An ice plant failure at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club has left at least one of city's top rinks scrambling to find ice time.
Patti Knezevic and her team that finished fourth at the 2014 provincial women's curling championship in January at PGGCC, embarks on its 2014-15 competitive season this weekend at a World Curling Tour event in Cloverdale.
The only problem is the team doesn't have ice at their home club to prep for it.
On Sept. 6 and 7, workers at the curling club discovered the compressor, which chills the pipes, would not fire up and upon further inspection, was not repairable.
That means a brand new refrigeration unit, at the cost of $125,000, has to be installed and is delaying the start of the curling season by at least six weeks.
It's hoped the sheets will be ready by mid-November.
"The tough part is lack of practising," said Knezevic, whose team includes third Kristen Fewster, second Jen Rusnell and lead Rhonda Camozzi. "I guess we'll try to get away for some ice. Aside from that, the game is 70 per cent mental. We can't change it [what happened]. We have a plan in place already and we'll try it."
The cashpiel season on the World Curling Tour has already started with the first events Sept. 4-7.
In addition to Cloverdale, Knezevic is entering four other spiels prior to Christmas - the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic in Vernon Oct. 2 - 5; the Kamloops Crown of Curling Oct. 17-20; the Coronation Business Group Ladies Classic in Maple Ridge Nov. 7 - 10; and the Vancouver Island Shootout in Victoria Nov. 21-23.
Knezevic said it would've been better if the ice had been ready in early September instead of aiming for a Oct. 4 start date to give competitive teams a chance to practise prior to the tour season.
Through the cashpiel circuit, Knezevic is attempting to qualify for the 2015 B.C. women's curling championship in Maple Ridge in January.
In June, Curl B.C. changed the competition format from a 10-team round-robin to an eight-team triple knockout with a page playoff.
The change does not sit well with Knezevic who served as a fifth player with Team B.C. champion Kesa Van Osch and her team at the 2014 national Scotties championship in Montral in February. Knezevic received a lot of playing time with B.C. due to a flu bug circulating amongst all the teams.
"They [Curl B.C.] reduced it for a couple reasons to decrease the length of time it takes to play it and make it less expensive for the players," said Knezevic. "But the triple knockout doesn't prepare the winner to play in the Scotties marathon."
The national championship is a round-robin format with a page playoff to determine the winner.
