Royal Canadian Curling Club

Last updated
Royal Canadian Curling Club
"The Royals"
RoyalCanadianCurlingClub.JPG
Curlers at play in a mixed receational league
Location131 Broadview Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M4M 2E9
43°39′35″N79°20′59″W / 43.65986°N 79.34983°W / 43.65986; -79.34983
Information
EstablishedRoyal Canadian Bicycle Club (1891)
Royal Canadian Bicycle and Curling Club (1929)
Royal Canadian Curling Club (1953)
Founder(s)David Smith, Albert Edwin Walton
Club typeDedicated ice
Curling Canada region OCA Zone 8
Sheets of iceSix
Rock coloursRed and Yellow   
Website https://royalcanadiancurling.com/

The Royal Canadian Curling Club is a curling club located in the Riverdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The clubhouse on Broadview Avenue was originally built in 1907 by the Royal Canadian Bicycle Club, while the ice arena was added in 1929. In addition to cycling activities, the club had featured skating, baseball, ice hockey, curling, and ten-pin bowling, until 1953, when the club decided to focus exclusively on curling activities.

Contents

Known to its members as The Royals, the club hosts house league draws on evenings from Sunday to Friday as well as Tuesday afternoons. The club also hosts associate leagues including the Riverdale League, the Rotators, and the Insurance Curling League.

The club has sponsored winning teams at provincial curling championships. In 1955, Andy Grant won The British Consols, southern Ontario's men's curling championship. This tournament has gone through a number of name changes in its history and is now known as the Ontario Tankard. Mike McEwen won a second provincial title for the club in 2023. Ontario Scott Tournament of Hearts winners include Carol Thompson in 1982 and 1987 and Hollie Duncan in 2018. In Senior's curling, Jim Sharples has won a number of events including 1992 & 1994 (Joe Todd Sr.), 1998 (T.E. Financial Consultants Ltd.), 1999 (CIBC Seniors), and the Tim Hortons Masters in 2000 and 2003. Bob Wood and Carol Thompson represented Ontario at the Seagram Mixed Tournament in 1977.

History

In 1964 the club hosted the inaugural event of the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship. The first championship was won by Ernie Boushy of Winnipeg, Manitoba with a record of 9-1. [1] The club continued hosting the event in 1965. [2]

Governance

The club is governed by a board of directors who are elected by the members of the club. There are currently 6 board members. The club is member owned. New members purchase equity in the club when they start to curl. The equity is returned to the club when they resign as a member. Only active curlers are allowed to hold equity in the club. There are about 400 active curlers.

The club employs a general manager, two bartenders, a full-time and a part-time ice maker.

Bonspiels

In 1938, the Men's Invitational Bonspiel was created. It ran for 27 years before ending in 1964. In 2003, the event was revived. The event is held late March running from Thursday to Sunday. The 2003 event featured Ontario's venerable Ed Werenich who came a close second in the tournament to the club's own Rob MacKay. In 2009, Ed's son Ryan Werenich skipped the winning team.

Other regular events include the Turkey Spiel in December, Curling Night in Canada in February, and the women's spiel entitled the Royal Flush.

The associate Riverdale League—the oldest and largest gay curling league in Canada, founded in 1962 [3] —also holds an annual spiel entitled Do It On The Ice. Riverdale and the Royals have twice hosted the annual Canadian Gay Curling Championship, most recently in 2015, when Toronto curler John Epping threw the ceremonial first rock. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottawa Curling Club</span>

The Ottawa Curling Club is an historic curling club located on O'Connor Street in the Centretown neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the oldest curling club in Ottawa, established in 1851 by Allan Gilmour as the Bytown Curling Club. The Club first played on the Rideau Canal until 1858. It subsequently moved to different locations around the city until finally settling at its current location on O'Connor in 1916. In 1931 the club was expanded to the current capacity of 5 curling sheets. Artificial ice was also installed at that time.

The Mayflower Curling Club is a curling club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was established in 1905. Since 1962, the club has been located at 3000 Monaghan Drive.

