Firstly, congratulations to our Series 1 Winners! Your legacy will live on forever (or until I stop paying the hosting fees for this website, whatever comes first).

The Series 2 schedules have been posted. Fortunately the first of two potential Sunday games that were mentioned / threatened is not required, so we'll be playing during our regularly scheduled timeslots right up until Christmas.

We did have a lot of tied rankings this series, so for some insight as to how they were broken:

B1 Flight: 

Dix, Kimber, McMaster Men, and Olson were all tied at 3-2. I took all their head-to-head results which left Dix and McMaster Men with a 2-1 record, and Olson and Kimber with 1-2. I then compared Dix and McMaster Men which left McMaster Men as the winner.

D Flight:

Carson, Jamieson, and Winslow were all tied at 3-2. Looking at their head to heads, Winslow lost to both Carson and Jamieson. Carson then beat Jamieson in their head to head, leaving them as the winner.

Good news - We've gained two teams!

The long awaited schedule has been posted. Good luck and good curling!

WELCOME BACK! 

Fall is here which means only one thing: It's time to glue teflon to our shoe and slide on some bumpy ice! We have a lot of new things happening this season, so read below!

CALL FOR SPONSORSHIP

For the first time in a long time, we are searching for a new sponsor! If you or your company are feeling particularly generous and want to support our great club, please reach out to myself or Rob Matheson (curling@dundasvalleygolf.com) for more details!

ADMIN & CONTACT INFORMATION

LEAGUE WEBSITE
https://dundas.itscurling.com

All league information (rules, standings, schedules, and lots of statistics), including communication, is delivered via the website. Bookmark it, Add it to your Home Screen, Tattoo it on your arm.

CONVENER
Kris Blonski
krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com
905-977-8101 (Text Preferred)

GAME RESULTS
Submit winners and final scores via text message / email ASAP. The website is updated quickly, so the faster you submit them, the faster you can brag about your glorious victory.

CURRENT SEASON

TEAM ROSTERS
Please review your rosters for accuracy. Name spelling is important as it helps connect all your lifetime stats.

SEASON SCHEDULE

• Open League Start - October 16/17
• Christmas Break - Dec 25/26, Jan 1 (Jan 2 will be available for weather makeup games)
• Open League Finals Week - April 16/17
• NEW! All Leagues End of Season Dinner & Party - April 25

NEW! - OPEN LEAGUE SUNDAYS 

Due to a shortage of weeks to run the full season, we will potentially have up to two League-wide SUNDAY Games: December 14th and March 16th. All teams and flights will play these days and we're hoping to make an event out of it. More info to come closer to the date and keep these days available on your calendar!

REGULAR SEASON FORMAT

After the success of last year's trial run, we will be sticking with our dedicated days format! C and D flights will continue to run on Wednesday nights and A and B flights will be on Thursday nights.

Additionally, we will also have an empty sheet available on both Wed/Thurs nights at 8:45PM that can be used for rescheduling your games as required.

IN CLOSING

Schedules will be posted by the weekend prior to the start of the season - We are anticipating 1-2 additional teams prior to season start, thus the delay.

That should be everything for now. If you have questions absolutely feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to help!

Good luck, good curling, and we'll see you on the ice!

Surprise! Time to talk about Open League Curling... in August... in 30 degree weather.

Registration

I know many of you have already emailed me with your teams but if you could fill them out again in our very short DV Open League Registration Form that would be fantastic (Note: Varsity / Academy Teams do not need to register using this form). You are able to sign up your team (please, talk to each other, only one entry per team!) or you can register as a free-agent where I will put you in contact with teams / each other who are looking to bolster their rosters. 

We did max out last season with 38 teams, so don't delay! If you need a player to complete your team, let me know and I'll send you any currently available free agents.

Important Dates

Open House - September 19th  @ 7-9PM
Opening Day - TBA
Open League Season Start - October 16th
Open League Season End / Finals - Thursday, April 17th
Club Closing Dinner and Party - Friday, April 25th

Looking forward to hearing from everyone and, as always, if you have any questions feel free to email me!

We're down to the FINAL WEEK of the Open League with Semi-Finals being played last night and tonight, and Finals tomorrow! Check out the brackets here!

Even if your team is no longer in contention, I encourage everyone to come down, grab a drink, and watch all the Champions be crowned on Friday, April 12th @ 630PM before we go our separate ways to work on our tans during the off-season. In addition to some exciting curling, there is also a live pasta station starting at 6PM!

Prizes will be handed out after the games. If you have won a series this year, finished top 3 in the regular season, or make the finals, you MUST have at least one team member come and collect it (No rules against keeping all the money to yourself if you're the only team member to show up). Prizes not collected will be graciously donated to next year's prize pool (this is not a joke).

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Congratulations to our 2023-24 Regular Season Champions: Team Mohawk Varsity! This is their second win in a row, topping their season last year with 172 points, 16-4 record and 4 Series wins and breaking into the record books in three categories. For the rest of us: Give yourself a pat on the back knowing that your prize fee is helping put these deserving young men through college.

With that said it's time for the playoffs! We are continuing our Pool Playoff format from last season. You can get the full rundown on the format in the rules... which you should also refresh yourself on since the playoff rules are slightly different than the regular season (most notably, no timeclocks - they will still be running as a guide so that we don't see any 2.5 hour games out there).

You can view the full playoff brackets here along with the classic schedule here.

The Playoff Schedule is as follows:

Round Robin Games - March 20 to April 4
Semi Finals - April 10/11
Finals - FRIDAY, April 12

As noted above, the finals will be held on Friday, April 12th. As always, prizes for all Series WInners, Regular Season Top 3 Finishers, and Playoff Finalists will be handed out at this time. You MUST have a team representative available to collect your prize money or else will be graciously donated to Rob to spend on more toys for the rink (this is not a joke). We encourage all Open League participants to come and cheer on the finalists and enjoy one last hurrah with everyone before our sole focus becomes working on our summer tans.

