Six teams have signed up so far for the international bonspiel in Utica NY from December 5-7. Two British teams will compete against two USA teams and teams from Ottawa and Bradford in a round robin format. Registration is still open, details from Marc DePerno.
Team Canada will not be appearing as they are committed to the Cathy Kerr bonspiel in Ottawa the weekend before and to an international bonspiel that starts in Vancouver on December 9th. Given the paucity of opportunities to compete against world class opposition during the season, it is unfortunate that organizers of each event were unable to coordinate the calendar to allow Team Canada to compete in Utica.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
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Some of the organizers of the events being referred to, do coordinate with respect to other events and bonspiels. I personally advise Marc Deperno as soon as we set our date for the Cathy Kerr Memorial Bonspiel which is normally a year in advance. I believe, the Cathy Kerr is the longest running of the three spiels in question and has always been played as near to and in advance of the INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR DISABLED PERSONS and that date for the Cathy Kerr will remain. To go back a year or two, the Utica spiel was held in the "dead" of winter and as luck would have it a huge storm struck which made a 4 hour trip to Utica from Ottawa a 12 hour return trip. Based on that experience our club asked Marc if it could be scheduled outside of the "storm seasaon" and thus it was held last year one week after the Cathy Kerr. Last year the Utica dates worked out nicely for the international teams who played in Utica as they proceeded to Vancouver and participated in that spiel the following weekend. Was that more "good luck than management" .... I don't know but feel it was planned that way to enable the international teams who were already in North America to participate. It is very difficult to coordinate these spiels as it is only the nationally funded curlers/teams that can afford to travel across the country to compete.Due to the increased popularity of the sport, it is also getting difficult to obtain enough ice to make a weekend trip worth while. Most wheelchair curling clubs are just "clubs" within a club by being members of that club or in the case of the Capital Wheelchair Curling Club, we are just "renters" within a club. It is difficult to get clubs to give up members ice time for our needs but we are making progress. Some coordination does happen but in the end teams/countries make a decision on which spiels they want to attend for whatever the reason may be which may or may not result in a particular team/country attending all the spiels.
LETS ROCK 'N ROLL
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