Kelowna played host to its first ladies 'spiel in almost a dozen years, and, by all, accounts, the weekend tournament was a fabulous success.
The 16-team field started by playing two qualifying games that put each team in a pool. There were then round-robin games in their pools to determine the winners.
Finishing with a perfect 5-0 record and taking the A Pool was Sandra Jenkins and her Salmon Arm squad. Sandra will be bringing her rink down next week for the senior (ages 50-plus) provincial championships.
Winning the B Pool was Maureen Bird and her Vernon/Kelowna rink of Shirley Vedan, Diane Knorr and Denise Forsberg with a record of 4-1.
Taking the C Pool was the host committee of Crista Nordin, Miranda Airriess, Christy Black and Lori Robillard, also with a 4-1 mark, while the D Pool was won by Vernon's Agnes Sakakibara.
The tournament ran Friday to Sunday and included a wine and cheese on Friday, put on by Andrew Peller Estate winery, along with a marvelous breakfast and banquet hosted by the Kelowna Curling Club.
n The daytime senior men wound up their third quarter with Bert Farrant's rink of John Mill, Elmer Grusie and Jan Conradi taking top honours in the A Division of the Tuesday-Thursday league.
Rick Smith and his squad of Ted Reynolds, Gary Schnierer and Tad Shinde took the B Division. Both teams finished with a record of 8-1.
Over in the Wednesday-Friday league, it was skip Lambert Krenn, third Don Scott, second Allan Pallet and lead Terry Forestell taking top spot with a record of 7-2.
The men's club championship is coming up this weekend, with the winner advancing to the zone playdowns in Penticton at the end of the month, and possibly onto provincials and nationals.
The Dominion Club Championships, which is supported by Dominion Insurance, is held every season. It's truly a great event, as it's aimed at the club-level curler, and each team must be made up of a men's or ladies rink that plays on a regular basis in a club league and has no more than one player that has been to a provincial championship in the last two years. The people at Dominion treat the provincial champions like kings and queens and put on a great show.
I recently had a question regarding sweeping, and the rules have changed a little.
The question was if the sweeper is 'snowplowing,' is that sweeping? Snowplowing is putting the broom head across the path of the rock (broom handle above the rock handle) and making no side-to-side motion - just plowing in front of the rock.
The rule book now states, "Given that the intent of sweeping is to keep the path of the stone clean and to take a stone further, there must be a brush head movement in the sweeping motion."
That means that if there is no side-to-side motion, then there is no sweeping and snowplowing would be illegal. However, if the broom makes a side-to-side (sweeping) motion, then it is legal.
Clear like mud, but if you want to have an effect on the rock, then you need to have some sort of motion, as well as pressure on the broom head.
Jock Tyre is the general manager of the Kelowna Curling Club.