Best of luck to all teams in the playoffs!

Just a quick reminder that locker rooms will NOT be available for games next week (March 13-14). Please make sure to get your equipment prior to next week!

I'm sure you've all looked out the window at the snow and wondered if curing is still happening tonight. As of right now, games will proceed as scheduled for tonight. Rob and I will make a final Go/No-Go decision tonight at 5PM.

If you do not feel comfortable playing tonight: We do have an official makeup day of Tuesday, February 27th at 630PM with 3 sheets still available (and 845PM if required). If you do want to proceed down this route, please contact your opposition ASAP and get confirmation back that you agree to move your game. We want to do our best avoiding making teams show up with no opponent to play!

Just a quick note to remind everyone to double check their Series 3 schedules; we did make some changes to Thursday games relatively quickly after they were first posted but I know how eager some people are!

Another note: The U21 provincials are being held at the club during our league dates of Feb 28th and 29th so there are no scheduled games for that week. That said, Rob is looking for some volunteer teams to reschedule their games to Feb 27th to help train the timers. So, if you are looking to reschedule your league game. want to prove to yourself that you actually aren't the slow team, or just want to throw down the gauntlet to a team of your choice, this is your opportunity.

Due to the Hamilton Districts ice requirements, we've had to make a last minute change to games scheduled to play on February 1st @ 630PM. Those games will now be scheduled for SUNDAY, January 28th @ 10AM.

I realize this is somewhat short notice and scheduled on a non-league day. If this new time doesn't work for your team, we do have two timeslots available:

January 31st @ 845PM
February 1st @ 845PM

These will be first come, first serve. If you absolutely need to use them, please let me know ASAP and I will adjust the schedule on the website accordingly. If you would like to reschedule your game to another date/time, please ensure they are played by February 2nd.

Thank you for your understanding!

I hope everyone had a great holiday break!

We jump right back into the back half of the season with games starting on Jan 3rd / 4th. All the schedules have been posted and are available on our schedule page.

Unfortunately we did have a team drop from the league, so if you notice some unusual / extra team shifting, that's why!

Quick Note: Some ice assignments have been adjusted for Series 2 due to multiple games being played on the same sheet at the same time (thanks Linda for noticing). Days and Game Times are unaffected so fortunately no reason to update your calendars.

Firstly, congratulations to all of our winners this series! You've found your way onto our series winners list and have earned a tiny star beside your name in the standings.

The schedules for Series 2 have been posted. You can see them on both our schedule page, or by clicking your team name for a more focused view.

One small administrative note: The McMaster Women's JV team has been re-added to the league and have been demoted from B to C Flight.

The schedule for the first series has been posted! Check out the schedule page for the complete list or click your team name anywhere on this site for information specific to your team. Please be aware that the schedule can change if I notice any significant errors so please make sure you check back often before the start of the season.

We've gained another team since the original announcements, bringing us in at 38 teams for the season which means no BYES!

WELCOME BACK! 

We've had a WILD offseason up to literally this morning where we've ended up at 37 teams; the second-most ever for the Open League. We've gone through multiple format changes and MANY phone calls between myself and Curling Director Rob but (hopefully) we're finally settled now and ready to start the season!

 

SPONSOR

Firstly, a BIG thank you to McNally Construction who have been a longstanding sponsor of the club and title sponsor of this league.

 

ADMINISTRATIVE & CONTACT INFORMATION

LEAGUE WEBSITE

https://dundas.itscurling.com
Nearly all league information (rules, standings, schedules, and lots of statistics), including communication, is delivered via the website
 

CONVENER

Kris Blonski
krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com
905-977-8101 (Text Preferred)

GAME RESULTS

Submit winners and final scores via text message / email ASAP. The website is updated quickly, so the faster you submit them, the faster you can rub your glorious victory in the face of your curling rivals.

NEW! - PLAYER MAILING LIST

If you would prefer to receive these emails directly from me, rather than through your incredibly unreliable team contact then please fill out this form. A typical season will see roughly 5-6 league update-type emails and then additional emails in case of last minute weather cancellations / scheduling changes. Copies of all these emails, as well as more general updates which are not emailed out, are available on the website.

 

CURRENT SEASON

TEAM ROSTERS

Please review your rosters on the website for accuracy. We have a few TBD's and people with complicated last names that almost certainly need to be corrected.

SEASON CALENDAR

Pre-season Practice Ice - Oct 3-6 (see Club Website for Times)
Open League Start - October 18/19
Christmas Break - Dec 27/28
Open League Finals - April 12

NEW! - SPARES LIST

By popular demand, DV is developing a "universal" spares list that will be available on the club website once you've logged on with your member credentials. You can also get spares from any member-run league and even from people in the Open League who are available that day.

NEW! - REGULAR SEASON FORMAT

As teased at the end of last season and throughout the summer, we will be running a trial season focused on more consistent scheduling: 

• All C & D Flight games will be played on Wednesdays 
• All A & B Flight games will be played on Thursdays
• Game timings ARE NOT guaranteed to flip between early and late draws and you may end up with multiple early / late games in a row. Over the course of the season, you should see your schedule balanced as close to 50/50 as possible.
  • Despite best efforts, the sheer number of teams entered this season made switching between early/late draws each week non-feasible.
• Playoffs will match the above as much as possible - however there will absolutely be games played outside of the "normal" day.

Again, these are just some high-level changes. Please review the rules for the complete list.
 

A FEW MORE THINGS

Schedules will be posted by the weekend prior to the start of the season (Oct 14/15) - it's been hectic and we've already gone through multiple changes.

