The inaugural Alberta Stick Curling Championship will be staged next weekend at the St. Albert Curling Club.
The opening draw is 9 a.m. Friday and the final is tentatively set for 1 p.m. Sunday.
The winner advances to nationals, March 23 to 26 in New Glasgow, N.S.
The opening ceremonies follow the first draw on Friday morning and Saturday’s banquet starts at 5:30 p.m.
As of Tuesday, 22 teams were confirmed and several hail from St. Albert and area.
Organizers are confident they will have at least 24 teams registered after this weekend.
Each team is comprised of two curlers and all games are six ends.
One member of each team stays at each end of the rink and is not allowed to cross centre ice.
The two delivering curlers alternately deliver six stones each per end, while their teammates skip that end and then the roles are reversed.
Each stone must be delivered with a curling stick from a standing or wheelchair position.
This year’s provincial tournament is different from the Alberta Sturling Championship format of the stone being delivered by a stick or by sliding out of the hack.
The Deb Santos rink of the St. Albert Curling Club sweeps into action at the provincial senior (50-plus) championships, starting Wednesday at the Dawson Creek Curling Club.
Santos, third Teri Tralnberg, second Leanne Telford and lead Diana McNallie qualified for the eight-team draw as the C-event winners at the Northern Alberta Curling Association playdowns last month at the Ottewell.
Santos edged Diane Forster of Lacombe 5-4 in the C final by stealing the winning point in eight after counting one in seven to pull even on the scoreboard.
Santos won the 2013 senior provincials and at nationals was the silver medallist curling with the St. Albert rink of third Jackie Rae Greening, second Diana Backer and lead Glenna Rubin.
Cathy King, a member of the St. Albert Curling Club wall of fame, is also going to provincials with third Glenys Bakker, second Lesley McEwan and lead Shannon Nimmo of the Saville Centre.
King, last year’s senior provincial winner and the 2012 national and world champion, beat Foster 5-3 in the B-event final at northerns.
The senior men’s provincials will also take place in Dawson Creek next week and Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert is the second for Wade White, the C-event winner at northerns by a score of 6-3 over Mark Pouliot of the Crestwood.
White and Holowaychuk are joined by third Barry Chwedoruk and lead George White on the Saville Centre rink.
Holowaychuk and White were provincial champions and national bronze medallists in 2013 curling out of St. Albert.
This year’s senior nationals are March 18 to 25 in Fredericton, N.B.
The Emily Clark rink of the St. Albert Curling Club is returning to the U18 provincial championships.
Clark, third Emily Diebert, second Kennedy Tralnberg and lead Gabriella Rocque won the A final at northerns last weekend at the Crestwood by a score of 7-2 over Abby Marks of the Saville Centre.
The U18 provincials are March 3 to 5 at Leduc and last year in Lacombe the Clark foursome lost the tiebreaker final 7-5 to Kayla Skrlik of Falher.
The boys’ A-final at northerns was won by Jared Scharff of the Saville Centre, with the St. Albert front-end duo of Andre McLeod at lead and Braden Pelech at second, as well as Justus Otto at third.
Scharff doubled Ryan Jacques of the Saville Centre 4-2 for a berth at provincials. A deuce with hammer in six made it 3-2. The next end was blanked and in eight Scharff ended the game with a steal of one.
St. Albert rinks skipped by Nicolas Oake (David Howes, Kellen Bryks, Owen Pacholok), Nathan Molberg (Noah Penner, Owen Tester, Mitchell Clark) and Rebecca Geary (Julia Bakos, Carmyn Penner, Alicia Moscardelli) also competed at northerns.
The U18 nationals are April 18 to 22 in Moncton, N.B.
Entries are being accepted for annual St. Albert Ladies Bonspiel.
Teams can register online at www.stalbertcurling.com for he Feb. 24 to 26 bonspiel.
This year’s theme is Famous Families.
Last year’s winner was Diana Backer, a St. Albert resident curling out of the Granite Curling Club. Backer defeated Maureen Forbes of St. Albert 7-6 in the final of the 20-team draw.
