Brett Thoms
Shawville April 30, 2021
The curling season was wrapped up at the Shawville Curling Club for both the senior daytime group and the competitive nighttime group last week.
The curling season was short this year due to a late start caused by COVID-19 restrictions and a malfunction in the plant that keeps the rink frozen.
“Normally we’d be playing in October but we didn’t get going until February, ‘’ said Andrew Rowat, president of . . .
the Shawville Curling Club.
This meant that the twelve teams that competed in the competitive night curling division had to play every Wednesday and some Saturdays to get through the compressed season, according to Rowat.
The banquet and award ceremony for the daytime senior curlers was held on Thursday night. The Thursday night crew had live music and few comedic speeches to entertain the crowd.
Before the trophies were distributed at the award show for the seniors, Sonia Campbell, the bartender at the club, was presented with a poem that was tribute to her years of work.
The nighttime competitive curlers held both their finals and banquet on the same night, with the event starting at 5 p.m and going to at least 11 p.m.
The Shawville Curling club saw a large and diverse representation of the community come out this year, despite the late start. “I think our youngest competitor would be 16 years old and our oldest would be almost 80,” said Rowat about the competitive teams.
The Shawville Curling club is entirely staffed by volunteers and relied on donations in order to be able to put on the banquets.
Finances for the club were stretched due to a drop in membership and the costs associated with repairing the plant, however the inclusion of the virtual golf room at the club has kept it afloat, according to Rowat.
Despite uncertainty surrounding covid rules and reopening, Rowat was glad they got to at least play some of the season out.
“It’s great. We were closed for an entire year and it was great to have it back,” he said.
The club expects the next season to start mid November 2022.