Thanks to all of those who filled out the survey at the end of last season. I'll provide a short breakdown on the website in a couple weeks for those who are interested in the results.

That should be everything for now. If you have questions absolutely feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to help!

Good luck, good curling, and we'll see you on the ice!

 

Wait, summer is almost done?! Isn't it still June?! Why is the Curling Manager showing up at my house, menacingly holding a broom, suggesting that I'd better make this the best DV Open League season ever or else?!

In all seriousness, I wanted to reach out to everyone who played last year with some brief information about the upcoming season and get you all to start submitting your teams!

Registration

I've created a very short DV Open League Registration Form where you are able to sign up your team (please, one entry per team!) or you can register as a free-agent where I will put you in contact with teams / each other. Spots fill up quickly, so don't delay!

Note: Varsity / Academy Teams do not need to register using this form.

Notable League Adjustment

We will be running a one-season trial of dedicated days for specific flights this season. This means moving to 8-Team A, B, C, and D Flights with C and D Flight Games occuring on Wednesdays and A and B Flight Games occuring on Thursdays. Flights will alternate between early and late draws each week.

Please note that the trial is not guaranteed to occur as we do require a certain number of teams to make it work. More details to follow as we get closer to the start of the season as this adjustment does mean a substantial number of rule / format changes.

Important Dates

Open House - September 21st  @ 6:30PM
Opening Day - October 3rd
Open League Season Start - October 18th
Open League Season End / Finals - April 12th

Looking forward to hearing from everyone and, as always, if you have any questions feel free to email me!

Thank You's

Thanks to everyone for another great season - we had 31 teams this season and actually managed a full, uninterrupted, season for the first time since 2018-19! 

Another thank you to Rob and Eric, our icemaking team for their thankless work.

Finally, thanks to our longtime sponsor, McNally Construction, for their continued support.

Notable Accomplishments

It's been a while since we've done this but we've had some notable league milestones and accomplishments this year

• Congrats to the McMaster Women's team for their 11 game winning streak which ties them for 2nd of all time.
• Congrats to Mike Eddy for taking top spot in the lifetime winning percentage with a current record of 75.86%
• Congrats to Pete Kastrau for being the first player to reach the 300 Wins and 3000 Points milestone. In honour of this, all players will be required to rock sweet moustaches in the upcoming sesaon.

Team Hot Shots

So, this years triumphant return of the Team Hot Shots competition took the literal interpretation instead, as it occurred during the two hottest days of the season (29 degrees!). As a result, only half the teams were able to participate. So take these results with a grain of salt but your Team Hot Shots winners are:

• A Flight: Blonski - 43pts - 1st Overall
• B Flight: Academy Girls - 39pts - 2nd Overall
• C Flight: Sarvari - 26pts - 8th Overall
• D Flight: Nease - 35pts - 3rd Overall

Champions

Finally, congratulations to our champions this season! The games were exciting to watch with our Club Championship game going to an extra end. And thanks to everyone who came out and watched!

• Club Champions: McMaster Women
• Regular Season Champions: Mohawk Varsity
• B Flight: Dix
• C Flight: Pickthall
• D Flight: Nease

You can view all their team pictures on the Past Champions page

Firstly, I have put together a short, 2-3 minute anonymous survey that I would appreciate all players complete.

Survey Link: https://forms.gle/MBHN6VRbpisGuHPt8

Your responses will help guide the league and make sure I don't get too avant garde with future plans!

Secondly, we're down to the FINAL WEEK of the Open League with Semi-Finals tonight, and Finals tomorrow! I encourage everyone to come down, grab a drink, and watch all the Champions be crowned on Thursday, April 20th before we all work on our tans during the off-season. 

Prizes will be handed out after the games, so if you have won a series this year, finished top 3 in the regular season, or make the finals, you MUST have at least one team member come and collect it (No rules against keeping all the money to yourself if you're the only team member to show up). Prizes not collected will be graciously donated to next year's prize pool (this is not a joke).

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Due to the very hot weather, we need to cancel the Hot Shots competition tonight. Unfortunately the cooling system in the rink isn't able to keep up and we risk seriously damaging the ice.

There won't be an opportunity to make up the Hot Shots during regular league play, although feel free to bring your team out to any available ice and give it a go anyway!

The schedules have been prepared! Please see below for the Team Hot Shots competition. While there are no prizes for this event, aside from ULTIMATE TEAM GLORY, feel free to get creative.

One more reminder, game times for this event are 630PM and 800PM (NOT 845PM).

With only two weeks left in the season, we're fortunate to be able to use our "weather delay" week to bring back an old favourite, Team Hot Shots!

Team Hot Shots can be played with 3, 4, or 5-man teams, so there is no need for spares (unless you want one) or to worry about leaving someone out (unless they are secretly being cut from the team next season). For more complete information, please see the following documents (What is Team Hot Shots / Shot Sheet).

This is an OPT OUT event, so if you are opposed to fun, socializing, and bragging rights please let me know prior to Saturday at noon. The official schedule will be released Saturday afternoon via email / website news post (not the official schedule page), with all games being at 630PM and 800PM (no super late nights!)

If you have any questions, as always, feel free to reach out.

Firstly, congratulations to our 2022-23 Regular Season Champions: Team Mohawk Varsity. They racked up an impressive 160 Points with a 15-5 record, collecting two Series Wins and one Series Tie along the way. While they're currently participating in the CCAA / Canadian College Championships, I'm certain they view this title with equal, if not greater, prestige.

With that said, it's playoff time in the Open League!

With our longer season, I've opted to change our longstanding playoff system from a Single Elimination Bracket to a Pool-Based Qualifier. For more information on how it works, check out our rules. Or, if you're rules-phobic, just imagine a simplified version of the Scotties or Brier.

