There are 64 rocks nearly in play as the 2018 SaskTel Tankard has officially rolled in to Estevan.
The event will determine the province’s representative for the 2018 Tim Hortons Brier next month in Regina and has 16 of the top teams in the province (see page 12 for profiles on these teams). But before a rock is thrown at the Brier, the teams will have to duke it out at Affinity Place Wednesday to Sunday, Feb. 4.
The Tankard organizing committee thanked its volunteers Sunday night at the McGillicky Oilfield Services lounge at the Power Dodge Curling Centre, with over 100 people showing up for swag and final instructions and encouragement.
“We’re just getting geared up and talking about what’s going on over the next few days,” said event planning co-chair Helen Fornwald Sunday. “This community has stepped up 100 per cent and then some. The response that we got from the community to come and help us and volunteer, our icemakers are putting in long hours to help with the ice and it’s looking great. All the volunteers and the sponsorship, the community has just overwhelmed us. We could have never done this without the response we got.”
In total, over 150 volunteers will help with the Tankard, which starts with a draw Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. The opening ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m., with the teams getting piped in with the junior curlers. Then, an evening draw will keep things going.
“We have got an outstanding program coming to welcome those 16 teams as they trail onto the ice at Affinity Place,” Fornwald said. “We’re certainly going to hope to rock Estevan and raise this roof, and show them the hospitality we’re made out of.”
Draws are also taking place all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday leading up to the playoff semifinal Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. and the final at 2:30 p.m.
During the Tankard, there are volunteers working security, hospitality and cleanup, as well as people working at the patch at the Wylie Mitchell Building each night of the Tankard.
The ice, meanwhile, has taken on a different form since the Tankard started. The hockey and figure skating players and performers have been booted out and the surface looks a lot different with four sheets of ice.
“We’ve had six to eight guys in the morning and six to eight guys in the afternoon,” said chief local icemaker Bob Keating. “Our crews start at 6:30 in the morning, and then 2 (p.m.) till we finish at night… it’s a funny schedule when you’re on that one.”
Everything went smoothly. Keating said the Zamboni dry-cut the ice and then took most of the old ice out, smoothed out the high spots and clean. Then, the flooding started.
“From start to finish, there were probably around seven or eight floods,” Keating said. “You’ve got to flood the whole hockey ice first and then you break it down into sheets. We’ll end up with about six or seven floods just on the curling sheets.”
The rings were cut in and painted, and then the advertisements and foams, carpets, banners, hacks are in.
The Tuesday night league at the Power Dodge Curling Centre was scheduled to play their regular league game this Tuesday night to give the ice a test run to make sure everything was going well.
“That’s when the icemakers watch all the sheets and find out if they’ve got to do anything to them, or tweak them a bit,” Keating said. “After that, she’s on her way.”
The event is the first time the Tankard has been in Estevan for several years, and the first time it has been in Affinity Place. It’s a pretty big deal now, if the amount of organization and sponsorship is any indication.
“With the Brier being in Regina this year, I think the interest in curling is up,” said Jim Wilson, liaison with Curl Sask. “Junior curling is up, high school curling is up and it’s a good thing…
“I talked to the committee when I got here and I said this is so wonderful, can we have the Scotties here next year.”
The way this has been run has set the bar higher for future Tankards and provincial Scotties, Wilson feels.
“The arena is first class, the committee is first class and everything they have done is first class,” Wilson said. “Next year, it’s going to be tough (to top), and we haven’t thrown a rock yet.”
That will be the legacy left in future years, at least when it comes to an organizational standpoint.
“Our legacy certainly is that we hope to raise the standard of this event in the province for Curl Saskatchewan and to showcase the outstanding facility we have,” Fornwald said. “We’ll be passing it on to the next sporting event coming to Estevan.”
