The Shawville Curling Club welcomed back a long lost friend on Saturday.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, curlers hit the ice for a doubles bonspiel, organized by club members Jeff Russell and Justine Tanguay.
Doubles is different from regular curling in that each team only has two players, so the person who throws the stone also helps to sweep it down the ice. One curler throws the first and fifth rock, with their partner throwing the second, third and fourth.
“It’s a much faster game and you’re always involved because there’s only two players so you’re in on every rock,” Russell said. “You don’t have to listen to a skip.”
But Tanguay explained it’s not more difficult because there are fewer rocks thrown overall.
“It’s a lot of up and down,” she said. “But you’re only sweeping two or three rocks in an end versus six.”
This year, there were 12 teams participating, four men’s teams and eight mixed teams. Tanguay said there were more mixed teams than they expected who signed up. She thinks that this is because more women are becoming interested in curling.
The winners in the men’s division were Brett MacKechnie and Joey Hannaberry and in the mixed division were Leanne Smart and Trevor Tanguay.
Organizers attribute the increase in interest in doubles to its first presence in the Olympics in 2018. Russell said that it was then that the club decided to host its first doubles ‘spiel.
Going forward, Russell hopes doubles becomes more popular, especially among young people. He hopes to start up U18, U15 and even U12 teams in the fall.
