Sticking with the game

Delivery sticks extending curling careers for some

Hips and knees seem to be common talking points when stick curlers get together for bonspiels and championships.

Etta Reid teamed up with fellow Cornwall stick curler Elaine Hughes last week in Alberton to win their second provincial women’s stick curling title in five years.

She says she’s just back in competition after taking last year off following hip replacement.

They edged perennial women’s champions Gloria Clarke and Ruth Stavert, also from Cornwall, 5-4 in the final.

The only other time since 2010 Stavert and Clarke didn’t win the provincial title was in 2014 when Reid and Hughes claimed the championship, in Reid’s first year of competition.

Despite Clarke going through chemotherapy and Stavert hobbling on a new hip, the pair competed in 2014 and finished third. Stavert’s husband made her a special crutch so she could compete. A month later they rebounded to win the Maritime championship.

“It’s a very congenial game. It keeps people in curling who mightn’t otherwise be in it.” Ernie Stavert

At 79 years of age, Sterling Stratton has just won his fifth stick curling title in the open division.

The Cornwall curler had given up the traditional fourperson sport at age 50 because of arthritic knees.

He was 60 when, at the urging of Ernie Stavert, he got back into curling.

Stavert had just pioneered stick curling on P.E.I., in 1998, using a length of plumbing pipe with a 45-degree elbow fastened to the end of it as a delivery device.

Stratton’s first two provincial titles were with Stavert as his partner.

His last three have been with Barry Craswell.

Stavert, the co-ordinator for this year’s stick provincials, is thrilled with the growth of the sport.

“It’s a very congenial game,” he said. “It keeps people in curling who mightn’t otherwise be in it.”

He admits the curlers people see on TV make the sliding out from the hack look easy, but he insists it’s not so simple for people with hip or knee problems or those taking up curling later in life.

“I would guess most out here are over 60,” he said.

There were 12 two-person teams in the open division and four in the women’s division.

Stavert estimates there are now at least 125 curlers in the province, either in mixed doubles or still playing the traditional four-person game, who rely on a delivery stick.

Most of those curlers, he said, are from the five rural clubs, but he noted efforts are underway to get stick curling going in Summerside.

One of Summerside’s new stick pioneers, Spike Martin, took in his first stick provincial in Alberton.

He estimates there are around a half-dozen curlers in Summerside who use the stick. He has been using one in Summerside for regular curling since taking up the sport two years ago.

The two-person game is still new to him.

“Some are very good,” he assessed.

The 2019 Canadian championship will be held in Cornwall.