A bonspiel is a curling tournament, consisting of several games, often held on a weekend. Until the 20th century most bonspiels were held outdoors, on a frozen freshwater loch. Today almost all bonspiels are held indoors on specially prepared artificial ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CurlON</span> Governing body for curling in Southern Ontario

CurlON is the governing body of curling in Southern Ontario. Northern Ontario is governed by the Northern Ontario Curling Association (NOCA). The CurlON sends a team to represent Team Ontario at all major Canadian Championships. The NOCA sends a separate team to all of these events.

The John Shea Insurance Canada Cup Qualifier was an annual curling bonspiel held at the Ottawa and Rideau Curling Clubs in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In odd years, the event was a qualifier for the men's Canada Cup of Curling while in even years the event is the women's qualifier. It was held annually in December, and was part of the World Curling Tour.

The Ontario Tankard is the Southern Ontario provincial championship for men's curling. The winner represents Team Ontario at the Montana's Brier. The tournament is overseen by CurlON.

Julie Hastings is a Canadian curler from Stouffville, Ontario.

The Caledonian Curling Club, also known as the Callie, is a curling club located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1915, the club is among the oldest in the province and has been the home of many championship teams, including the Sandra Schmirler rink, which won three provincial, national, and world championships in the 1990s and the gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Epping</span> Canadian curler from Toronto, Ontario

John Allan Epping is a Canadian curler from Toronto, Ontario. He currently skips his own team out of the Leaside Curling Club in East York, Toronto.

Richard Moffatt is a Canadian curler from Ottawa, Ontario. In 1999, he became only the third curler to skip an Ottawa-area team at the Brier.

The Potomac Curling Club is a curling club started in 1961 and currently curling in Laurel, Maryland. Operating out of the National Capital Curling Center, a dedicated curling ice facility at The Gardens Ice House operated under a long-term lease since 2002, the group maintains four sheets of dedicated curling ice, the only dedicated curling ice in the Washington, D.C., area. The club operates during the main curling season, although social events for the membership occur during the summer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nutana Curling Club</span>

The Nutana Curling Club is a curling club located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 and first opening its doors in 1930, the club was originally located in the city's historic Nutana neighbourhood. The club relocated to the south-central Nutana Suburban Centre neighbourhood in 1966. Once one of six curling clubs in Saskatoon, Nutana is one of three clubs still operating along with the Sutherland Curling Club and the CN Curling Club.

Megan Balsdon is a Canadian curler. She currently plays third on Team Hollie Duncan.

Lauren Mann is a Canadian curler from Aylmer, Quebec. She currently skips her own team out of Timmins, Ontario.

Heather Heggestad is a Canadian curler from Barrie, Ontario. She currently skips a team on the World Curling Tour. Heggestad is originally from Gore Bay, Ontario.

Chantal Duhaime is a Canadian curler from Barrie, Ontario. She currently plays third for Team Jacqueline Harrison.

Lauren Horton is a Canadian curler from Pakenham, Ontario.

Connor Njegovan is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He currently plays lead on Team Reid Carruthers.

Ryan Jacques is a Canadian curler from Edmonton, Alberta. He is currently the skip of the Alberta Golden Bears men's curling team in university curling and on the World Curling Tour. Jacques was slated to represent Canada at the 2021 World Junior Curling Championships in Beijing, China, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Canadian Pride Curling Championships, also known as the Canadian Gay Curling Championships, is an annual national bonspiel organized by the Canadian Pride Curling Association (CPCA). First contested in 2006, the event features teams representing CPCA members, which are LGBTQ-friendly curling leagues across the country.

References

  1. ↑ 14 Rinks Entered in Quebec Mixed Curling Playdowns, News and Eastern Townships Advocate, Feb 20, 1964.
  2. ↑ "Curling News column", L'artisan. Nov 23, 1964.
  3. ↑ Levin, Dan (2016-11-13). "Canada's Gay Curling Leagues Take Pride on Ice". New York Times . Archived from the original on 2016-12-03. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
  4. ↑ "Gay curling championship is set for Royal Canadian Curling Club". toronto.com . 2015-03-02. Archived from the original on 2024-02-09. Retrieved 2024-02-09.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.