The Cranbrook Curling Club hosted the Provincial Master’s Curling Championship from Feb. 21 to 25.

If you are wondering where some of the Scotties and Brier winners went, well they were right here at our club for five days.

Hidden in amongst these star-studded elite teams was a Canadian icon, Neil Houston! Neil worked for Curling Canada and along with Warren Hudson created a brand new curling format, Mixed Doubles curling. I had the good fortune to be sitting beside this very famous man during the banquet and he graciously granted me a few minutes of his time to answer some of my questions.

When I asked him where did the idea come from, Neil said, “We, (Canada Curling), were going to put on the Continental Cup. We would have men’s games and women’s games and we thought we should have a mixed component that’s a little bit different. So we had the idea to put a couple of rocks in play, only throw five rocks, switch around then (the players could change who threw three rocks and who threw two rocks after each end) just make something unique.”

What would be your response to people saying that new curlers should not start in Doubles. Neil said, ”I would respectively disagree with that because curling is curling, you get to throw draws and takeouts. And I would suggest that Doubles in some ways is easier because you get more reps(repetitions)in. You have less people out there so there is less danger. You are going to control more draws and so there are more reps in that way. I think any age any gender Doubles will work for anybody.”

There are now Doubles leagues in Kimberley, Elkford, Creston, Rossland, Salmo. Here in Cranbrook this year, those interested in playing Doubles rent private ice during the curling season.

Lead image: John Dixon, Curling Club director left, with Neil Houston, co-creator of the Doubles Curling format on the right.  Submitted by Sue Trombley

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