There will be a 2020-21 curling season in Saskatchewan, with the recent announcement of CURLSASK’s Return to Curling Guidelines. (File photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

Right on the Button

CURLSASK announces Return to Curling Guidelines

Sep 1, 2020 | 4:00 PM

With the fall sporting season fast approaching, CURLSASK has announced their Return to Curling Guidelines for the 2020-21 season.

As expected, those guidelines include an added emphasis on building and rink sanitization; newly-implemented capacity limits; and the odd minor adjustment to on-ice play; in addition to continued physical distancing standards.

Executive director with CURLSASK, Ashley Howard, said for local curling clubs across the province, the focus is not only on this season, but looking ahead to the years to come.

Howard said there are many important conversations happening right now, along with surveys and other community engagement tools, in an effort to gage how much support they’ll have for the season going forward. Included in that comes the challenge of how to keep the game authentic, while also ensuring that the health and safety of all remains the top priority.

“Once we can decide to open, it’s all about how can we keep our members safe,” Howard said. “What traffic flow do we have to look at, what are expenses going to look like as far as sanitization and differences with gameplay? There is a lot on the plate of our clubs right now and I think it is a big challenge for them, but I’m confident they can overcome it and we’re certainly here to support them.”

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Doug Flasch, general manager of the Twin Rivers Curling Club in North Battleford, said while it may take a bit of time to adjust to a few changes here and there, overall the transition should be a pretty smooth one.

“I don’t think there was anything that stands out that as too surprising, and I don’t think there should be too big of an effect on the game,” Flasch said of the new guidelines. “One thing I kind of liked seeing was that we have a committee that have been getting together, and while we don’t have all of our rules in place just yet, some of the recommendations they’ve had have been really good.”

He said among the committee’s discussions has been the prospect of moving all the rocks on one side of the sheet, getting someone from each team to go and clean the rock handles before each game, and not being able to switch rocks.

While these potential changes may be a bit different, Flasch said at the end of the day, the local curling club is just happy to be able to return to the sport, and host a season again this winter.

“Everything was so up in the air and we didn’t know exactly what was going on [for much of the summer], so it’s really nice to hear we should have a season again this year,” he said.

While no official start date has been set yet, the curling season in the Battlefords community is tentatively scheduled to commence Oct. 13, following Thanksgiving weekend.

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Martin.Martinson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: MartyMartyPxP1