The process of making ice at the Twin Rivers Curling Club will be starting much earlier than normal this season, but it’s for a very good reason.
It was announced Thursday afternoon that the North Battleford facility will serve as the CURLSASK high performance centre for the 2018-19 campaign, which will include a summer curling ice program that will get underway in August.
“Normally I would start the ice making process around the first of October,” Twin Rivers Curling Club ice technician Ian Naismith said. “That’s about a 10-day process to get ready for the start of the league season after Thanksgiving, so this will be about 10 weeks earlier than that.
“With the warmer weather, it will be a bit of a unknown, but we expect everything to be ready before the high performance teams and the ice making courses take place at the club on August 18.”
The ability to have ice during the summer months will be a boon for curlers looking to vie for spots in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Tim Hortons Brier and the Canadian Olympic Curling Trials over the next few seasons, as they’ll be able to stay in Saskatchewan to take to the ice instead of traveling to facilities such as the Saville Sports Centre in Edmonton.
“This marks a great step forward in Saskatchewan high performance curling,” CURLSASK executive director Ashley Howard said.
“This partnership will allow our athletes to train with the best conditions, coaches and equipment at home without having to leave our province.”
Discussions to have the Twin Rivers Curling Club serve as a high performance centre have taken place over the last few months, but it really kicked into gear after they served as the hosts for the Saskatchewan Winter Games curling events in February.
“CURLSASK was really impressed with the facility, the ice conditions and the work of the organizing committee,” Naismith said. “Everything really fell into place after that, but we couldn’t really announce anything until this past week.
“I think that says a lot for everyone here in the community and the work they put into making events run well, which is something I think we’ve seen with the fact that the Grand Slam of Curling is coming back to the Civic Centre in January.”
A number of events will be taking place at the club during the season, which will include a Saskatchewan mixed doubles bonspiel from August 31 to Sept. 3 and a junior grand slam event from Sept. 7 to 9.
There will also be an event designed for club curlers, as Canadian curling legend and 2006 Olympic gold medalist Russ Howard will be hosting the Academy of Curling clinic from Oct. 26-28.
“We’re planning to announce some more events here over the next few weeks for the regular curlers at the club, along with the competitive curlers from around the province.”
