Hard to believe, but it’s that time again!. It’s time to register for the 2017-18 season at the Mount Washington Valley Curling Club. Past members are always welcome back and we welcome new curlers and will sponsor a Learn To Curl on Saturday, September 23 from 6-8:30pm at the Ham Arena in Conway. If you’re new to curling, you must attend a Learn To Curl event before participating in a league.
This year we will again offer our Saturday night “Casual Curling”. This is open to all curlers experienced or not (we will teach you and provide all equipment) from ages 16 and up. All you need to bring is a clean pair of footwear, a learning attitude, and a desire to have a great time.
So grab a friend or two (or an entire team of 4!) and join the fun. This is an Olympic year and as always there will be tremendous interest in curling. Get ahead of the curve by joining now and truly enjoy this Olympic Curling Experience!
Get out of the sun and have some fun this Saturday at the Ham Arena. We will be holding our first “Learn To Curl event from 6pm to 8:30pm at the Ham Arena, 87 W. Main Street, Conway. All equipment is provided. Your introduction will include off ice instruction, on ice instruction and a mini-game. USCA instructors will have you curling like an Olympian in no time!
If you’ve ever wanted to try curling, now’s your chance! Open to all adults (16 and over).
Paul Valle, Vice and Sherry Marceau, Second from MWVCC joined Skip Jay Flanders, and Lead Paula Flanders from Woodstock to win the Bronze (4th Event) in this year’s GNCC Arena Club Championship held recently at the Triangle Curling Club in Durham, NC. After a grueling 16 hour road trip, we arrived at the relatively new and beautiful Tri Angle Curling Club to be greeted by none other than Pete and Paula Ellis, remember them??
It was somewhat ironic that the GNCC Arena Club Championship would be held on dedicated ice.. but no one seemed to complain.
Thanks to the GNCC, Jay Flanders, Travis Hamilton and the members of the Tri Angle Curling Club for putting this event together.
The 2017 Mount Washington International Open Bonspiel has been scheduled for the weekend of September 15, 16 and 17. We have already had several inquires from our Canadian friends making this, once again, an international event. And for those of you who have never been to the Mount Washington Valley in the early fall, you’re in for a treat!
The cost is $380 (US) per rink and includes a 3 game guarantee with awards for winners and finalists. Saturday night banquet and continental breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday morning are included as well as “goodies”, finger foods, etc. throughout the weekend. There will be a raffle, 50/50 etc. This event will be limited to only 16 teams, registration will open June 1 and close on September 1 … or when 16 teams are entered. Click here to register. Good Curling and See you on the ice!
Skip Chris Pollock, Vice Kathy Sherman, Second Joan Magrauth and Lead Gwenn Munroe
We had a great time from the first moments we were welcomed at the curling rink by our Nashua hostesses to our parting moments when we said “Good-Bye and see you again in two years” to our friends from Plainfield. Our opening game was against Nashua #1, and we probably should have been spectators, losing 11 – 0. (That’s called “Going down Snake River.”) We curled against Nashua #2 in our second game. We were helped by our supper companions who had just come off Sheet 2 and told us all about the ice. We won and curled our next game against an Albany team who split the broom with every shot.
We gave up one of two 4-enders in this game which made the difference in Albany’s win. Usually in a “Three-game guaranteed” Bonspiel, this would have meant the end of our curling fun, but we were on the end of the draw that gave us a game early Sunday morning to qualify for the Third Event Finals. Playing against a highly-skilled and experienced Nutmeg team, Gwenn, Joan, and Kathy all curled superbly, so I guarded ports and drew to the four-foot when necessary. We controlled each house and finished the eight ends on the winning side with a score of 6 – 2. Marching down the ice behind the piper for the Finals was a thrill. We had another low-scoring game, going into the eighth end ahead 7 – 2, but Plainfield’s stones stayed in the house while ours didn’t cooperate. With the last rock, the Skip needed to draw to the 8-foot circle to tie, however her shot came to a stop
and we won 7 – 6. Obviously we were excited!!
We all know that curling is such an amazing sport in which folks of various experience and abilities can come together. So, I urge everyone to sign up for a Bonspiel as soon as you can. You’ll have a good time and be hooked.
