By Bird Bouchard
In dramatic fashion, the North Hatley Curling Club has defended the Quebec Challenge Cup for the third time consecutively.
The local curling club hosted the Dalhousie Lake team on Sunday, Feb. 5 to claim the 1017th Challenge Cup. It was the first time in the North Hatley Curling Club’s run of hosting the Challenge Cup facing a team from Ontario.
The oldest competitive trophy in North America, the Quebec Challenge Cup has been continually contested since 1874. The series is open to any club involved with the Ottawa Valley Curling Association or Curling Quebec as an event under the Canadian Branch. Due to the high number of clubs waiting to challenge for the Cup, it is typically a 5 to7-year cycle to get another chance to challenge for the large, prestigious trophy.
The Challenge involves having a 10-end double rink curling game. At the conclusion of each challenge, the Cup is awarded to the club with the highest aggregate score.
“Normally your team is made up of four players and you play another team going up and back. But what makes the Challenge Cup so special is we’re playing a game on one sheet and there’s another game happening on sheet two at the same time,” said Rourke, explaining the possibility of losing on sheet 1 but winning the overall challenge as the team with the highest total score wins.
