The Season Begins! by Rick Lomore

The season at the Pembroke Curling Club is off to a fast start. The first to hit the ice were the Sunday curlers. This league has blossomed to 10 teams, necessitating byes for the first time in a while. The Monday night competitive league has slimmed down a bit but still has 20 teams vying for top honours in the club. Again, there are three divisions, with opportunity to move up or down at the end of each draw, depending on performance. The usual suspects are back, with Dave Trautrim, Shawn Patterson, Carl Zieroth and a revamped Jeff Faught team looking to lead the pack. There will be many others nipping at their heels.

The ladies are back in their usual Tuesday night slot and here again there are extra teams to keep things interesting on the distaff side.

Wednesday night mixed curling sees a combination of eight set teams as well as seven more casual mixed teams playing in two draws.

Thursday nights sees a small group of dedicated folks in an open format mixing it up alongside several sheets of Monday night competitive types.

Friday night social curling has seen a drop in numbers- there is still probably room for several teams to fit in. Call Harley McDowell or Myles Miller to see if they can slot you in, but hurry!

A crew of men skipped by Carl Zieroth started off their season when they slid on down to Arnprior for their annual fall Cashspiel. They faced some tough opposition, the field including a team skipped by Crag Saville, who normally is seen playing lead for the Brier and world champion Glenn Howard rink. The guys acquitted themselves nobly, coming home unbowed. The rest of the team consisted of Dave Steele, Steve Gorski and Bill Wilson.

I will finish this week’s missive off with a reminder that all players should be aware of the time they take to play their games. It is vital that all matches start on time and that they be played with dispatch. Players should be completely ready to throw their next rock as soon as the preceding stone has come to rest. It is very frustrating to have a player watch his opponent’s rock slide to a halt before they even begin to get their own stone ready. A rock can be easily be cleaned in the time the opposition stone finishes. It is just good curling etiquette so that players in a later draw can start their game on time.

‘Til next week, good curling.