After 60 years, curling growing in popularity at PGCC
Pipers will lead off anniversary year celebrations at club’s opening ceremonies Saturday
On Saturday the first rock will be thrown on the 60th season of curling at the Peterborough Golf and Country Club. The Armour Road club has special activities planned to mark Year 60, starting with an opening celebration at 5:30 p.m. Saturday when pipers will lead curlers onto the ice before the ceremonial first rock is tossed. A reception will follow. Kris Hickey, chairperson of the club’s 60th anniversary committee, said little is actually known about the origins of curling at the club. None of the executive members from 1959 remain with the club. Construction of the curling rink started in 1958 coinciding with the building of a new clubhouse. “Andy Rutter was on the board and in management at Quaker Oats and he was the individual who spearheaded the initiation of curling and the building of the curling rink onto this new dining and clubhouse facility that opened in 1959,” Hickey said. “There doesn’t really seem to be any history that was published or even gathered about the original thinking about why curling was added. When Elwood Jones wrote the book on the golf club’s 100th anniversary he could not find any sort of definitive information about why curling and why then.” Dr. David Milne is the longest active curler at the club and he started in 1965, Hickey said. The celebrations this year will focus more on the club’s present and future. The current membership of 279 is the largest it has been in a long time with nine active leagues, including popular mixed and mixed doubles leagues, and learn to curl and novice programs. “There is an entry point for everybody based on what your skill level is,” she said. “We have lots of teams out bonspieling and interclub activities as well.” The four-sheet rink was closed for one season in 2009 when the clubhouse was renovated and expanded. “When they did that a lot of our curlers went elsewhere. When we reopened it again the curling membership was down as low as 120,” said Hickey. “Over the course of the last 10 years or so we’ve built that membership up to double-plus that again. For the people who have joined our club as new members we offer a really good program. We probably have one of the best icemakers in the country and city in Gerry Murison.” New this year is a set of 64 rocks which cost $45,000. The club found 64 members who adopted a rock a $750 each and many have engraved names or messages or dedicated rocks to past members. “It was a great membership project,” Hickey said. “Our previous rocks, we found out, were over 60 years old and were a used set that was purchased when we started curling 60 years ago. Everyone thinks a rock is a rock and the lifespan must be infinite but every time you grind a rock you take weight off it. A regulation rock is 44 pounds and some of our rocks were down to as low as 38 pounds. That really changes the game. Everyone is adjusting to these new rocks which are very lively and quite fun to throw.” Other activities to celebrate the anniversary include a Puss ‘N Boots 2.0 mixed bonspiel in February. It will mimic one of the original bonspiels sponsored by Quaker Oats which back then made the famed pet food brand. There will also be a Social Saturday on the final weekend of curling in early April when the club hopes to get as many members as possible to come out and throw an end or two and then join a social gathering in the dining room. “We’d like to see how many individual members we can get to curl on that day,” Hickey said. Every section is holding some type of anniversary event as well. The club is also planning a bus trip to the Brier Canadian men’s curling championship to be held in Kingston Feb. 29 to March 8. One claim to fame for the club is John Epping, who has competed in the past two Briers and got his start at PGCC. “Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s Mary Power used to run a Little Rockers program and that’s where John Epping threw his first rocks,” Hickey said. “John has been really great to the club. He’s come back and done a couple of clinics for our members. He sends us all sorts of goodies when we do the odd fundraiser. It’s really nice and really special. We like to claim him as ours.”