2nd ANNUAL COUNTRY HOE-DOWN

Don’t miss the 2nd Annual Country Hoe-Down on September 3rd at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. Entertainment beginning at 7:00 pm by Fred MacPhail and Matt Thompson. At 9:30 NUMAN takes the stage to rock the night away. The mechanical bull, mock jail, and BBQ will be back. It promises to be an exciting evening so be sure to come out and don’t miss a minute of the fun! Evening starts at 7:00 pm. Advance tickets are $10 or $15 at the door. Tickets are available from any of the Board of Directors, Harvey’s Clover Farm, Lobster Barn, or South Shore Pharmacy. Buy your tickets in advance for a chance to win a free curling membership for the year!

The Dominion Curling Club Championship is an annual event for men’s and women’s curling teams from all ten provinces and three territories, plus a separate entry from Northern Ontario, who have won their respective local club championships.  Provincial/territorial champions advance to the Canadian Championship, which will take place this year from November 21-26.  Last year’s event was held in Charlottetown and Cornwall PEI.

All funds made during the championship will be redirected to the Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) of BC. Last year, $30,000 was raised for CPA PEI.

The island will be represented at this year’s national championship by the Lorianne Davies rink from the Cornwall Curling Club, and the Donald Clarey team from Montague.

Photo (L-R): Lorianne Davies, Skip; Melody Beck, Third;
Tracy MacDonald, Second; Lynda Turnbull, Lead

Photo (L-R): Donald Clarey, Skip; Larry Richards, Third;
David Rice, Second; Steven MacLeod, Lead

Click for rosters for all teams.

Click to view the official draw schedule.

Click to view the event media package.

For more information on the event, visit TheDominionCurls.ca.

PEi’s playdowns for next year’s event will take place at the Montague Curling Club from March 22-25 2012. Click for the 2012 eligibility rules.

The 2012 national event will take place at the Scarboro Golf and Country Club in Scarborough, Ontario where the club will be celebrating its 100^th anniversary, and The Dominion will be celebrating its 125^th anniversary. In 2013, the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay will host the Championship.

(Emily Gray is from PEI, and will be competing in the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, January 13-22, 2012. This story is reprinted from the CCA website).

Since my last post, I have come home from the trip of a lifetime! My trip to Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii was absolutely amazing.

I had the time of my life, and absolutely fell in love with Sydney and am even considering doing a semester or two of university in that fabulous city.  That is, of course, if I can find a curling club somewhere over there!

My training is going great as well. I have just recently completed my six-week program, and am very excited to start my eight-week. I am going to try to take it easy at the Whitecap Curling Academy, but I’m ready to jump into some more intense pre-season training.

This is my third year in attendance at Whitecap, which is held at the Mayflower Curling Club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I know from experience how exhausting it will be. And with Helen [Radford] pulling us out of sessions to work together as a team, I can tell I am going to be just as exhausted as I have been every other year. Thankfully, the four-hour car drive home after it is all done gives me a little bit of time to catch up on my sleep. I will be jumping right into my midget softball provincials as soon as I get home, so I will need the few extra hours of rest.

Helen recently gave my teammates and me our fall schedules, and it looks as if we are going to be busy. Along with our own provincial teams’ schedules, we will be traveling to Vancouver, BC, in October, and competing in Ottawa, Ontario, and Brandon, Manitoba, in November. I am really excited to compete in Ottawa because not only is it our first time really competing as Team Canada, but some of my family from Belleville, Ontario, will be coming to watch me curl. My own family is going to drive to Ottawa from PEI to watch. It is going to be so exciting to curl in front of all of them, making them proud. Hopefully by then we will have some Team Canada clothing, so it will make my family that much more proud.

So the team is now together for a week at the Whitecap Curling Academy.  Since this is my third year, not only do I know what to expect, but I also know a lot of the returning curlers.  Being with the team again is going great!  We spent a ‘chill’ day at the Halifax Waterfront the day before Whitecap.  It was really nice to just hang out and do something with each other besides curling.  I know I love curling, but sometimes it’s nice to just step back and relax with the team.

At Whitecap we will not only be competing as a team, but we will also be competing in other ways: our colour groups compete against each other in things like a cheer, banner making and the most famous Great Shootout.  I have yet to tell the team exactly what the Great Shootout is, so I hope they can yell loud!

Here is the 2011-12 season Event Schedule for the Atlantic Curling Tour (source: CurlEast.com). Email the event contact for more info, or to obtain an entry form.

Dates	Event	Location
Sep 22-25/11	Appleton Rum Cashspiel *	Lwr Sackville, NS		Contact
Oct 7-10/11	Propeller Cashspiel	Halifax, NS		Contact
Oct 14-16/11	CWC Capital Cup	Fredericton, NB		Contact
Oct 28-30/11	Gahan Brewery Cashspiel	Montague, PE		Contact
Oct 28-30/11	Bally Haly Cashspiel	St. Johns, NF		Contact
Nov 3-6/11	The Rodd Cashspiel	Charlottetown, PE		Contact
Nov 11-13/11	Molson Cashspiel	Halifax, NS		Contact
Nov 18-20/11	TSA Curling Classic	Saint John, NB		Contact
Nov 25-27/11	Labatt Journal Pioneer	Summerside, PE		Contact
Dec 8-11/11	Molson Canadian Hub City Shoot Out	Moncton, NB		Contact
Jan 6-8/12	ACT Championship	Moncton, NB		Contact

* Event not confirmed

The second annual Gahan Brewery Cashspiel takes place October 28-30 at the Montague Curling Club. This Atlantic Curling Tour (ACT) event is a 16 team double knockout with a consolation round. Entry fee is $428 ($400 + $28 ACT fee). The event is open to the first 16 teams entered. Entries must include team roster, contact info, and a cheque for the full amount, dated October 1, 2011. Only entries including payment will be accepted. Make cheques payable to the Montague Curling Club. Send entries to Donald Clarey, PO Box 426, Montague PE, C0A 1R0. For more info, please email [email protected].

The inaugural Gahan Cashspiel was won by the Brent MacDougall foursome from Nova Scotia, who beat PEI’s Kevin Champion rink by an 8-3 score in the final. MacDougall beat out PEI’s Eddie MacKenzie rink in semi-final play, while Champion defeated Charlottetown clubmate Rod MacDonald.