Summer curling on tap in Morris

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/07/2020 (1803 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although the calendar shows it’s still July as we are in the throes of summer, the good folks over at the Morris Curling Club, home of the Cargill Curling Training Centre, push ahead through these summer months as the only operating curling facility in the country at this time of the year.

So if you have a hankering to work to work on your delivery, or perhaps your sweeping techniques, ice is available to rent in Morris.

The Cargill Training Centre is the brainchild of Chris and Lorne Hamblin, who have been tireless volunteers, coaches and competitors in the sport of curling for decades. The Cargill Training Centre is a one of a kind facility in Canada, the only one that operates uninterrupted through the summer.

And as such, despite these COVID times and with all the necessary precautions in place, the Hamblins are just excited that curling is back on the calendar.

Although they never removed the ice when everything was shut down in March (that ice stays in year round), the ice was completely shaved and reconditioned in late June, and the training centre re-opened on July 7.

But Chris Hamblin says prior to that “we worked hard in May and June with Curling Canada, Curl Manitoba and others to develop COVID-19 protocols so we could open for summer ice.”

In fact Lorne Hamblin says some of the curling Return to Play Guidelines that are posted on both Curling Canada and Curl Manitoba websites came from the discussions that were had in re-opening the facility in Morris. And he says a video to be posted on the Curling Canada website on Return to Play was filmed at the Morris Curling Club.

Meanwhile, the Cargill Training Centre has solidified their continued partnership with the National Deaf Curling Program in association with the Canadian Deaf Sport Association.

The current partnership is a four-year, $130,000 program to provide Deaf and Hard of Hearing Curlers across Canada an opportunity to train and improve their curling skills and the training centre in Morris, with the support of their sponsors have provided additional funding for the upcoming curling season to augment those programs.

That additional $15,000 is to be used by players and teams to access training in Morris outside the National Program funding.

From Aug. 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, players and teams will be able to access ice, equipment and instruction at 50% of the cost. These bookings will be on a first come basis until the $15,000 has been used.

Meanwhile, in another first for the Cargill Training Centre, will be what Hamblin says is Canada’s first bonspiel of the season, a Manitoba Junior Curling Tour event, to be held in Morris Aug. 21-23. That is a rescheduled event which was cancelled in the spring.

Anyone interested in booking the summer curling ice, or for more information, go to the website at www.curlingtraining.ca or call 204-746-2271.