Columbia rink (which won the championship) in the round-robin part of the tournament.
The local team had, “set a goal to qualify for the playoffs, and we did,” said Mr. McQuarrie, noting the team played very well and realistically had a chance to win the tournament.
The National Curling Club Championship was held in Winnipeg, with games in the venerable Granite Curling Club. “It is a pretty historic club,” said Mr. McQuarrie. “It has been described as being the mother club of curling,” he said, noting the club was founded in 1880.
“The Granite Club did a fantastic job in putting the tournament on,” said Mr. McQuarrie. There were about 90 volunteers that helped put on the event.
“The ice we played on was very good, but it was very fast and had lots of curl, eight feet,” said Mr. McQuarrie. “Being that fast we struggled a little at first. But overall, we did well, we are happy with our performance.”
The nationals included curling club teams representing provincial and territorial areas in Canada. This was the first time the Little Current Club had qualified for this event, and the first event Jim Bickell and Mr. McQuarrie had played in a national championship.
In March, the Little Current rink won the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA) men’s provincial curling club championship, held in Espanola.
“We are now going to be training up until the men’s provincial championships taking place in January in North Bay at the North Bay Granite Club,” said Mr. McQuarrie. “If we win the provincials, it qualifies us for the Brier championship,” pointing out winning there will not be easy with big name teams like the John Epping rink on hand.
Mr. McQuarrie praised the Winnipeg Granite Club for doing such a good job hosting the national club championship, and the support the rink received from local curlers, Island residents, NEMI and the Little Current Curling Club, the latter of which got the ice in early for the rink to practice, and everyone who came to the curling club fundraising event held for the local team in November.
