Author: Kent Bird

The 2025 Murray GM Men’s Open Bonspiel with 20 men’s teams from Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley, Cloverdale, Calgary and Quesnel wrapped up this past Sunday afternoon. The Championship game was won by Skip Dale Hockley and his rink from Chilliwack defeating skip Darren Frycz from Langley. Both teams were undefeated at 5-0 going into the finals but Team Hockley proved to strong for the rink from Langley giving team Frycz there 4th bonspiel runner up finish of the season. The team from Chilliwack was an inspiring family affair with Dad’s Dale Hockley and Rick Jones both playing with their sons Kevin Jones and Robert Hockley. Congratulations guys !!! Earlier in the day Team Hockley defeated Team Harris from Coverdale on a last stone draw to the edge of the 4 foot while Team Frycz needed and extra end to upset Ryan Mclean and his rink from Abbotsford in the other semi-final. The B division final was won by the 2024 championship team skipped by Wayne Moore and his rink from Langley defeating skip Dayne Gagnon from Abbotsford. Team Moore went 5-1 for the weekend with his only loss to the rink from Abbotsford skipped by Don Frycz. The C playoff final was won by skip Darren Schellekens and his rink from Cloverdale defeating yet another Abbotsford team skipped by Rick Lang. What can I say; but the Abbotsford teams were wonderful hosts again this year with our out of town guests taking home all of the hardware. Better luck next year boys !!!

A special thank you to Archie the draw master for the long days and keeping the draw boards up to date and organized. As you all know these events are only possible with the help of the volunteers and our wonderful bar staff Della, Linda and Brenda. The kitchen volunteers of Allyson, Lesley and a team of amazing cooks. The ice crew Dale, Taylynn and Nic and 50/50 volunteers Karen, Leslie, Edith and Rick.

Next is the Mixed “Superbowl” Bonspiel February 7-9.

If you want to see how we install the ice, houses, lines and log’s watch the video below recorded in November 2024.

Thank you to Brandon Mennear for recording and producing the video.

To view live curling click the youtube link below for sheet #3 or sheet #5

Sheet 3:

https://youtube.com/live/mx9lcxjalFU

Sheet 5:

https://youtube.com/live/kX5XhM75Ja4

THE HEART OF CURLING IN THE VALLEY   Hello Abbotsford Curlers !!!   GREAT NEWS !!! The ice is now in and we will complete the installation of the houses, lines and logo’s this weekend. We will be ready for curling on Monday November 25 at 4pm. The Junior league will start at 4pm with the Monday Night Open league starting at 6:30pm. The bar will be open at 7pm.   Unfortunately the ice will not be ready for the daytime leagues on Monday morning so we are re scheduling the games to Tuesday morning at 8:30am and 10:45am.   PANCAKE BREAKFAST TUESDAY 9AM TO 12   Della and I would like to welcome everyone back with a Complimentary Pancake Breakfast on Tuesday morning from 9am to 12. This is open to ALL Abbotsford Curlers not just the morning curlers.   The Senior Mixed Bonspiel December 6 to 8 is almost full, we have room for a few more teams so if your team wants to play please register online at the link below.   https://abbotsford.curling.io/en/competitions     NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY December 31 with DJ music, snacks. Tickets are $45. More details coming soon. You can purchase tickets at the bar or office.     Cheers,   Kent & Della Bird

We are hosting our annual GreyCup Party next Sunday November 17. We will be having the Chili cook-off as well with prizes for the best chili.

Come on down and bring a pot of chili or appetizer and watch the 111th Greycup. We will have prizes, drink specials and floor curling games.

The doors will open at 1pm with game time at 3pm.

Reserve a table for your group or just show up for some fun times.

Reminder the bar will be open this week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights at 6pm.

Hello Abbotsford Curlers !!!

We finally have some good news to report. We received the tool/parts a few days a go and the repairs will be completed today. Once completed we will pressure up the system for 24 hours and PRAY for no leaks, if everything goes well then we can work to start up the plant early next week and plan to start making ice shortly after. Once we start making ice it will be about 7 or 8 days to complete the install and be ready to start curling again.
So just to confirm we will have no curling next week November 10-17. We hope to start back curling November 21-22 if all goes well.