Speaking of rules, the playoffs do operate slightly differently than the regular season, most notably the removal of timeclocks (they will still be running as a guideline and so we can all look at you like a disappointed parent if your game goes too long) and tighter sparing rules. Have I suggested reading the playoff rules yet?

The Playoff Schedule is as follows:

Round Robin 1 - Mar 22/23
Round Robin 2 - March 29/30
Round Robin 3 - April 5/6
Weather Backup Week / Team Hot Shots - April 12/13
Semi Finals - April 19
Finals - April 20

If we somehow avoid a final winter storm, we'll be bringing back our fun Team Hot Shots event for that week. More information to follow closer to the date.

Our Finals will be held on April 20th.  As always, prizes for all Series Winners, Regular Season Top 3 Finishers, and Playoff Champions / Finalists will be handed out during the finals. You must have a team representative available to collect your prize money or else it will be graciously donated to Rob's rock fund (this is not a joke).

While the Club-Wide End of the Year Celebration takes place on April 22nd, I still encourage all Open League participants to come out, grab some snacks and drinks, and cheer on your finalists! 

Due to the high risk of freezing rain, games tonight are being postponed.

All games will be moved to Thursday, February 23rd @ 845PM and Thursday, March 2nd @ 845PM. The schedules will be updated on the website in the next 30-45 minutes so please check to see when your adjusted game time will be.

EDIT: The schedules have been updated.

I understand that this may be challenging or frustrating for some teams who have made various pre-arrangements, but we want to maximize the number of games while still keeping safety in mind.

For teams who are unable to to play their new times, we do have alternate times available for a re-schedule on March 9th and 16th at 845PM. These spots are first-come first-serve and must be communicated to Rob and I to be confirmed.

Stay safe out there!

As you're likely aware, there is a significant freezing rain warning for the Hamilton area that may conflict with games tonight. We will be keeping an eye on things and will make a go / no-go decision mid-afternoon.

We will let you know on this website as well as via email once a decision has been made.

Congratulations to both the McMaster Women's Varsity Team and the Mohawk Varsity Team for winning their respective provincial championships over the last two weeks!

Take a look at the following articles for more information:

Banner Season: McMaster breaks tie in final end to claim 2023 title

Men’s Curling Wins OCAA Gold, Again; Mixed Doubles Capture Bronze

Just a quick reminder that all League Fees will be billed this month. Please make sure your teams on the website are accurate as they will be used to enforce all rules going forward.

Due to the winter storm, all games scheduled for tonight (January 25th) will be postponed.

Games originally scheduled for January 25th @ 630PM will be moved to January 26th @ 845PM.

Games originally scheduled for January 25th @ 845PM will be moved to February 2nd @ 845PM (with a lone game being moved to February 9th @ 630PM).

I understand that this may be challenging for some teams who have made various pre-arrangements, however my goal is to get as many games as possible played for each team.

For teams who are unable to make their new times, we do have one alternate timeslot on February 9th @ 845PM. These spots are first come first serve and any desire to move games must be communicated to Rob and I.

Thanks everyone for understanding and be safe out there.

The Series 3 schedules have been posted. Check them out here! You can also click your team name (almost) anywhere on the website to be taken to a specific schedule just for your team.

Something new this series: We will have two dedicated extra draws for rescheduled games. Should you need to reschedule a game, you can use January 18th @ 845PM OR January 26th @ 845PM. As always, please let Rob and I know that your game has been rescheduled (unless you like playing on ice with no pebble).

Congratulations to our Series 2 winners! As always you can find this series' winners (and all previous series too) on our Past Series Winners page!

We had a relatively rare 4-way tie in B1 Flight this series which was broken by modified head-to-head results. First I look at the head-to-head between all four teams, resulting in the following standings: Reid (2-1), Olson (2-1), McLeod (1-2), and Sarvari (1-2). Then I look at the head-to-head results between Reid and Olson, resulting in Team Olson being the Series Winner.

We are on our annual Holiday Closure now and the league will return with Series 3 starting on January 11-12.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

UPDATE: The club is open and games will be played as scheduled!

Just a quick note to say that all scheduled games for tonight are, as of right now, still on for tonight. A final decision will be made early-to-mid afternoon that will be updated on the website and, in the event of cancellation, emailed to team contacts.

Congratulations to all Series 1 Winners! Don't spend your bonus 2 points all in one place!

Series 2 Schedules have been posted. Check them out on the schedule page or click your team name anywhere on the website to be taken to a more personalized page!

Good luck to everyone this Series and lets all hope for no COVID delays!

Just a quick note to let you know the schedules have been updated to reflect all the postponed games. 

There was a little bit of shuffling for THIS WEEKS GAMES so please double check to make sure your games have not been moved. Affected teams are: Academy Girls, Horn, Scott, and Wardlaw.

Unfortunately, while the power has returned to parts of the club, the ice rink is not one of them. Therefore, all games tonight are cancelled / postponed.

As previously mentioned, we will make the games up during the Thursday @ 845PM timeslot starting NEXT week to avoid last minute scheduling / potential conflicts that people may have. This will result in many teams playing two games in one week, however no team will be required to play two games in one day.

Please check the schedule in a few days to see the adjusted schedule. I expect to have it updated by the end of the weekend.

Schedules have been posted for the first series of the season! You can check them out on the schedules page or by clicking your team name anywhere on the website.

SPONSOR

ADMINISTRATIVE AND CONTACT INFORMATION

CURRENT SEASON

EVERYTHING ELSE

A rare summer update for everyone: The website has officially been updated to Version 5.0!

Thank You's

The Finals and our New Champions

State of the League

Playoffs are finally here - Head over to the playoffs page to find out your schedule! And don't forget to double check the playoff rules!

Hi Everyone!

