WESTLOCK — It’s not too often you associate Canada Day with curling, but that’s exactly what two Westlock curlers were doing on Canada’s 157th birthday this year.
Pauline Ruxton and her friend Heather Baron, both long-time members of the Westlock Curling Club, competed in a stick curling bonspiel on Canada Day July 1, in Kelowna, B.C.
The open event included men, women, mixed and junior curlers and 32 teams from across the prairies, with 24 teams from British Columbia, seven from Alberta and one from Saskatchewan.
The Westlock duo won the B Pool, coming in first out of eight teams.
“It was a fun way to spend Canada Day, (playing) a very Canadian sport,” said Heather Baron. “Whenever you play in a bonspiel and play against new people, you always learn and improve.”
Baron noted the “beautiful rink in Kelowna” that hosts several curling programs and camps throughout the year, including the summer, that welcomes curlers come from all over the world.
“We actually saw the skip of the Scottish team when we were there,” said Baron. “That was exciting.”
While the two friends have curled for many years, they only took up stick curling within the last two to three.
“We just wanted to introduce more ways for people to continue curling,” said Pauline Ruxton. “It’s a little bit of a different game than regular curling, but it’s a different strategy because you’re only playing with two people instead of four,” she added.
“It was just something different. Heather had run across (the event) and asked if I wanted to go and I said let’s go try it,” said Ruxton, noting that they wanted to “experience more stick curling” and see how a stick curling bonspiel is run, with hopes of eventually running a stick curling bonspiel in Westlock during the season.
“I’ve just always really enjoyed curling and I want to keep curling, so this (stick curling) is the way to keep going,” Ruxton concluded.
