“Interclub” is semi-formal arrangement of clubs in and around Waterloo Region and Centre Wellington, and it includes the clubs in Elmira, Palmerston, Elora, Waterloo, Milton, Acton, Fergus, Orangeville, Shelburne and Alliston.
The basic idea behind Interclub is to provide a development and learning opportunity for youth curlers. At Interclub, junior curlers have the opportunity to play games against teams at other clubs and to do so at minimal cost – as in free. There are no prizes at Interclub, no championships, and no trophies. Ice is donated by each club for each Interclub event. Interclub days are almost always Saturdays and we try to arrange games approximately once per month. Often the host club provides lunch for the players but there is no standard arrangement for this – it’s whatever the host club can put together, but often the meals are free of charge as well.
At Interclub we typically run two draws, which are termed “A” and “B”. Team makeup is “open” (any mix of boys and girls). “A” teams play two 8-end games with two timeouts; usually there isn’t time for an OCA-style 7-minute practice but we sometimes do that during events just prior to playdowns. “B” teams are typically younger, development teams who play 2 6-end games with “unlimited” timeouts – sometimes a coach will be on the ice during much of a game to direct the play and provide feedback to the players. We try very hard with each draw to ensure that teams play against other rinks of similar skill and do not play against other teams from their own clubs.
Six dates have now been set for this season’s U15/U18 Interclub schedule, with a date in February now set at Kitchener’s Westmount Golf and Country Club. The arranged dates are:
- Elmira and District will host on Saturday, October 29. Reg Domaratzki of Elmira will be organizing the draws; interested teams or players should email Reg at rdomarat@gmail.com.
- Kitchener-Waterloo Granite (Martin Rombout) will host on November 26.
- Palmerston CC (Wanda Zellemink) will host on Saturday, December 17.
- Acton (Lee Jewell) will host on January 14.
- Westmount Golf and Country Club (Taylor Weber) will host on February 18.
- Elora (Scott Lindhorst) will host on March 11.
My thanks to Lee, Scott, Wanda, Taylor and Martin for offering your respective clubs!