The BC Scotties is returning to Surrey, two years after a very successful first-ever tournament at the Cloverdale Curling Club.
Ten of the best women’s teams will be in Cloverdale Jan 14-20, 2013 to decide a provincial champion and B.C.’s representative to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts a month later in Kingston, Ontario.
The local club hosted a very successful provincial tournament in 2011, and Curl BC had hoped to return to Cloverdale again the following season.
“They (Curl BC) wanted us to do it last year, but we just couldn’t,” said Cloverdale Curling Club manager Judy MacKinnon. “We committed to the (Canadian Postal Employees Curling Classic) tournament.”
But with room on the club’s 2012-13 calendar, they accepted the challenge hosting a second BC Scotties in three years, an event which will see a week of round robin play following by a semifinal on Jan. 19 and the final on Jan. 20. Both playoff games will be televised live on Shaw TV.
“It puts the Cloverdale Curling Club on the map, some people don’t know there’s a curling club in Surrey,” said MacKinnon. “It helps give the city some publicity. And it lets our curlers know we do more than just offer the little things like the weekly leagues to curl in. It shows we can do some of the bigger events as well.”
Kelly Scott, the skip of the three-time defending provincial championship team from Kelowna, drew an automatic berth into next month’s competition.
Marla Mallett has skipped her Cloverdale foursome into the tournament, earning the most points on the Canadian Team Ranking System between Dec. 1, 2011 and Nov. 15, 2012. The former Royal City Club member now calls the Cloverdale club home, and is on a team that includes third Kelly Shimizu, second Shannon Ward, lead Barb Zbeetnoff and fifth Danielle Callens.
Six other teams qualified at two Open Events last month, with another two to qualify at a three-team play down this weekend in Vernon.
Marilou Richter of the Royal City Club, Prince George’s Patti Knezevic and Roberta Kuhn of Vernon qualified at the first qualification event in Vernon Nov. 20.
Allison MacInnes of Abbotsford, Pat Sanders of Victoria and Simone Groundwater of Williams Lake qualified two weekends ago in North Vancouver.
Tickets will be available next week by calling the Cloverdale club at 604-574-4483, and the price of $40 for a tournament pass is possible only because of the lower costs of hosting at the local venue.
“We had 500 people a draw last year,” said McKinnon. “(Hosting at) an ice rink is too big, a bigger rink drives the cost of the ticket higher. We want to keep it at the club, this way the seniors and the kids from the local schools can attend.”