Blaine Pollock never imagined he would represent the Penticton Curling Club in the Continental Cup Cool Shots championship.
That’s exactly what he will do during the Okanagan final that will pit him against members of the Osoyoos, Oliver, Winfield, Vernon and Kelowna Curling Clubs. The six are the last players standing following action played on shuffle boards in their respective clubs that began in October. The winning club will receive $2,000 from the event.
“I didn’t go into it with aspirations of representing the Penticton Curling Club and to be quite honest, I didn’t realize that was going to be the end result,” said Pollock. “It’s just a casual thing. You’re sitting around after you’ve played your game in your league and people start talking and the board is there.”
Pollock has had fun playing and finds it interesting from a curling point of view.
“With those tiny little rocks execution can be a problem,” joked Pollock. “When you’ve got big hands and fingers it can get frustrating.”
Norm Card, who will be representing the Eastlink Curling Club in Oliver, found it difficult to curl the rock to the outside. He said the builder of the shuffle board made it warped to one area.
“All the rocks curl into the middle,” said Card, who expects the final to be fun. “The games are very short so you don’t have a lot of time. If you have a big end, you end up with a good lead, you can pretty well hold on to it.”
Asked if knowledge from the game on ice helps on the shuffle board, Pollock said no.
“I don’t think skill is going to take you as far as a little bit of luck will,” he said.
With the final being tomorrow, Pollock is excited and admitted its more in his mind. He also wants to represent the Penticton Curling Club well.
“It would be nice if I could win for the club and get the contribution that they are going to give,” said Pollock, who will take it more serious now, just not to the point of it becoming a distraction.
Card said it’s going to be a lot of fun.
“You don’t get nervous but you get some butterflies in the sense that there’s some money on the line,” said Card, adding that he feels he will get caught up in the Patch excitement.
“All the members at your club, they are patting you on the back, bring home the money,” he laughed.
Representing the Osoyoos club is Jeff Duguid, Darcy Sigfuson from Winfield, Carol Miskosky of Vernon and Justin Nillson from Kelowna. Michelle Pratt, junior stars/curling club promotions for the Continental Cup, said many of the clubs are just thrilled because they have had a lot of fun with it. They also get to keep the cool shots board.
“It’s a bit of a legacy right to participating in this event,” said Pratt, adding it will continue in the future. “Everyone has really enjoyed it.”
Pratt said Cool Shots is a great concept because it gets people talking about the event.
“They learn more about the Continental Cup,” she added.
There is also a Cool Shots competition for fans in the Patch at 11 a.m. each day. The Patch Fan Cools Shots final is Sunday at 3:30 p.m. The Okanagan Club cool shots final begins at 5 p.m. on Saturday.