Entries are due by a week from today (Nov. 21) for the Provincial Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, December 12-14 2014 at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. One team has entered to-date, so if you put a team in, there WILL be an event. Entry fee is $80 per two person mixed team.
If you are planning to enter, here’s a few things to know:
It’s open to any age curler, including Juniors. One male and one female member per team.
Stick curlers aren’t allowed (they have their own two-person game).
It has nothing to do with our bonspiel tomorrow i.e. you don’t have to have a team in tomorrow’s event (or win it) to enter. We scheduled our bonspiel before the Provincials to give you a chance to become familiar with the two person game, and get some practice, but it is not a club championship for the provincials – anyone from the Club can enter.
Curl PEI has scheduled provincial mixed doubles championships in both 2012 and 2013, but has not had an entry, so this will be the first time we send a team from the provincials on to the national event (some of you may remember that Rebecca Jean MacDonald and Robert Campbell competed at the World Mixed Doubles in 2011, but they gained that berth by virtue of their team winning the Canadian Mixed title)
If you win, you are obligated to go to the national Mixed Doubles Trials event, which, as it did last year, takes place at the (really nice) Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, March 11 to 15, 2015. Entry fee for this event is $400 per team. Unlike most national championships, you are responsible to pay for travel, lodging, and entry fees. The provincial team will receive a $1000 provincial grant to help with these expenses. Curl PEI are also looking into covering the entry fee, but this has not yet been confirmed/approved. The rate for the approved hotel will be around $135 per room night (good for Ottawa). The hotel will be announced early in the new year.
It will be the third edition of the Trials; the CCA recently approved a motion to extend a two-year trial for the event to a third year as efforts are ongoing by the World Curling Federation to have the discipline included as an Olympic medal sport, as soon as the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The 32 participating teams in Ottawa will be determined by the following:
1. Each of the 14 provincial/territorial curling associations will select one team.
2. The winning four-player team at the 2015 Canadian Mixed Championship in North Bay, Ont., will receive two entries.
3. The balance (the other 16 teams) will be composed of open invitations but should more than the required number submit entries, then each team’s participating status will be decided by the Order of Merit as of Dec. 31, 2014. The Order of Merit is based exclusively on the CCA’s Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS).
If you win the Trials, you are obligated to go to the World Mixed Doubles in Sochi Russia, April 18-25, 2015. I am assuming the Canadian Curling Assoc. covers your expenses for that event.
If you have specific questions, please get in touch with Amy Duncan at Curl PEI – email aduncan@sportpei.pe.ca, phone (902) 368-4208.
CCA photo: Cornwall’s Veronica Smith in a Mixed Doubles mini-competition at the 2013 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Fort McMurray, Alta.