YORKTON - The idea of a day focused on sports we love make a huge amount of sense.
Certainly, even for an easy chair fan like myself, Hockey Day in Canada has always been a fun event simply because there are neat stories of hockey from across the country interspersed into a day where all the Canadian teams are generally playing on TV.
That a Curling Day in Canada evolved was rather natural too.
While hockey might be the first love of the majority of Canadians when it comes to sport, among winter sports it seems pretty clear curling ranks a solid number two.
The only thing actually surprising about sport dedicated days is that there are not more of them – lacrosse, baseball, golf for example – if they exist they have at least escaped my notice.
And, the second surprise is that local communities have not jumped on the bandwagon in a more significant way – road hockey tournaments, rod hockey events at local watering holes, curling with buckets on Broadway etc. The natural interest in the sports, and the need to escape the doldrums of winter should make mini sport festivals a natural.
Perhaps the event in Regina on the weekend, which happened to overlap with Curling Day in Canada, will spur other communities to do similar things.
The Frost Regina festival ran over a week, and included a range of events such as outdoor fire pits, dog sledding, horse and wagon tours, ice and snow sculptures, skating, and of particular interest for this week's outdoor curling.
The big game was a skins event featuring Matt Dunstone of Saskatchewan, who lost in the Brier semi finals in 2021, facing Kevin Koe who lost in the Brier final.
The game in Regina was a little lower key than the Brier playoffs, but it was still a good day for the Dunstone crew as they won more than $21K.
When contacted Sunday, Dunstone said he was “all warmed up,” extolling on the virtue of “a couple of hot baths.”
The event was one Dunstone told Yorkton This week “was pretty cool” which in this case held a dual meaning; it being a fun outing, and of course, the weather playing outdoors in Regina in February.
Even the weather co-operated.
“Actually it was a beautiful day,” said Dunstone.
As for the weather, Dunstone said it was not that bad adding dressing in layers and having warmers in his gloves and socks certainly helped.
“We did all the right things to make sure we were ready to go,” he said.
The energy of the event helped too.
“None of us had ever done something like that before,” he said.
Dunstone suggested by nature curling events can become somewhat routine for participants, but playing outdoors was different and “a lot of fun.”
The idea of holding an outdoor game had been kicked around for a couple of years, noted Dunstone, adding he and his team were eager to participate.
“It was something new and we jumped at it,” he said.
The event was one where some fans were allowed right at ice side, which Dunstone said was really fun.
“There were tons of people out there. We were interacting with them all game,” he said.
It was also a game Dunstone said they wanted to win.
“Anytime you play a game, no matter where it is, you want to win,” he said.
The outdoor game was just a bit more relaxed in nature.
“Today we sort of remembered why we play the game,” said Dunstone, noting there is a joy to curling the game that way that was reinforced.
The weekend was also a timely change of pace as the team prepares for the 2022 SaskTel Tankard which runs Feb. 9-13 in Whitewood.
Dunstone said it is the first big step to getting back to the playoffs at the Brier, and this time hopefully topping the field after two close runs.
“We’ve been so close the last couple of years,” he said, adding he can’t guarantee a win as much as he might like too, “I sure hope so, but it’s super tough.”
