Shirtsleeve Bonspiel has rockin’ history

By Dale Woodard on January 28, 2022.

Perhaps you won’t see 128 rinks hitting the pebbled ice for this year’s annual Lethbridge Curling Club Men’s Shirtsleeve Bonspiel like they did back in 1954.

Still, as the historic bonspiel heads into its 82nd year, the event remains the go-to event for local rock chuckers as a field of 40 teams kicked off action Thursday night at the Lethbridge Curling Club at the ATB Centre.

But nearly 70 years ago, it was quite literally a full house.

“I’ve got an old Lethbridge Herald sitting on my desk from 1954,” said Kirk Mearns, general manager of the Lethbridge Curling Club.

“The front page was the Men’s Shirtsleeve. There were 128 teams. I can’t even image it. It was in the old Civic Centre. They had 10 sheets of ice in the curling club and they put six sheets of ice on the hockey side for 16 sheets of ice. They were curling at 3 a.m. It was different times. These guys were taking the week off. It started on the Friday and went all the way to the following Sunday, it was like 11 days.”

This year’s event is down to four days with much less rinks than in 1954, but the Shirtsleeve Bonspiel remains an in-demand event over eight decades later.

“It’s got history and it’s got tradition,” said Mearns.

“Curlers put it on their calendar right at the start of the year and they just know that at the end of January we’re curling in the Shirtsleeve.

“We’re at 40 teams this year, which is great. The last year we ran it in 2020, just before the (COVID-19) shutdown, we had 32. So we’re up eight teams for this year’s spiel, so we’re happy with that.”

Over the past few years the number of teams has averaged between 32 to 40 teams, said Mearns.

“Which is a nice thing because we can start it Thursday and be done by Sunday and everybody gets lots of curling in.”

Teams will play a three-game round-robin in their pools with four games guaranteed.

“We separate it into the five, A though E, events after that,” said Mearns.

“Then they play a straight line draw until the end. Once you get to your fourth game, you lose and you’re out. It’s a great format. The guys love it. It’s easy to understand and they know when they’re playing.

This year’s field of teams is largely Lethbridge.

“We’ve got some Calgary teams coming down,” said Mearns. “We have lots of rural teams from Coaldale and Picture Butte. But of the 40, probably 34 of them are teams or people from the Lethbridge Curling Club. All the heavy hitters are back and everybody is jockeying for positions. It’s always fun.”

The final goes Sunday at 1 p.m.

There’s another big event coming up on the curling calendar as well. This one will head over to the Enmax Centre in a little over a month for the 2022 Brier March 4-13.

“The format is out. We went to 18 teams,” said Mearns. “There are three wildcards, so there’s no real wildcard game. They haven’t quite populated it yet. I think the big draw is going to the Wednesday, which is Alberta vs. Canada.”

Tickets sales are going well, said Mearns.

“Right now we’re selling based on 50 per cent (as per AHS COVID regulations), but we’re expecting it to be better than that. There are still lots available, but for where we are in the world right now, we’re really happy with where our ticket sales are.”

For tickets, visit http://www.curling.ca and click on tickets and events.

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