The Cochrane Curling Club’s new Mixed-Doubles league got underway Oct. 15.
This variation on traditional curling has been gaining headway in recent years, and is now played in 35 nations around the world, as well as at world championship level.
“[Mixed-Doubles] originated fairly recently,” said Deborah Spence, director of communications for the Cochrane Curling Club. “It’s also a new Olympic sport that is going to debut at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.”
The game is played on the same ice as standard curling, but there are only teams of two players (one man, one woman) instead of four, with no additional substitutes, and teams have only six stones instead of the regular eight as in traditional curling.
The club is one of a handful in Calgary and area, which has a mixed-doubles league, but Al Whapham, head ice technician for the Cochrane and Calgary Curling Clubs, believes that it is only a matter of time before there is a growing demand for this two-person variation.
“I think as this new curling sport evolves, there’s going to be more leagues popping up,” Whapham said. “Right now at this club we have 14 teams, and room for two more.
“The Calgary Winter Club has had a league for the past three years, but it’s a private club, so non-members couldn’t try mixed-doubles.”
Whapham originally brought the idea of a mixed-doubles league to the club’s board of directors, suggesting that as it was going to be an Olympic sport in the near future, and since there was an open evening at the rink, it would give locals the opportunity to try it out. If they liked it, and were good enough, it also would give them the chance to go out and compete.
He also believes the new sport is attractive to enthusiastic curlers of all ages and not just husband and wife teams.
“There’s a bunch of people who haven’t played it yet. This gives them the opportunity,” he said. “It also gives juveniles the chance to play it at the Alberta Winter Games.”
As to future plans for the league, Whapham says there will be an open mixed-doubles bonspiel sometime in November where they are hoping to get 24 teams from Calgary and area.
The Mixed-Doubles league is still looking for teams, and if you are looking to learn how to curl, the club’s “Learn To Curl” program is being held Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting Oct. 25. The cost for the program is $130.00. For more information contact the club at [email protected] or go to cochranecurlingclub.com.
Olympic curling medalists Cheryl Bernard and Ben Hebert were originally scheduled to appear at the mixed-doubles launch but were unable to attend.