Series 3 Schedules have been posted. Check them out!

The Open League will resume on February 2nd / 3rd. Please review the schedule to and update your calendars to reflect the final game of Series 2.

As the Club continues to monitor the situation with COVID-19, we want everyone to know that we will prioritise the safety of our membership and employees. As a result, we have decided to postpone all curling leagues until January 27th, 2022. Practice ice will however be available starting on Monday, January 10th. To secure your spot, please register via the calendar on Member Central. 

For any further questions, please contact our Membership & Curling Director, Rob Matheson, at rmatheson@dundasvalleygolf.com.

Per the club:

The schedules for Series 1 have been posted. You'll be able to find them on the schedule page or you can click your team name and get personalized schedules that way.

Hi Everyone! Just a quick note to not only dust off this site but also let you know that the Open League will be back this season! Expect an email from me over the next couple weeks with more information.

With our new "RED ZONE" status, all curling games are postponed until further notice. Thank you for your understanding!

What I'm sure is the first of many:  I've adjusted the schedule leading into the season.  Please review to ensure your team hasn't been affected.

As of March 15th, the club will be closing until April 6th due to the COVID-19 Virus.  For more information about this closure, please read the letter sent out by the club.

With news of the Coronavirus making it's way to Hamilton, I would like to encourage all Open League participants to refrain from shaking hands pre and post game in favour of fist bumps or elbow bumps or even abstaining completely if preferred.

We have decided to go forward with games tonight!

Just a quick note:  We will be making a decision about the weather at roughly 330-400PM, however we're hoping everything will be ok!

Continuing our theme of congratulations, great work to our Series 3 Winners!: Teams Schellenberg, Mac Mens Varsity, Lamb, Olson, Barnard, L. Blonski, and Sarvari. You came, you saw, you conquered (but not before buying them all drinks).

Our McMaster and Mohawk Varsity curling teams were competing this past weekend in the OUA and OCAA provincial championships and they've brought home the hardware!

There was an error on the schedule that has now been corrected.  Please re-check your schedule as this has affecting the timing of a couple games.

Congratulations to our Series 2 Winners: Schellenberg, McAninich, Jackson, Gardiner-Dean, Lamb, Mohawk Varsity, and Thorsen!  You are the final winners of the decade!

I want to give a bit of a heads up to all players of the Open League.  Typically we do not play games during the week of the Districts (January 15th and 16th this year), however we are going to have to run some 9PM games on both days in order to make up for lost ice time later in the season.  Unfortunately, just the way the calendar landed this year, we don't have any free weeks to shuffle these games to.

A hearty congratulations to all our Series 1 Winners: Teams Warriner, M. Blonski, Winslow, McAnnich, Barnard, Mac Mens Varsity, and Ranta!  Our Curling Manager, Rob, has mentioned that he'll be getting your names tattoo'd on his body to forever celebrate this tremendous feat.

Just a note that all the road closures affecting the club have been lifted!  You're now able to access the club via King St. in Dundas - good news for all our local players.

A small note - one of our Varsity teams has been renamed.  Team Gregory is now referred to as Team Warriner.

Incase you've missed the emails, there is a major road closure leading from Dundas to the club. Please check your travel routes prior to your first game - it's looking like the road will be closed for a substantial period of time.

With the league being entirely full, it's become a little more challenging to reschedule games.  Right now we have two league dates available for reschedules for the first two Series:

Welcome to the 2019-20 Season of the Dundas Valley Open League!  We’ve had a tremendous influx of new teams and players which means some big changes in how the league is organized!  I strongly encourage you all to read this email in full as well as check out the website for updated rules.

For all our new participants, the Open League is a CYOR ladder-based league, which means that you ultimately will be playing against teams of similar skill level to your own.  You’ll play nearly every week of the curling season on Wednesday or Thursday at either 6:45PM or 9:00PM.  The schedule is as balanced as having an odd-numbered-sheet curling club will allow so, over the course of the season, you should have close to an equal split over all 4 timeslots (with a greater emphasis on 6:45 vs 9:00 balance than Wed vs Thurs balance).

The season is broken into four 5-week series in which you’ll find yourself competing in A, B, C, or D Flyte (more on that later).  After each series, teams are shifted up or down a flyte depending on your results!  At the end of the season, we have a quick 3-game playoff before heading off to work on our tans for the summer.

While the Open League, in comparison to other leagues at Dundas, leans slightly more towards a competitive league than recreational, we are out there primarily to have fun and enjoy the game of curling!

MEMORIZE THIS:

League Website:  

https://dundas.itscurling.com

This is your source for all rules, schedules, standings, statistics, and league news (plus a ton of other things).  Most league communication is done through the website, so bookmark it and check it often!

Please check the team page on the website to ensure that all spelling is correct and team members are present.  Some of the writing on the signup sheet is very tough to read!

Convener Contact Information:

Name: Kris Blonski
Email: krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com
Phone / Text: 905-977-8101

Game Result Submissions:

Please submit all results electronically (winner and final score), either by email or text message, using the information above.  Typically, scores are submitted by the winning team but it doesn’t hurt for both to submit. All information on the website is updated instantly as scores are submitted, so get them in quick!

ABSORB THIS INFORMATION:

Season Calendar / Series 1 Schedules:

The schedule for Series 1 is up and available on the website!

We have a tight schedule this season.  As always, the schedule is subject to change based on unexpected weather closures.

