England’s first Curling Rink will open in November
The
first dedicated curling rink in England is being built in Kent and will be open for business from Tuesday 9th
November 2004. The rink is
being built by long standing London curler, Ernest Fenton, and will comprise three lanes
of dedicated curling ice. The Province of London Curling Club will start curling on Tuesday nights from the 9th
November with session times at 19:00
and 21:00 hours. The Opening International Bonspiel is later
that week, starting with a Meet and Greet on Thursday night followed by three
days of highly competitive curling. Teams are almost complete, coming from all
over the world, with participants coming from Andorra, England, Canada, Holland
and Scotland, with interest shown from Germany and Switzerland for the final few spots.
Stephen Hinds, ECA National
Development Director, said, “The rink will give English Curling the much needed
boost that it has been looking for since the Olympic Gold Medal win by Rhona
Martin and her team in Salt Lake City 2002. It will give our competitive
curlers a training base, but more importantly it will make the sport accessible
to the most populated part of the country and therefore dramatically increase
the number of people playing the sport in England.” English Curling
Association membership is expected to double in the first season.