What's Better Than 12 Months of Curling, Warm Weather?
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Newsletter of the London Curling Club February 2015 What’s better than 12 months of curling, warm weather? Imagine a paradise where it never gets cold and the curling season is 12 months a year. The bonspiels are held in the summer when arena rentals are cheaper because hockey teams have stored their gear until fall. Along with the customary handshake, the pre-game routine includes carrying 80 rocks from a freezer to a five-sheet ice surface, pebbling and installing the hacks. Welcome to Curl San Diego, a club launched in this southern California city in 2006. Canadians living there are part of the process, proving you can take a Canuck out of Canada but you cannot take away his or her curling passion. Keven Jeffery’s attachment to curling goes back to his days playing for his high school team in Aylmer, Ontario. His career as a librarian took him to Boston, where he worked in the Boston University medical school. Jeffery and his wife were dating at the time and they decided to move closer to his wife’s parents, who had retired to Phoenix, Arizona. Her brother was living in Los Angeles. “I saw this job in San Diego at San Diego State University,” Jeffery said. It was much closer to her family and “there was no (snow) shoveling.” He got the job. Keven is a nephew of Mary Lois Cooper, who along with her husband, Bruce, is a long-time London Curling Club member. Keven missed his sport. “I went in to watch Bruce curl and I was envious.” He never found a place to curl in Boston but he did in much more southerly San Diego, just minutes from the Mexican border. At Curl San Diego, some of Jeffery’s club mates probably had never heard of London, Ontario, unless they asked him about the words on his curling jacket – “London Curling Club.” Ready to return to the sport, he bought his jacket and curling shoes at the LCC Pro Shoppe. Curling supplies are hard to find in southern California. Keven Jeffery wears London Curling With no ice arenas in San Diego, the club’s first base was in Escondido, about Club colours at the Orange County 50 kilometres from downtown San Diego. It has recently moved to Carlsbad, bonspiel in Huntington Beach, Calif. which is about the same commute but its arena offered an earlier draw time – Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. To get new members up to speed on etiquette, Curl San Diego’s website http://www.curlsandiego.org/ has an extensive list that covers all the standards Canadian clubs expect, as well as one we have never seen: “No swearing, fighting, throwing brooms or smacking teammates.” A driving force in attracting new people to curling in San Diego, elsewhere in the U.S. and even at the LCC has been the emergence of the game as an Olympic sport. Club president Brian Walsh, as a native of Chicago was as familiar with winter weather as well as most Canadians. But it wasn’t until the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 that he was inspired to start curling. Curl San Diego created a novel promotion of the sport in the lead up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics. It involved the USS Midway Museum, which had been created by renovating a decommissioned aircraft carrier. A big viewing party was expected on the flight deck and the U.S. Olympic committee contacted Walsh to ask the club to exhibit the sport of curling. They came up with a large surface that would replicate curling ice and imitation stones, much lighter than real ones. It was probably the first time anyone ever “curled” on an aircraft carrier’s deck. See SAN DIEGO Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 6 Page 2 Western Spiels aid Bantams President’s student research, Soup ousted but Column a junior champ Kitchen make progress ROCK TALK – February 2015 Page 2 LCC has busy weekend schedule in second half of season The curling season is beginning to wind down, but there are still lots of activities over the last few weeks of the season. Check our club calendar and you will see virtually every weekend is full with bonspiels or clinics. At the end of March, watch for the club championship playoffs. In early April we are again the hosts for the Ontario bantam/junior mixed championships. At the Annual General Meeting in June, the highlight is the announcement of the Spirit of Curling awards. These awards recognize a man and woman who best exemplify sportsmanship and curling skills. Nomination forms are available at the bar. Please get your nominations in early. Again this year I must congratulate our volunteers, who have put on very successful clinics. Each of these clinics involves as many as a dozen coaches, the organization from the skills and development