Pandemic forces new look for Scotties, Tankard

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia Curling is making some sweeping changes to the provincial championship calendar.

The provincial organization's board decided to skip the qualifying tournaments for both the men's Tankard and women's Scotties championships that were scheduled to begin last week in Berwick.

For this year, the provincial championship format has been changed to a 12-team, triple-knockout event for both men and women. Previously, the championships featured eight teams in a round-robin format.

“Number one, all the teams are from metro and we didn't want to have metro people in Berwick. Number two, (Nova Scotia's chief medical officer) Dr. (Robert) Strang has told us that sports are paused until at least the 16th (of December),” said Virginia Jackson, the executive director of Nova Scotia Curling.

The plan is for the Tankard and Scotties to be played at the Bluenose Curling Club in New Glasgow from Jan. 25-31.

“We have been working with the town of New Glasgow and Bluenose Curling Club, and God bless them that they are willing to have a larger event in January,” said Jackson.

The provincials under-18 championships, originally scheduled for Dec. 27-32 at Lakeshore Curling Club, have been postponed. A date in 2021 is being considered.

“This was the first year that the U18 was going to be held over Christmas, but we made the decision to postpone the event because we felt the 27th of December was too close,” sad Jackson. “If sports were allowed to be played again on the 16th it was, just a little too close for us and we wanted to err on the side of being safe.

“I'm now working with clubs in our province to see if there is an opportunity to host at another time.”

The cancellation of the under-18 and under-21 national events by Curling Canada made the decision to push the events into 2021 easier, she said.

“We are doing as much as we possibly can to get all of our events in. We are going week to week because we don't know what the rules will be. I know the curlers want to play, but we have to make sure that everybody is safe.”

Jackson said she hopes to have dates as soon as possible for the provincial championships but also wants to make sure the curlers have a sufficient amount of time to prepare.

“We want to make sure that people are game ready, so if they had three to four weeks off, especially at the front end of the curling season, they're not going to get the best competition that you would if people were curling at this time.”