Jamie Long, Comm ’08, played on the Commerce intramural curling team last year but is facing practical obstacles this year in deciding whether or not to .
The Royal Kingston Curling Club, where the University’s teams usually play, is moving from 75 Clergy St. to a new $3-million facility on Days Road, near the Kingston Airport, about three kilometres from campus. Because of the distance to the new rink, Queen’s will provide a shuttle for students. The shuttle will leave campus 20 minutes before the games and bring students back to campus at the end of the night. “If there was no bus I probably wouldn’t play unless I could find someone with a car,”
Long said. “At least they’re putting some effort into it.”
Long said he thinks enrollment in the league will be smaller than usual for the 2006-07 season.
“There could be problems getting people to show up because of the extra effort to get there,” he said.
The Clergy Street curling facility was sold to Queen’s in 2005 and the Royal Kingston Curling Club used the proceeds from the sale, as well as reserve money and fundraising, to build their brand new $3-million facility at 130 Days Rd.
University intramurals co-ordinator Duane Parliament said he decided to continue using the Royal Kingston’s rink for Queen’s intramural curling despite the relocation. Parliament said Graham Weatherby, the curling club’s head manager, approached him before the relocation and said he was
interested in having Queen’s continue to use their rink.
“Queen’s gets a discount on the ice rate because we play late at night,” Parliament said.
Six games are played simultaneously and the games typically start at 11:30 p.m. and end around 1 a.m. The late time means the games don’t conflict with any of the curling club’s events.
Parliament said he finds students don’t mind the late game time because they typically stay up late anyway. Last year Queen’s had 26 coed intramural curling teams with an average of seven people per team. Parliament said he’s not sure how the move will affect registration this year, which begins Nov. 15. Parliament added that he hopes the shuttle will encourage people to sign up. If enlistment isn’t sufficient this year, curling intramurals will have to be reconfigured for next year or possibly cancelled, he said. The shuttle system is also used for men’s and women’s indoor soccer teams, which play at the Quarry Sportsplex, located near Division Street and Highway 401. “There have been no complaints and [the shuttle system] has been fairly well received,” he said, adding that some students choose to
drive out to the Sportsplex for games.
The Queen’s curling team gets a shuttle to the rink as it does to its away games.
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