With sincere thanks to Gwenn, Joan, and Kathy for curling and sweeping so well, and, most of all, for putting up with my quirky ways for three days.
Good Curling, Chris
…and this just just in from the Vice!
One added note…
Sunday morning’s early game against Nutmeg. Six teams were playing for the ‘C’ event final, so three games going on. Only two teams would qualify for the final. We essentially were playing for points. So not only did we need to win we needed to score more points than at least one of the other winners on the other sheets. The points system went like this: 20 points for the win, 4 points for each end won and one point for each rock scored. The Plainfield team won their game easily, not sure of the score but had more points than we had. The teams on the sheet next to us finished their game about three or four rocks ahead of us. I glanced at the score and theirs was 7 to “something” for the win. They had five ends they had won. So their points were 47. Our points total was 46 before Chris threw her rocks. We had to win the end to advance to the finals but we were not counting. The other team couldn’t win the game but if they won the end we wouldn’t advance. Chris threw her last rock for a draw and succeeded in winning the end and advancing to the finals! Ohhhh the drama! I am not sure Chris realized how close that game was!
Thank you for your interest in our club and curling!
Our program lasts approximately 2 hours and costs $20 per person. All equipment is provided. Please bring or wear clean, rubber soled shoes; dress in layers, and be prepared for a great time!
Are you up for a little “unconventional” curling??
We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a chance to enjoy the day and spend some time with family and friends.
But it’s time to get serious. It’s time to lace up your curling shoes and drag out the brooms once again. We’ve all had a couple weeks to savor our victory’s (and lick our wounds)… now, it’s time for some fun!
This Saturday, December 31st, we will be having a New Year’s Eve curling party at the Ham. This is a member’s only (Saturday players too!) and guest’s event. The bottom line is to have a whole lot of fun (or at least make believe we are).
The main course will consist of “Pot Luck” brought by the faithful (that’s you), and BYOB “adult beverages”…. make of that what you will….
Things will get under way at 6PM with a fly over by the Blue Angles and a concert with Ted Nugent. We are hoping to have Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sing a duet of Kumbaya, but that’s still in the works. (There may be scheduling issues.)
We have some rather “unconventional” curling games planned. Without getting into too much detail, let’s just say it will be very, well, “unconventional”, but a whole lot of fun!…..
Please let our Social Committee Chair, Eileen Neal, know if you will be attending,and what you can bring for the pot luck.
The cost is a mere $20 (US) and includes ice fee and feed. Non-curling spouses (etc) are $5.00.
This actually may be kind of fun, so if you’re around and looking for something to do…this is it.
We will be curling this Saturday, November 26th at the Ham Arena. Due to an Alumni Hockey game, we will be starting at 6:30 instead of our usual 6:00pm. So work off some of that turkey and come on down for a pick-up game, practice, etc. Cost is just $15 for ice time and all equipment is provided.
Chris Pollock instructing Barbara Cavanaugh, Barbarar Kelly, Cindy Graham, Mark Cegelis, Rich Ansel and Dan Corrigan
Chris Pollock teaches several of our visitors the fine art of curling at the Ham Arena last night while Sherry Marceau helped out at the other end. All told, we had 8 new visitors last night along with our regular Saturday night curling crew.
Sherry Marceau with Mark and Gail Lamothe
Our Saturday night “casual curling” offers new curlers and those wishing to learn more about our sport a very relaxed, stress free and helpful way to learn the game.
Next Saturday, November 19th is our final Saturday for the Fall Season. However several more dates may be available, stay tuned. Our Saturday night “Casual Curling” for the Winter Season will pick up again on January 7th.
Our Wednesday night “Competitive Curling” league is in full swing. Team McAllister and Team Pollock are currently tied for top honors. Josh and his crew are back after a year hiatus, and obviously no worse for wear. Most thought it was so he could give his full efforts to coaching the Kennett High School varsity boys baseball team. That was just a ruse as clearly he took his team to Canada to hone their skills. Chris Pollock? …always a perennial favorite, the smart money never bets against Chris. As fate would have it, they meet in the final game of the season…should be a real barn burner…
We invite you to come to either our Saturday night “Casual Curlers”, to learn about the game, or our more competitive Wednesday night league to watch some great curling.
For more information, call Paul at 452-4737 or email president@mwvcurlingclub.org