Pre-season Practice Ice - October 7 to October 10
Series 1 - October 16 to November 21 (No Curling November 13-14: Mixed Districts)
Series 2 - November 20 to January 9 (No Curling December 25 to January 2)

No Curling - January 16-17 (Hamilton Districts)

Series 3 - January 22 to February 20
Series 4 - February 25 to March 26

Playoffs (Quarterfinals) - April 1 - 2
Playoffs (Semifinals) - April 8
Playoffs (Finals) / Club-Wide Season End Party and Banquet - April 9

After last year’s major success, we will be continuing with the club-wide season end party and banquet to coincide with our Open League finals.  I strongly encourage everyone to attend (whether playing or cheering) as it’s a great time and open to all leagues!

League Format:

We have hit 40 teams!  This is a league record and, with that, comes some big changes to the league format in order to accommodate additional teams.

A much more detailed explanation can be found in the league rules however, in summary:

• Addition of a second division in A Flyte
• Addition of a single division D Flyte

The addition of a second division in A Flyte is particularly exciting to me as it solves two long-standing format concerns: “It’s too challenging to get to / stay in A Flyte” and “A Flyte teams play each other too often”.

D Flyte will have a complete turnover every series, so no team needs to be worried about getting “Stuck in D Flyte”.

Of course, with all this talk about multiple divisions, I do want to remind new and returning members that there is no skill difference between Divisions 1 and 2 (They could also be referred to as East and West) and the only important thing is what Flyte you belong to.  It’s simply an organizational method so that the gap and point differentials between the top and bottom flytes doesn’t get too big.

 Rule Changes:

 As was discussed last year, we are changing how Champions are crowned this season:

 The team who collects the most points during the regular season will be crowed the Regular Season Champion (formerly Club Champion). 

 The team who wins the A Flyte Playoffs will be crowned the Club Champions (formerly A Flyte Playoff Winners).

THANK THESE PEOPLE:

Finally, a big thank you to McNally Construction for being the title sponsor and their longstanding support of this league. A new thank you to itscurling.com for providing webhosting to the league.  We’re always looking for additional sponsors (I have a lot of ideas) so if you or your company is interested, let’s talk!

As always, have a great season and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone on the ice!

Good curling!

Congratulations to our Series 4 Winners:  Teams K. Blonski, Lawler, Olson, Elsliger, and Gardiner-Dean!  While your success this series will not move you up a flyte, it will move you up... in our hearts.

Congratulations to our Series 3 Winners!  Teams K. Blonski, Goll, Vollick, Gomes, and Olson!  Your names will forever be etched into our digital history (at least while the hosting bill continues to be paid).

Just a notice that the $25 league fees will be requested for the next billing cycle.  All participants, including 5th players, will be charged.  All money collected goes back to the players in the form of cash prizes!

Congratulations to our Series 2 winners! Teams K. Blonski, Snell, Lawler, Elsiger, Vollick, and Gregory! 

Congratulations to our Series 1 Winners!  Teams M. Blonski, Henricks, Wardlaw, Lawler, Gregory, Winslow, and Child!

Just a quick update to let everyone know that Mac Varsity teams officially have new names:

The schedules for Series 1 are now posted!  Go to the schedule page to check them out or view your team page (click on your team name pretty much anywhere) to get a team summary.

Attention Open League Curlers! If you are looking for an additional curling opportunity Dundas Valley's new doubles curling league is looking for a few more teams. League play will be scheduled on Tuesday evenings from 5:30PM - 7:00PM or 8:45PM-10:00PM. 

Congratulations!  If you're seeing this, you've found your way to our new website.  Please make sure to update your bookmarks to dundas.itscurling.com.  Don't worry, all your stats and various accolades have made it over in tact!

Just a reminder that the finals for the Open League are tomorrow!  All games start at 6:30 PM, so slightly earlier than normal in order to accommodate the club end of the year banquet that follows at 8:45 PM.

Hi Everyone!

Hey guys,

Just found out that the club will be closing due to the winter storm, all curling is cancelled tonight. All games originally scheduled for today will be played on March 21st, I'll update the schedule on the website to reflect this chance as soon as possible.

Unfortunately this means we cannot do Hot Shots this year because March 21st was reserved for that but it has to be cancelled.

Congratulations to our Series 3 WInners: Teams M. Blonski, Olson, L. Blonski, Gregory, and Sarvari!  Those two points you all just earned are worth thousands of dollars in Bitcoin.

Just a quick notice that there was a slight error in the earlier schedule and it has since been adjusted.  Some games have been moved so please double check your schedule if you have already passed on information to your team.

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season!

Congratulations to our Flyte Winners this session:  Teams M. Blonski, Henricks, Schellenberg, White, Pickthall, Wardlaw and Martindale.  In what has quickly become the most competitive and tightly contested season in league history, you have risen above the rest!

Welcome to the 2017-18 Open League Season!  I'm happy to say that we have a LOT of new teams this season, and with that comes a lot of tweaks and adjustments to the league.  Read on for all the juicy details.

 

 

MEMORIZE THIS:

 

Convener Contact Information:

Email: krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com

Phone / Text: 905-977-8101

 

Game Result Submissions:

ALL results should be sent electronically, either by email or text message, using the information above.  Please include your team name and final scores.  Results, standings, and statistics (here, here, and here... there's a lot) are updated immediately on the website so the faster you get them in the faster the site gets updated!

 

Team Information:

Please check the team page on the website to ensure that all spelling is correct and that all members of your team are accounted for.  Some of the writing on the signup sheet is very tough to read! 

 

 

READ THIS (IT'S IMPORTANT):

 

Teams / Schedules:

Well, I asked and you delivered:  We are currently sitting at 31 teams this season with a potential of 3 more teams on top of that.  Additionally, we do have a couple of individuals who are looking to play, so if you're in need of an additional player (or maybe a 5^th) let me know and I will send you their contact information.

 

As always, teams will be seeded into the league based roughly on last year regular season and playoff results.  Teams completely new to the league, or returning teams with 2 or fewer returning players from last season (ie. A team that splits into two teams of 2 players are both considered to be "new" teams, regardless of where their new teammates come from) are considered "new" and will be started in C Flyte regardless of skill level.  It's nothing personal, I promise!

