First Draw Sees Women's Northern Underway

FTLComm - Tisdale - January 19, 2001

They are on the ice with this morning's first draw having begun at 9:00 and this pictures show the beginning of the first draw yesterday afternoon. The facilities are in first class condition with the regular six sheets reduced to four for this competition and bleachers added to the sides. Electronic score boards are in place on each sheet and the curlers seemed raring to go.

The writer first experienced this sport in 1956 and aside from the smooth surface and the polished metal handled pieces of granite this game has certainly changed. I can just imagine how "the Dirty Rat" and "Lucky Jack Knoblauch" would have shaken their heads had they known the game they were playing, each player with their own rocks from their boxes stacked at the end, would turn out like this. For this competition there are officials everywhere, hog line umpires, scoring judges at

tables, supervisory officials,

there are almost as many officials as there are competitors. Each wearing headsets and black outfits that seem to make them all look like aging SWAT team operatives ready to dash out on the ice a free a hostage. But the game has changed in other ways, the silence of brushes has at last replaced the swish of corn brooms and the whacking of leather belted "little beaver" brooms of the sixties. These are among the very best women curlers in the country and with the growth of high level competition it is becoming more than a hobby with curling teams playing for cash prizes and having refined the game to an extent

no one would have guessed

forty-four years ago when the rinks sprung up across Saskatchewan like wooden pipe lines But these fans know what they are watching, sitting up in the lounge in the reserved best seats in the house, Tisdale fans have seen some outstanding competitions in play downs in the past and know that this year's Northern Championships will see some of the best curling there is to watch anywhere. These pictures were taken when only two sheets of ice had begun the competition and as you can, there was a host of eager spectators on hand gasping with every delivery. We will have results and more images from the Tisdale RecPlex for you to see tomorrow.