The local curling season is ready to rock, and fans of the sport won't have to wait long to witness a major event.
The Central Interior Junior Cashspiel, a new addition on the B.C. Junior Curling Tour, will be held Oct. 7-9 at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club. The tournament will have men's and women's divisions, with players aged 21 and under eligible to compete.
The Central Interior Junior Cashspiel is the third event of the BCJCT season. The first was held in Kelowna in early July and the second was on the ice this past weekend in New Westminster.
Following the Prince George stop, the tour will hit Vernon (Oct. 21-23) and Esquimalt (Nov. 11-13). The remainder of the schedule is still in flux, but a December bonspiel in Abbotsford may serve as the tour championship. Participating teams will be awarded points for their finishes and the top two in each gender will receive direct berths into the provincial championships.
In Prince George, four men's and four women's teams will compete. The men's side will feature a local rink skipped by James Brown while the women's division will have P.G. teams led by Alyssa Connell and Carly Connor. Regional entries includes ones from Smithers (men) and Kitimat (women).
Doug Dalziel, event co-chair alongside Tracy Connell, had hoped for more than eight teams but said he's satisfied with that number for a first-time bonspiel. The key, he added, is to run the tournament as smoothly and successfully as possible so that more teams will be attracted in the future.
The tour itself is in its second year of operation, and Connell is "thrilled" that Prince George is now on the circuit.
"I think it's really important that we try to spread (junior curling) around the province and try to even out the playing field a little bit for northern athletes in terms of being able to compete and to access competition," she said. "And it's not just for the local kids here. There are kids in Fraser Lake and Smithers and Kitimat - there's just no way they can afford to go down to Vancouver every second weekend to compete. But this may open up to something bigger and better for them as well."
Perhaps the highest-profile team in the Central Interior Junior Cashspiel will be the one with Sarah Daniels at skip. At the 2016 junior women's provincials in Kamloops, Team Daniels - from New Westminster - upset the Corryn Brown foursome 11-3 in the championship game. Brown, who was playing on home ice, entered the tournament as the defending champ but was no match for Daniels on that day last January. Later, at the Canadian finals, Daniels advanced all the way to the gold-medal game but lost 9-5 to Nova Scotia's Mary Fay.
The winners at the Central Interior Cashspiel will be presented with prizes in honour of Wilf and Mae Peckham. Wilf Peckham, a pioneer of local curling who is now in his early 90s, will be on hand to present the awards. Prize amounts are still being determined.
League play at the PGGCC will begin on Monday, with the Monday men's league at 6:15 p.m. Other leagues on the schedule are: senior mixed (10 a.m. on Tuesdays, 1 p.m. on Thursdays); Tuesday ladies (6:30 p.m.); juniors (Wednesdays, 4:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., starts Oct. 12); doubles (Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m., starts Oct. 12); the Auto Magic/Curtis Elite Open League (Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.); mixed (Fridays, 7 p.m.); open recreational (Sundays, 10:30 a.m.); Little Rock (ages 5-9, Sundays, 1 p.m., starts Oct. 16); and beginner (Sundays, 1 p.m., starts Oct. 16).
