St Thomas Curling Club

Your Board of Directors hope you and your families are doing well and having an enjoyable summer.

As we all try to navigate through life’s “new normal”, the Board along with our club’s Return-to-Play Committee have been working hard behind the scenes evaluating options and scenarios to develop a plan to re-open the club for the upcoming 2021-22 curling season. Even though there are still many unknowns, we wanted to share and update you on some key bits of information.

Start of Season:

After careful consideration it is our intention to open the St. Thomas Curling Club for regular league play on Friday Oct 8, 2021.

Our region has been in Stage 3 for some time now and we have seen many positive signs in recent weeks, but we continue to navigate through the ever-changing Provincial Government and Public Health guidelines and how they specifically apply to the sport of curling.

The Committee still needs time to fine tune the club’s Re-Opening Plans to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our members and staff. They are working diligently and hope to be ready to open registration soon.

REMINDER: WE ARE MOVING TO ON-LINE REGISTRATION ONLY

N.B. After registration opens - If you are have tried to register on-line and find that you cannot register you will need to contact us at registration@stthomascurlingclub.com.

What Will Curling Look Like?

While the club’s detailed re-opening plan is still taking shape, we know you have many questions. We don’t have all the answers, but we do know new rules and protocols will be implemented. There are still many things that may yet change, but we felt it was important to provide you with an indication of what you might expect when you return this fall:

When you arrive at the club, there will be Covid screening protocols (e.g. recognizing symptoms, If you’re sick stay home, signing in etc.) and a designated traffic flow pattern in place from the time you enter the building until when you leave.

Hand sanitizing stations will be located at multiple areas of the curling club.

You will arrive at the club having done your pre-game warm ups, dressed, and you will have a designated spot to put on your curling shoes.

Masks will be required in all “warm room” settings except post-game when sitting in the lounge at a designated table. At this point, wearing a mask on the ice while playing will be encouraged, but will remain a personal choice.

Rock handles and scoreboards will be cleaned between every game.

Some leagues could see changes to game start and end times as well as duration to help manage traffic flow and allow time for required ice maintenance and cleaning.

We expect to start the season with bar service. We are fortunate at our club to have a large enough lounge area to have tables adequately spaced with 4 persons per table.

Bar staff will be equipped with PPE as well as a protective barrier at the bar.

Use of club equipment such as brooms, delivery sticks, crutches, grippers and sliders is under review and we will let you know when a decision has been reached.

No handshakes or fist pumps will be allowed before or after games. These traditions can be replaced with a friendly wave or a thumbs-up and a greeting of “good curling”

No coin flips: Hammer and/or rock colours will be assigned by league reps or determined by a non-touch means such as “rock-paper-scissors”.

Our Provincial Sport body, CurlOn has released a 19 page document that includes the latest procedures clubs need to follow to meet government regulations and have members curl safely. A copy of the entire document is attached.

We also plan to follow our National Sport Body, Curling Canada’s recommended Return-to-Play guidelines to ensure physical distancing while on the ice. Details are attached.

All of this work is for the love of our sport and of our curling club. We are all in this together – we would love to see you all back on the ice in October but if you are uncomfortable coming back this year – we hope to see you next year.

We want you all to know that we are doing our utmost to provide a safe environment and series of protocols so that you can come back to play and socialize in our club with minimal risk.

Look forward to seeing you in October!

For more information on our plan for Return to Play click here. 

Please see Curl ON and Curling Canada for more details.