BARRHEAD – Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Barrhead Curling Rink seniors gather to stick curl and they are serious about their habit for activity and fun each week.
“There are 32 teams of two curlers who curl against each other on Tuesdays,” said Spence Moon, whose wife Marcia was curling as we spoke.
On Wednesdays four-person curler teams play for two hours at a time. In the four curler teams the third player is a woman on each team.
There is even a network of spare curlers to step in and cover absences so the curling can be uninterrupted.
When not curling league players watch the games on the ice, sharing in the highs and lows of every game along with some kibitzing amongst the group.
Stick curling is a little different than regular curling in the fact that the curler hooks one end of their stick to the stone and makes their shot standing up.
This lets seniors continue to curl without having to squat down and lift the rocks to make their shots.
The folks gathered at the Barrhead Curling Rink on Feb. 18 were at all levels of curling abilities and years of experience.
There were eight two-person teams playing Ron Busch and Irvine Reidford, Phil Bourgeois and Gary Saumer, Dale Foster and Rod Klumph, Vern Kalmbach and Keith Senneker, Jeanette Shipton and Marcia Moon, Bob Sirack and Tracy MacKenzie- Grieve, Tim Kallal and Bob Wilson, Barry Hein and Al Visser.
Bob Rusch has curled for 40 years and was raised in a curling family.
The family lived not far from Fort Assiniboine and Rusch started curling when he was very young.
Irvine Reidford has been curling for 12 years. He was 70 years old before he ever curled.
He always liked the game, and Jim Radford hassled him for a few years prior to trying it. Reidford obviously liked the sport because he is still there curling every week.
Vern Kalmbach curls on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and bowls four days a week through the winter to stay out of trouble and keep active.
His great-grandparents came from Prussia in 1909 to the Barrhead area.
His parents moved into their new house when Kalmbach was born 78 years ago, and he lives in that home now.
The Seniors Curling league have their Bonspiel on March 18 and 19th at the Barrhead Curling Rink.
There is the regular curling Men’s Bonspiel on Feb. 28 to March 2 and the Memorial Bonspiel will be happening on the last weekend in March.
Stick curling with two-person teams are played in one-hour games.
The curling stick hooks to the stone handle allowing the player to deliver the stone down the ice. This method requires skill and technique to be able to keep the rocks in play and score points.
Curlers present on Feb. 18 explained that the ice gets faster the colder the temperature is.