 

Open League curling starts October 11th and 12th this year.  Schedules will be posted sometime during the weekend prior to allow for any of the last minute teams to enter.  Once posted please check your schedule often prior to game time in case of any emergency adjustments. 

 

Please note that should we end up with 32 or more teams this season, we will be expanding the league to also include Thursday @ 9:00PM games.

 

Rule Changes / Format Changes:

With 31+ teams comes another slight adjustment to the league to accommodate the influx of teams.  You'll notice in the explanation below that if we have 33 teams, we could technically run both formats.  

 

28 to 33 teams: 

• A Flyte will have a single division.  B and C Flytes will both have two divisions.
• At the end of each Series:

o    Bottom 2 teams from A Flyte will move to B Flyte (2 total)

o    Top 1 team from each B Flyte Division will move to A Flyte (2 total)

o    Bottom 2 teams from each B Flyte Division will move to C Flyte (4 total)

o    Top 2 teams from each C Flyte Division will move to B Flyte (4 total)

 

 

33 to 36 teams: 

• A, B, and C Flytes will all have two divisions
• At the end of each Series:

o    Bottom 2 teams from each A Flyte Division will move to B Flyte (4 total)

o    Top 2 teams from each B Flyte Division will move to A Flyte (4 total)

o    Bottom 2 teams from each B Flyte Division will move to C Flyte (4 total)

o    Top 2 teams from each C Flyte Division will move to B Flyte (4 total)

 

Rules have been updated for clarity as well as to accommodate the increased sized of the league.  As always, new and veteran players alike, I recommend everyone take a quick look at the rules prior to the start of the season!

 

 

THANK THESE PEOPLE:

 

Finally, a big thank you to McNally Construction for being the Title sponsor of the league this season and thank you to Clean Sheet Curling (Norm Gervais and Sheilagh Lamb) for continuing to provide web hosting for the league.  If you're interested in sponsoring to help grow the league and enable us to run more fun events please contact me for more information!

  

That should be everything!  Remember to check the website for all future information.  And, as always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Good curling!

If you are still looking for a team, or for additional players to fill in any gaps you may have please contact me and I will provide their contact information. I still have a number of players looking to play!

Just a quick reminder that the Open House is Friday, September 22nd from 7-9pm. The date has recently been changed, so make sure you update your calendars to reflect the change. The club is also running their Ribfest event from 5:30-8pm, so for $35+tax you can get your fill of ribs prior to the Open House.

This is the best time to sign your team up for the 2017-18 season of the Open League, or to find a new team or new players! If no one from your team is able to make it to the Open House, please send me an email with a complete 4 or 5 man team and I will pre-register for you this season.

Our goal this year is 30 teams (last year we had 27), so if you have friends from other leagues definitely get them to sign up. As we all know, the Open League is a great league for teams/players of all skill levels.

The season is slated to start on October 11th so make sure to start your dry land training today!

What a season!

Before everyone puts away their curling gear I want to quickly re-cap the year! First of all, a big thank you to our sponsor, McNally Construction, for once again supporting our league. Everything that we bring in goes back to the players so the more support the better!

Brier Challenge 2.0
This is our second time running the event and we increased our entries from 56 to 92! Next year we will be running this for the Olympic Trials so make sure to start your research now! So without further ado, your Challenge champions are:

1st Place - Pam Irvine
2nd Place - Dave Dean
3rd Place - Team Laurin

Hot Shots
We ran our annual Team Hot Shots competition again this year and with 25 entries, was the largest event so far. Based on the final overall standings, we award one winner from A and B Flyte, and two winners from C Flyte.

Congratulations to our winning teams:
McMaster University (B Flyte - 39 pts - 6th Overall)
Team Hipple (C Flyte - 43 pts - 5th Overall)
Team Henricks (C Flyte - 47 pts - 3rd Overall)
Team K. Blonski (A Flyte - 51 pts - 1st Overall)

Congratulations to Russ Gray for earning the prize of "Best Curling at Dundas Valley" as he had the highest individual score of all participants with 24 out of 30 points.

Season Accomplishments
Two real dominating teams this regular season: Linda Blonski and Craig Maslin�s teams. Tied for 2nd and 4th most wins in league history with 18 and 17, and tied for 2nd in longest winning streak at 11. The Maslin team was particularly ruthless, setting the league record for highest average points per game at 8.55; almost a full point ahead of the previous leader.

Club Champions and Travelers Club Championship Representatives
Congratulations to our Club Champions this season: Kris Blonski, Russ Gray, Peter Kastrau, and Pete Child. Another congratulations go to our third place team, Team Coe - Candace Coe, Lori Eddy, Kristi Ahokas, and Roxane Dunmore: Both teams will represent our club at the Travelers Club Championship in October this year. Great job everyone!

Playoffs
FINALLY, great job to all the teams that made the finals this year but there can only be one winner in each flyte! So congratulations to the following teams for winning the playoffs:
A Flyte Playoffs: Team Coe
B Flyte Playoffs: Team Schellenberg
C Flyte Playoffs: Team Henricks
D Flyte Playoffs: Team Vollick
D Flyte Playoffs: Team Klein

Final Season Thank Yous!
I want to thank Craig for his fantastic ice throughout the year - without a doubt we have some of the best ice in Southern Ontario and we're all lucky to have someone so dedicated to the club.

As usual I'll be making some tweaks to the league and the website over the summer, and I'll see all of you again at the Open House in September!

Thanks Everyone for another fantastic season here at Dundas Valley!

We are down to one game left this season and it's time to see which teams have what it takes to walk away as playoff champions!

