It will be a picture-perfect 2022 Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships, with the event heading to the edge of the Atlantic coast. Yarmouth and Acadian Shores, N.S., will host the event for the first time, it was announced today by Curling Canada.
Cape Forchu Lighthouse. (Photo, Yarmouth & Acadian Shores Tourism)
The 2022 event will be played at the Mariners Centre and Yarmouth Curling Club from Dec. 5-10. It will be the first national championship hosted in Yarmouth since the 2017 Canadian mixed, won by Northern Ontario’s Trevor Bonot.
“Nova Scotia has been home to plenty of exceptional national and international championships over the past few years. The 2022 Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships will surely follow that trend with an experienced and eager host committee, combined with a partner in Everest, which is committed to growing the game of curling across Canada,” said Curling Canada CEO Katherine Henderson.
It will mark the third time Nova Scotia hosts the Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships in recent memory, with Digby hosting the event in 2011 (won by New Brunswick’s Heidi Hanlon and Manitoba’s Kelly Robertson) and 2016 (won by Nova Scotia’s Colleen Jones and Ontario’s Bryan Cochrane). The senior women’s competition has been hosted at Halifax twice; first in 1974, won by British Columbia’s Flora Martin, and then in 1984, won by Saskatchewan’s Ev Krahn. On the men’s side, Prince Edward Island’s Wen MacDonald won the 1971 event hosted in Halifax.
“I’m pleased the Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships are coming back to Nova Scotia this year. Over the past few years, we’ve welcomed the country to our province for some exceptional curling championships, and the host committee in Yarmouth will bring another one to the Atlantic coast,” said Nova Scotia Curling Executive Director Virginia Jackson.
Nova Scotia has been a hotspot for curling in recent years, hosting the 2019 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sydney and the 2019 World Junior Curling Championships and the 2021 Home Hardware Curling Pre-Trials in Liverpool, N.S.
“We are thrilled to get back to what Yarmouth does best – host visitors in our amazing part of the world. We are honoured to have been chosen to hold this event, which comes at the perfect time as we ready ourselves to gather,” said Town of Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood.
Nova Scotia has won six combined Canadian senior men’s and women’s events. The lone men’s victory for Nova Scotia was in 2014 when Alan O’Leary won the national title. Nova Scotia senior women’s team has won the championship five times, with Jones accomplishing it most recently in 2016 in front of a home-province crowd at Digby. Colleen Pinkney has won twice, in 2009 and 2013 (both events in Summerside, P.E.I.), and Verda Kempton has two titles as skip in 1982 (Montreal) and 1987 (Prince George, B.C.).
“We are thrilled to be sponsoring the Canadian Senior Curling Championships for the eighth consecutive year,” said Everest CEO Mark Duffey. “It’s an exciting time for seniors curling and Everest wants to be more than a sponsor of the championships; we want to be a partner in growing seniors curling in Canada. So, we are honoured to work together with Curling Canada and our curling Executive Committee (consisting of Randy Ferbey, Jennifer Jones, and Cheryl Bernard) to promote the sport through the Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships.”
The Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships were last hosted in 2021 at Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Saskatchewan’s Sherry Anderson won a record-setting fourth-consecutive national championship, and Alberta’s Wade White skipped his team to a second gold medal at the event. They will represent Canada at the 2022 World Senior Curling Championships hosted in Geneva, Switzerland, from April 23-30. Sherry Anderson aims to win her third-straight gold medal at the world championship. White returns to the international event for the first time since 2018 and aims to replicate his gold-medal performance.
The winners of the 2022 Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships will represent Canada at the 2023 World Senior Curling Championships (location, date TBA).
“As the host destination for the Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships, we couldn’t be happier to deliver this event with our partners. Hosting this event, especially during the holiday season will mean so much to our community and will ensure our tourism economy continues to recover. We can’t wait to welcome everyone to Yarmouth & Acadian Shores this December,” said Neil MacKenzie, Executive Director of Yarmouth & Acadian Shores Tourism Association.
Manitoba and Ontario lead the way with 12 men’s titles each at the Everest Canadian Senior Curling Championships. Ontario and Saskatchewan lead the pack with 10 titles in women’s competition. The Canadian senior men’s championship first occurred in 1965, with the first event played in Northern Ontario at Port Arthur. The women Canadian senior women’s championship began in 1973 in Ottawa. The events were first hosted jointly in 1985 at Yorkton, Sask.
Click to read at Curling Canada: https://www.curling.ca/blog/2022/04/05/at-the-edge-of-canada/