The Trail Curling Club is back in the hack.
The curling ice is going in at the Trail Memorial Centre and the Kootenay Savings Super League expects to be playing a slightly modified game as soon as possible.
“Phase 3 is allowing us to have three curlers on the ice at a time with the fourth curler rotating in,” said Trail Curling Club president Richard Faunt. “And we can do it every other game, each end, each shot, however we want to do it… so that keeps everyone involved.”
Related read: Beaver Valley Curling Club set to return to the rink
The clubs return-to-curl plan was submitted to CurlBC, WorkSafeBC and the City of Trail and, subject to approval, Faunt hopes to be on the ice this week.
“Every league you will have to have a one-day walk through, tell everybody all the changes and all the signing that they have to do when they enter, one for the whole year, and one every time they come in for the contact tracing.”
The Trail organization is comprised of a Men’s Club, Ladies’ Club, Silver City Ladies’ Club, the Retirees Club, a Junior Club and the Kootenay Savings Super League.
The curling ice was scheduled to go in this past week, and Faunt says he expects most to return to play, albeit with fewer numbers than in the past, and the start time delayed. However, the club also may be bolstered by retirees and other players who can’t head south for the winter.
“Some people may be compromised because of health, so they may not be coming back or they are a little bit worried, but we are also hoping we get a few more people back that maybe can’t travel this year.”
In all likelihood, all eight sheets can’t be used if CurlBC adheres to the maximum 50 participants, but the provincial body has appealed to the government to accommodate 14 rinks in BC with eight sheets, including Trail.
“When we did the survey, probably two months ago, we were down 20 per cent in our membership, so although all eight sheets will be available, we probably won’t need more than six at a time.”
Super League also has Kootenay Savings back on board as sponsor and may be ready to go as soon as this Thursday, Oct. 8, with the walk-through going Tuesday.
The curlers will have to follow a number of protocols on the ice and in the lounge to make it work, but, the Trail Curling Club is confident in its players and staff that there will be a season.
“Oh there’s going to be some trials and errors, some growing pains, but we’re going to try and open, and hopefully we’ll have a successful year, but it will be different.”
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