By Nathan Kanter

Twin Rivers represented at national Travelers Curling Club Championships

Nov 23, 2017 | 1:00 PM

North Battleford’s Twin Rivers Curling Club is currently representing the province on the women’s side at the 2017 Travelers Curling Club Championship in Kingston, Ont., which wraps up this weekend.

The foursome of lead Kristy Bird, from North Battleford, second Christy Walker, from Kerrobert, third Nicole Beausoleil, from Delmas, and skip Kristi Frolek, from Battleford, are 2-3 so far in the round robin at the national event, which pits the highest club teams against one another.

This is the first time in the nine-year history of the tournament that Twin Rivers has a representative.

“It’s been a pretty surreal experience for the team,” Walker said over the phone while on the way to the rink on Thursday. “To wear that green jacket was pretty cool. The first time we put that on and stepped out onto the ice, it felt pretty good.”

The team, who has been curling at Twin Rivers since it opened, qualified by winning the provincial Travelers Curling Club Championship, which was held in Estevan in March. After a rocky start at that provincial tournament, Team Frolek won five straight and were crowned provincial club champions.

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For the national tournament in Kingston, each team is allowed only one player who has played in a provincial/territorial Juniors’, Men’s (Brier), Women’s (Scotties) or Seniors’ championship in the current or previous four curling seasons, and no player on the teams can have played in a Canadian Juniors, Men’s, Women’s or Seniors national championship in the current or previous four seasons.

With just one round robin game remaining, Team Frolek unfortunately cannot mathematically make the playoffs, as their 2-3 record is not enough to catch third place, and only the top three teams from each pool qualify. They close out the tournament with a match against Northern Ontario Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. (CT).

“We’ve trying to enjoy the moment,” Walker said. “We’ve got a lot of friends and family out here with us.”

Aside from the competition on the ice, a big focus at the Travelers Curling Club Championship is on fundraising.

According to Curling Canada, the team that raises the most money will earn a cash grant of $5,000 for improvements to its home club, while the second highest fundraising club will receive $3,000.

“All the teams are tasked with trying to raise money. It’s called the ‘Love of Curling’,” Walker said. “All the funds go to help junior curlers throughout the country… It’s a pretty good incentive. We’ve been doing some fundraising. We did a donation from our team itself and we brought a basket to put in the silent auction that is being auctioned right now and will be drawn on Friday here in Kingston.”

If Team Frolek does make the playoffs, they will begin on Friday and wrap up on Saturday.

On the men’s side, Saskatchewan is represented by the Power Dodge Curling Centre in Estevan.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11