No ice, no problem

Crapaud Curling team slides into national championships after season without a home

Heather MacRae joined her team from the direction of the ice, bouncing a bit on her toes in the clubhouse at the Crapaud Curling Club.

“Ice is keen tonight, they’re saying.”

She meant the rocks were sliding fast toward their targets.

Last winter they weren’t sliding at all – the ice plant was broken and curlers had to play elsewhere. Some members played in Cornwall. MacRae and teammates, Julie Mutch, Lindsay Moore and Terri Wood, played in Summerside. The Prince County club was welcoming, but they missed home.

The Crapaud club fundraised with a Chase the Ace and takeout dinner. The club kept the bar open and held trivia nights — planning for the day its own members would return. And return they did. Membership is up, said Mutch.

When the women played the provincial championships in Alberton last spring and won, they won it for Crapaud.

This Saturday they’re heading to Kingston, Ont. for a week to compete in the national Travellers Club Curling Championships.

They’ll be proudly wearing a patch with a green creature sitting on a curling rock (Crapaud means toad in French) and office jackets supplied by their sponsors, Cavendish Tourist Mart, Skyeview Farms and Spring Valley Building Supplies.

The tournament is for club curlers who play for fun. Even so, they know there is a large pool of talent across the country.

“I don’t suspect we’ll have any easy games, but hopefully we’ll represent P.E.I well. We’re excited,” said Mutch.

MacRae has been to the nationals before and she’s excited that her teammates will experience it this year.

“We just want to be competitive,” she said. “We want to have close games, we don’t want to have blowouts.”

Crapaud is scheduled to play six games in the pool plus any playoff games.

Members of the team been throwing rocks every chance they get. There is no year-round curling ice on P.E.I. (curling ice is different from ice for skating, it has a textured surface called pebbling to help the rocks slide) so the Island team only has three weeks to prepare.

This is the fourth year the team had been playing together, but all are long-time curlers.

MacRae is the lead, Wood throws second, Mutch is skip but prefers to throw third rocks and Moore is third, but throws last rocks.

“Lindsay’s a good last rock thrower, she doesn’t get nervous or anything. It works for our team.”

Mutch is looking forward to the experience of competing at the nationals and to meeting other club curlers.

“You’re on fabulous ice – ice like you’d never see here,” said MacRae, remembering the last time she played nationals. “It’s just a higher level of competition. It’s just an achievement to get there.”