Sixteen teams from all over the region descended on the Barrhead Seniors Drop-in Centre Oct. 28 to participate in the centre’s first-floor curling event of the season.
Floor curling is a modified version of the Olympic sport, with one noticeable difference — the lack of ice.
The other major difference, Yvonne Fluet said, is, there are no sweepers. Fluet was one of the tournament’s volunteers as well as a participant.
Much like regular curling, floor curling rink consists of four players, lead, second, third and skip. Each throws two rocks down a smooth playing surface eight feet wide by 36 feet long towards a circular ring target similar to a bullseye. The team that propels their rocks closest to the centre of the target scores points accordingly, which are counted after the conclusion of an end, of which there are eight. Players have the option of delivering the rock by hand or by using a stick.
“The trickiest thing about the is getting the weight right,” Fluet said. “Unlike curling, where you have sweepers to help compensate if you have made a mistake, basically in floor curling, either you have it right or you don’t.”
She added floor curling is very popular in the region, noting as a part of the Alberta Floor Curling Association clubs have to host two tournaments annually.
“If you want to a person in northern Alberta can go to at least one floor curing tournament every week from September to May,” Fluet said.
In addition to being a popular activity with Barrhead seniors, she said, area floor curlers have excelled as demonstrated that the top two finishers of the tournament, the Burt Dube and Jeannine Kowalski rinks finished first and second respectively. The Gloria Johnson (Westlock) and Lorretta Blurton (Onoway) rinks also placed in the Top Four.
Also in late May, Barrhead’s Krell rink (skip Margaret Krell, third Yvonne Fluet, second Rose Knapp, and lead Vivian Dakin) won the silver medal at the Alberta Floor Curling Championships in Morinville. Barrhead’s Kowalski rink finished second (Jeannine Kowalski, skip, Sandra Hein, third, Lucille Robinson, second, and Diane Blasko, lead).
Barrhead will be hosting another tournament on February 24, 2020.
