Guelph bites the dust

Guelph bites the dust

News out of Guelph is that Guelph Golf and Curling Club won't have curling this upcoming season.

Guelph Mercury has the story here.

To be honest I didn't know that Guelph had two curling clubs, as I am somewhat familiar with the Guelph Curling Club, but not so much with the Guelph Golf and Curling Club.

A lot of mid-sized Ontario cities have two curling clubs. Although it's not always the case, it seams one club is kind of ritzy club (usually attached to a golf course), and the other is more of a blue-collar club.

Ontario cities that have two clubs include: St. Catharines, Cambridge, Kingston (3), Oshawa, Owen Sound, Brampton, Burlington, Dundas, Brantford and Windsor.

I don't really know a lot about the cities that have two clubs, but like two-newspaper towns, I wonder if they will be a dying breed across the province in the next few years. Curling isn't cheap and the demographics are changing.

I don't like to see curling operations biting the dust, but sometimes a city just can't justify having two curling clubs. If the money is not there than it's just not there.

Curler banned for steroid use

Curler banned for steroid use

Canadian curler Matt Dumontelle, an alternate on Team Jacobs, will serve a two-year ban after testing positive for Methandienone Metabolites, an anabolic steroid, following the gold-medal game at the World Men’s Curling Championship in Victoria earlier this year.

Dumontelle said that he was unaware that a workout supplement he was using contained the banned drug.

From the Toronto Sun:

 “I had no intentions of trying to beat the system,” he said. “I was made aware by our Canadian Curling Association High Performance staff of my responsibilities to respect and follow the rules as set down by the World Anti-Doping Agency. At the end of the day I accept that it was, and is, my responsibility to make sure that I am playing by those rules.”

However, saying that, Team Jacobs will have to face tighter scrutiny (unfairly) this upcoming season. The whispers (again, unfairly) will be there. Being known for their large biceps plus having a teammate busted for steroid use will make people gossip. Is it fair? No, they are innocent until proven guilty. But it's human nature.

Curling has changed a lot in the last 10-15 years. It's more athletic and the new breed of curler will be built more like a football linebacker rather than a football punter.


Here is a Toronto Sun story about the ban.