We appreciate your patience during this difficult time. I will send out another email Monday to keep everyone informed.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Cheers, Kent & Della Bird

THE HEART OF CURLING IN THE VALLEY   Well …. we did it !!!   Congratulations to everyone from the Abbotsford Curling Club who volunteered or attended the Major Welding Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials Qualifying event played in Maple Ridge at the GEWC last week.    Congratulations to the winners, Team Brittany Tran and Rylan Kleiter from Alberta, who have now earned a direct birth to the MD Olympic Trials in Liverpool, Nova Scotia January 1-5, 2025.   https://www.curling.ca/blog/2024/11/04/qualifier-winner/     The event was a huge success and again shows what an amazing club we are. I am so proud of our club and it’s members for your help in making this event as successful as possible. The feedback from the curlers was most definitely positive, from the excellent ice conditions, hospitality, and amazing fans. Many of the teams have already confirmed they will be back next year. You would never have guessed 2 weeks ago we had to move this event from Abbotsford to the GEWC in Maple Ridge.    I must recognize our event chair Debi Sand and her amazing hospitality team of Cynthia Zwaagstra, Allyson Hambly, Della Bird, Don Truscott, Judy & Art Heppner and many more, the ice crew of myself with Nic Hoffard and Dale Herbert, Bert Creasy, Rick Davidson, Jody Graboski for picking up and delivering the bleachers, the list goes on and on, my apologies if I missed anyone. The hours and hard work everyone put in to this event is simply just amazing, the Abbotsford volunteers put in over 1,000 hours yes that number is correct 1,000+++ hours. I am so proud of all of you and it was an honor to work with such wonderful people. If they didn’t already know, CurlBC and Curl Canada now know that the Abbotsford Curling Club can provide a World Class event and ice for our premier curlers. I truly believe this will open up many doors for future events at our club.   I must thank Scott Pheifer from Curl Canada, Shannon and Dean Joanisse from the GEWC and all of their volunteers. I still can’t believe we pulled it off, we are all truly blessed to be involved in such a wonderful sport with such great people. You all were amazing.   Please support our sponsors of Major Welding, Save on Foods Abbotsford – Sumas Way, and Curl Canada. Without all of their support this event would not happen.   Cheers,   Kent & Della Bird

THE HEART OF CURLING IN THE VALLEY   The refrigeration plant is still in the repair process, unfortunately this is taking longer than expected as special tools and parts are needed and of course not readily available. We will need to cancel/postpone the masters bonspiel scheduled for November 8-10. We will have no curling this week or next week November 3 to 10. I will update everyone later this week once we know more on the repairs.   The Major Welding MD Olympic Trials qualifying event is going ahead as planned at Golden Ears Winter Club in Maple Ridge October 31 to November 3. Draw times are 9am, 12:30, 4pm and 7:30pm daily. We are still the host club for this event so I will be making the ice with Nic Hoffard and Dale Herbert. The event chair Debi Sand and our team of volunteers will be working together with GEWC staff and volunteers to ensure the athletes and spectators have the best experience possible. Della and Linda will be working the bar and kitchen so we hope to see some of our members come out and support our event and volunteers.   Just a reminder the bar will be open at 5pm Tuesday, Wednesday this week but we will be CLOSED this Thursday for HALLOWEEN.     Cheers,   Kent & Della Bird

THE HEART OF CURLING IN THE VALLEY   Hello Curlers !!!   The Major Welding Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials Qualifier event has been moved to the Golden Ears Winter Club in Maple Ridge. We are still the host club for this event but it will be played at Golden Ears. Della and I along with the event chair Debi Sand will be working with Shannon and Dean Joanisse and their team at Golden Ears to make sure this event is a success and everything runs as smoothly as possible.   If anyone still wants to volunteer for this event please contact the office or Debi Sand.   I want to acknowledge the Golden Ears Winter Club management team of Shannon and Dean Joanisse, the club President Jason Peckham and their entire board of directors for taking on this event. Words can not describe how grateful I am for their support. I look forward to working with them all.  I would also like to recognize and thank Curl Canada and Scott Pfeifer, they have been amazing to deal with during these difficult times. We spent all day yesterday working on keeping this event alive.   This is going to be a great event and I still hope to see you all there to support the event and our great Canadian Curlers.   Tickets will be sold at the door for $10 a day, same as we had planned at Abbotsford. Cheers,   Kent & Della Bird

Hello Curlers !!!

We are still in the process of repairing the refrigeration plant with no timeline of completion yet. We are still hopeful it will be sooner rather than later. The ice is currently melting away so we will be closed to curling for at least 2 weeks. The existing ice will be removed and we will be installing new ice once we are up and running again. If all goes well I am hoping to be curling for the Masters bonspiel November 8-10.

I am an optimist at heart I guess !!!

On the brighter side.

Linda and Della have volunteered to donate their time so we will open the bar on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 5pm for anyone wanting to come down to watch the game, play cards, crib, darts, etc.

Cheers, Kent & Della Bird