Sports

No ice for curlers this season at Shelburne Curling Club

December 3, 2020   ·   0 Comments

Written By BRIAN LOCKHART

If you’re a curler, you may want to look into trying another sport for the 2021 winter season.

The Shelburne Curling Club won’t be putting the ice into their facility this year.

The Club had originally planned on a January 2 start to the season. Usually the ice is in by October.

In the planning stage for this season, Club executive had an entire series of rules in place to keep people safe while on the ice and in the clubroom.

Those rules meant social distancing while on the ice, and during after game socializing.

“Each curling club is physically unique so our Board of Managers has created a Return to Play Protocol for each of the our members to follow,” said Shelburne Curling Club president, Rob Scott, earlier this month when the plans were to go ahead with the season. “This protocol is being sent out to each of our prospective members to let them know what to expect this season.”

Initially the Club hoped to have a good number of returning and new members this year to operate the Club successfully.

On November 1, they initiated a pre-registration process to determine whether the Club would have enough curlers to justify opening the Club.

The Board of Managers set a target of 100 curlers and / or $30,000 in registration fees.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, many regular curlers decided to be safe and sit this season out.

The Club issued a letter stating, “The number of people hoping to curl was well short of our target and even allowing for some ‘late registrations, we would not be able to run the club on this basis.”

With the region going into a Code Orange situation due to the pandemic, restrictions included not being able to serve liquor after 9:00 p.m. and the lounge area would have to close at 10:00 p.m.

The statement issued by the Club said, “This would obviously cut into our bar revenue as well as limit our ability to socialize after curling.”

The statement closed by saying that not opening the club this season is a correct decision, from both “the club’s financial perspective and from a socially responsible point of view.”

While the Club won’t be open this season, curlers can always try other outdoor sports that are available to keep in shape.



         

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