The Dave MacDougal/Paul Doucet team from Yarmouth NS won the open division of the Maritime Stick Curling Championship held recently at the Cornwall Curling club by narrowly defeating the Ron Crowe/Bill Spinney team from Truro. The women’s division championship game was an all Cornwall PEI event with the Etta Reid/Myrna Craswell team defeating the 5 time champion team of Ruth Stavert and Gloria Clarke.

Photo: MacDougal/Doucet rink

Photo (l-r) Etta Reid, Myrna Craswell

The  Maritime Stick Curling Championship, now in its 8th season, consists of 6 teams from each province (4 open teams and 2 women’s) making it an 18 team event. Stick curling is a relatively new game designed to accommodate persons with limited mobility, but it is open to anyone who wants to compete. Rocks must be delivered with a stick and sweeping is only allowed from the near hog line to the back of the house (circles). A game is 6 ends with each end consisting of 6 rocks for each team. A game takes about one hour to play. Each of the two players on a team only throws from his/her end of the ice and never goes to the opposite end of the rink. The player whose turn it is to throw the 6 rocks for an end alternates throws with the opposition player. The player who is not throwing calls the game (skips) for his/her team-mate.