Marking 50 years of curling in South Delta

Tunnel Town Curling Club manager Sandra MacKinnon and longtime member Bob Fisher test out the fresh ice at their Tsawwassen facility.

Christine Lyon photo

It’s been 50 years since the first rock was thrown.

What started as a small group of Prairie-born curling enthusiasts in Ladner has evolved into the 350-member Tunnel Town Curling Club, which leases a six-sheet ice facility in Tsawwassen’s South Delta Recreation Centre. This season marks the club’s 50th year of curling in South Delta.

Bob Fisher joined Tunnel Town in 1974 and has tracked the club’s history in a thick binder of reprinted black and white photographs and documents collected over the years.

It all started in the mid-1950s. A handful of Ladner residents started renting ice in Cloverdale and soon joined forces with local hockey players and figure skaters to form the Delta Ice Stadium Society in 1958. The society raised funds to lease an old World War II hangar at Boundary Bay Airport where they installed a hockey rink and curling rink.

In 1962, the Ladner Curling Club was replaced with the Tunnel Town Curling Club—a name chosen to because of the rink’s proximity to the recently opened Deas Island Tunnel.

Unfortunately, the old wooden airplane hangar couldn’t withstand the wrath of mother nature in 1972.

“In the winter there was a heavy snow storm and the roof started to give a bit,” Fisher said. The municipality condemned the building.

“Fortunately at that same time they (the municipality) had started construction of this South Delta Rec Centre.”

The club moved into its new four-sheet ice facility in Tsawwassen in 1972. Just two years later another two ice sheets were added to meet demand. In the latter half of the decade, the curling club’s membership peaked at 700.

The club space recently underwent renovations, including fresh paint in the lobby, new floors and lockers. The rink also features new lighting and a Low Emissivity (Low E) ceiling, which reduces the amount of heat radiating onto the ice.

Although club membership has decreased since the 1970s, club manager Sandra MacKinnon says the sport is enjoying renewed popularity due to its exposure at the Olympics and increased TV coverage.

“Quite honestly, it’s become a sexy sport. The athletes, they work out like athletes, they wear team uniforms like any other team does,” MacKinnon said.

The club has eight members over the age of 80, and many others who have been with the club since the 1970s. But it also appeals to young generation, MacKinnon said. The club’s afterschool program has tripled in recent years, and 1,600 elementary school kids come through the facility in the winter as part of their phys-ed curriculum.

Tunnel Town Curling Club held two open houses this week. The 20-week season starts next Thursday (Sept. 15) with the men’s league opener. Visit www.tunneltowncurlingclub.com for more information.