committee, the member services committee and our promotion committee. As you can see, at least 20 individuals are required for each clinic. The clinics introduce non- members to curling and skills and development to our members. They are invariably always filled and we often gain members from each of them. This is the time of year when the search goes out for volunteers for all aspects of our club. The board of directors, league convenors, bonspiel convenors, interim managers and a vast number of small to large commitments are all required for next season. When someone asks, please say “yes”. Volunteers make the LCC one of the best and most affordable clubs in Ontario. John Crosby, LCC President SAN DIEGO: Ice in multi-use arenas not as good as in dedicated rinks Like most California curling clubs, Curl San Diego faces the limitations of playing in an arena that is not solely dedicated to curling. When it moved to Carlsbad, Walsh negotiated with arena management on placing curling markings on the ice. Arena officials were worried fully painted rings for the five curling sheets would distract hockey goalies. The compromise reached was that only the outlines of each ring would be marked, with no painting in between. Unlike its first arena home, which was missing a centre line and tee-lines, The Carlsbad arena had every marking except lines to separate the individual sheets. Keven Jeffrey sent his aunt, Another issue is the ice. “Arena ice conditions are very much not the same as they are on LCC member Mary Lois dedicated (curling) ice,” says Walsh. Jeffery adds that one of the problems is that a level Cooper, a Curl San Diego playing surface is hard to come by in an arena used primarily for hockey, a sport not tee-shirt and pin. affected by unlevel ice. Bonspiels have become popular in California. A big one in the state is the Orange County bonspiel in Huntington Beach, which attracted Jeffery. Curl San Diego hopes to have its first bonspiel this year in late July or early August. That would be another building block in the making of a vibrant club. Keven Jeffery no longer needs to be envious of Uncle Bruce. Burt Dowsett BOARD OF DIRECTORS CLUB STAFF WEBSITE Eric Duggan EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Club Manager Doug Petch http://londoncurling.ca/ President John Crosby [email protected] [email protected] Vice President Paul Pergau Past President Gord Sellery Office Manager Barb Colbourn ROCK TALK Burt Dowsett Treasurer Dave Peeling Head Ice Technician Kevin Breivik (519) 641-4948 1847 2015 Secretary Fay Weiler Ice Assistants Mark Phillips [email protected] Property Maint./Planning Dave Weber Scott Breivik [email protected] Derek Shadlock PORTFOLIO DIRECTORS Jason Laroque Issue Deadlines October 27 LONDON CURLING CLUB Advertising Don Agnew Stan Smith November 24 377 Lyle Street Leagues & OCA Bruce Thom Bruce Thom December 18 London, Ontario N5W 3RS Promotion Marjorie Dudley Bar Coordinator Les Sonier January 26 Member Services Roger Moyer Telephone (519) 432-3882 Bar Staff Billie Campbell February 23 Skills & Development Pat Boothe Email: [email protected] Katie McNaught Pro Shoppe Richard Rodgers Website: http://londoncurling.ca Housekeeper Kim Elsdon ROCK TALK – February 2015 Page 3 Western student at LCC an Ontario champ, Canadian finalist Anyone watching Claire Greenlees throw a rock in Western University’s Tuesday night league at the LCC would soon guess that she probably plays at a much higher level somewhere. Indeed, she does – at the national level. After winning the Ontario junior women’s championship playing third on Chelsea Brandwood’s Glendale Golf and Country Club Hamilton rink, her team came within one victory of becoming Canadian champions in the nationals at Corner Brook, Newfoundland. In nationally-televised games on Jan. 31, Greenlees and her teammates defeated 2013 Canadian champion Corryn Brown of Kamloops, B.C., 9-4, in the women’s semi-final, before losing the final 8-2 to Alberta’s Kelsey Rocque, the defending Canadian and world champion. Rocque went into the playoffs with a 9-1 record in the eight-team championship pool, while Brandwood and Brown were next, each at 7-3. In the provincials at Galt, Greenlees wasn’t the only LCC connection. Former LCC curler Joanna Francolini of London played third on Samantha Morris’s St. Catharines Golf and Country Club rink. The Brandwood rink also includes Claire’s sister, Danielle Greenlees, at lead and Brenda Holloway at second. Like most of today’s top players, Claire started curling early, at age seven, as did her childhood friend, Chelsea. “I’ve curled with her ever since I started. At bantam age we started to curl competitively, along with my sister. “When I first met Chelsea we lived down the street from each other.