There is a new face heading up the Terrace Curling Club this season, as Burga Anderson takes the reins as president.
And Anderson says this season is all about bringing back former players and introducing new players to the sport of curling.
The drive to bring back former curlers is through a new form of the game called ‘Sturling Curling.’
It’s a version of the game that Anderson said has taken off huge in Alberta, and is a shorter, less strenuous version of the game.
In Sturling Curling, curlers walk farther out on the ice before launching their rocks, skipping the step of sweeping the ice.
This puts more emphasis on the skill of the delivery of a rock, rather than a person’s physical ability.
Anderson said with many of the club’s senior members unable to curl, due to ailments such as knee problems, this version appeals to those players and offers a fun alternative to get them back on the ice.
“We welcome former curlers back,” Anderson said.
Sturling curling will be held on a drop-in basis on Mondays at the Terrace curling rink at 7:30 p.m.
“We are going to see how it goes,” Anderson said, although she adds there has already been a request for a sturling bonspiel.
And new members are a focus for the club this year as well, Anderson says.
Monday nights at 7 p.m. will be when the novice league will meet up.
“They are learning to curl, and get the strategy,” Anderson said, explaining she hopes that by the end of December some of the novice players will join the regular league.
There will also be a learn to curl event on Oct. 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., where newcomers and novice players are encouraged to come down to the rink and give curling basics a try.
A new website is in the works for the club. It will be a modern site, and will have the added bonus of a sport for spares to sign up online.
Currently those not on a team can still get some ice time by offering to play as a spare.
There is a sign-up board at the club where people can leave their information to be called should a team be short a player.
Anderson has been a part of the Terrace Curling Club since the 1960s. She has managed the club in the past and says her husband and children are also curlers.
“We lived down there (the Terrace curling rink),” Anderson said.
The two-week volunteer effort to get the ice back in the rink has finished this week, and the Terrace Curling Club is open for the season.
Currently there will be seven bonspiels at the club this year: The Community Fun Spiel on Nov. 12, The Kennedy Rules three-on-three Crash spiel Nov. 19., The Senior men’s and women’s interzone play Jan. 13 – 15, The Legion bonspiel Jan. 27 – 29, The Valentine’s bonspiel Feb. 10 – 12., and the Loggers bonspiel March 30 to April 1.
“We’re going to have a good season.” Anderson said.