Thistle Curling Club emerges from the ashes

Bolstered membership heads to new home at Asham

The fire that roared through Thistle Curling Club gutted its wooden structure and left its 80 members and 400 occasional curlers out in the cold.

It also left the club in a predicament, said executive board member Harvey Swain, because meetings with their insurance company after the blaze revealed they were underinsured and could not afford to rebuild.

“I was just kind of shocked,” recalled Swain, who had been curling at the club since 1970.

“It was like losing an old friend.”

Swain said the damage was estimated at $2 million and the only tangible memory was a single old trophy that had been taken out of the club for cleaning.

He said the old club site is currently under conditional sale to Habitat for Humanity following advice they would only receive half of what they require to rebuild, effectively wiping the option off the table.

Since the inferno some of the occasional curling teams have disbanded, said Swain, while some found new homes. Those teams included the Sunday league which had been running for 50 years.

It relocated to West Kildonan.

Swain said it was hard to identify anything positive from the club’s demise, but an increase to 100 members split into 20 teams is finding a new place to curl at Asham Arena.

Arnold Asham, owner of the arena, said Thistle curlers have taken over Thursday nights for the next year and he hopes it will turn into a longer arrangement.

“We’re hoping to give them great service and hopefully they’ll stay,” said Asham.

Asham said it’s difficult for curling clubs to stay afloat and estimated at least four clubs have shut down in Winnipeg over the last few years.

Both Asham and Swain agreed clubs are still reeling from a cultural shift in the ’80s that saw curling go from a traditional bi-weekly to a once-a-week sport.

They also said the change was driven by the participants.

Although Asham said curling has seen a resurgence in popularity since becoming an Olympic sport, it is also facing competition from busier lifestyles and other winter sports like snowboarding.

He said another major challenge for curling is getting young people involved at an organizational level on boards and through volunteer work.

Asham hopes the Thistle curlers will become more heavily involved at an organizational level, but said there were no plans in place at this time.

Swain was forced to quit curling due to a medical condition but will stay involved with the Thistle league as a board member.

The Thistle curlers will take to the sheets at Asham Arena for the first time today (Oct. 12).

Fred Sutton, a Thistle curler and board member, said he’s looking forward to getting back on the ice.

“It was terrible what happened but we have to move on,” said Sutton.

“At least we can keep curling.”