Before it could even get out of the hack, the season at the Cochrane Curling Club was swept out of the house by the extension of the provincial pandemic lockdown.
The start of the season was already delayed by a problem with ice-making equipment. President Kory Blackburn says the lockdown would have reduced it to about a month of curling, so the executive pulled the plug.
On-ice action had barely started. “Not the mixed league,” Blackburn points out, “but the seniors did probably a couple games in the mornings and that was pretty much it.”
Senior curlers are the only ones who had paid registration fees so far. Blackburn says they’ll get their money back.
And he’s not terribly concerned about the club’s finances.
“We are in somewhat of a tough spot but the town gave us $5,000 to start up, to help with our compressor problems from the beginning of the year, and they decided for us to keep that $5,000 just for this year.”
Blackburn has fingers crossed that there will be a next season. He urges all curlers to help towards that, by getting the coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available.