The schedule of events for Wednesday, April 5th is as follows:

Pre-Announcements: 6:40PM
Game Start: 6:45PM
Awards and Closing Ceremony: ~9:00PM

For those who signed up: Appetizers will be available during the game, and a separate serving after the games for those who are playing in the finals.

For those who's quest for the championship ended early than expected, I strongly encourage you to come out to the finals anyway and enjoy the last game of the season! It's a great opportunity to see everyone one last time before the summer break and, most importantly, that everyone shoots 100% from behind the glass. As an added incentive, all prize money from Hotshots, Brier Pool 2.0, Session Wins, Top 5 Finishes, and, of course, the playoffs will be distributed at this time!

Good luck and good curling to all those participating in the finals!

PLAYOFFS

Firstly, congratulations to everyone for completing another regular season of the Open League! It was a battle all year long with many new teams emerging as contenders for the Club Championship.

The schedules for the playoffs have been posted and you can check them out on the website on the schedule page or in the way-harder-than-you'd-think-to-code bracket format! Of course, you can also see your games via your team page as well.

Please remember that there are adjusted rules for the playoffs, so I'd recommend spending a couple minutes brushing up on them!

Game times will be:
Quarter Finals - Wednesday, March 29 @ 645 & 900 PM
Semi Finals - Thursday, March 30 @ 645 & 900 PM
Finals - Wednesday, April 5 @ 645 PM (with awards and prizes to follow)

We are trying something new for the finals night and instead of a post-game banquet, we're going to serve hors d'oeurvres throughout the night. Signups for this should go up very soon in the curling lounge and the pricing should be around $20-25 per person. For those playing in the finals, there will be a separate service just for you (assuming you also sign up). For those who unfortunately don't make it to the finals, I strongly recommend coming out and enjoying the finals anyway and say goodbye to your curling friends before they hibernate for the summer! And don't forget to bring your significant other so that they can experience where you spend 95% of your time in the winter.

HOT SHOTS

The Team Hot Shots will be played next week on March 22nd and 23rd.

Please take note that the games will be played at 645PM and 815PM. Hotshots typically only takes about 1:15 to 1:30 hrs to play, so even if you're on the late draw, you'll be home in bed nice and early!

You can play with 3, 4, or 5 man teams and feel free to use spares if you'd like. I do not need to be notified ahead of time of how many players you will have.

I will be there for all draws to do a quick announcement and run-through of the rules and to answer any questions you may have!

Congratulations to our Series 3 winners: Teams K. Blonski, Hagen, L. Blonski, and Olson. It is about 130 in the morning right now and I cannot think of anything particularly clever, so just give yourselves a pat on the back. Great work!

So, lets talk about the 6-way tie in B Flyte! Since head-to-head results were impossible, as per the rules, I used the overall standings to break the tie. I will spend some time in the off-season to figure out a better, more fair, method of breaking ties that does not punish teams who had a particularly rough time in A flyte.

Barring any winter snowstorms, we will go ahead with our annual Team Hot Shots competition on March 22nd and 23rd. Should your team not wish to participate, please let me know ahead of time for scheduling purposes.

I will be billing your teams the 25 dollar league fee over the next week or two and then locking the rosters. Please make sure your team on the website is correct as that will be your playoff rosters. This year there will be no exceptions of the rules - if you are using an unrostered player they will be considered a spare and will have to follow the playoff spare rules.

Firstly, a hearty Christmas congratulations to our Session winners: Teams K. Blonski, Maslin, Stanyar, and Richards. I have put in a good word with Santa for all of you.

Secondly, after last weeks announcement a few more Provincial Qualifiers have come out of the woodwork! Congratulations to Danielle Hudson and her team for qualifying for the U21 Provincial Championships, and congratulations to Lori Eddy and her womens team for qualifying for the Ontario Scotties Provincial Championships. Good luck to everyone!

The schedules for Series 3 have been posted. All late games for the first week back will be played Thursday at 9pm, and then the following week we are off for the Hamilton Districts and then back to the regular schedule after that. Thank you to Craig for arranging to have the club open a little bit early to accommodate our league!

Have a great holiday season and we'll see you back on the ice in January!

In some exciting news one of our Open League members and longtime DV Junior curler Lindsay Kastrau has qualified for the Under 21 Provincial Championships. Her team is looking to raise some money to help offset the costs and Lindsay will be collecting money (and signing autographs if you ask nicely) for a 50/50 event on Dec 14th and 15th.

I have had a couple questions in regards to the winter schedule. There will be NO curling next week for our league (Dec 21 and 22) and we will reconvene in the first week of January to start the 3rd Series. Craig is checking to see if he will be able to open the club a day early (January 4th) and once we find out I will post the schedules for the new session.

If we are unable to open a day early, we will be playing a two full draws on Thursday, January 5th and six teams will end up playing two games in a week at some point during the series.

I will keep you updated as I find out more information!

Thanks everyone and have a happy holiday season!

A hearty congratulations to our Series 1 winners: Coe, Hagen, L. Blonski, Vollick and Maslin. I think this may be the first time we have had five teams post a perfect 5-0 record, especially when you consider that there are only four flytes!

The flytes have been reshuffled and the schedules for Series 2 are now available. In regards to BYEs, each team will receive a maximum of 2 BYEs throughout the season.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to do a great job texting or emailing your results to me. The sooner I get them the faster the website is updated and faster new schedules can be posted!

There has been a minor change to Week 4 of the schedules. Please adjust your calendars accordingly.

The 2016-17 Schedules have been posted! Go to the Schedule page to see the complete listing or click your team name to see detailed information!

Unfortunately we were unable to get our 28th team this season, so we'll proceed with 27. For our returning players: the format has changed (specifically how teams move up and down between series) so check out the Rules page for more information!

Looking forward to another great season!

Before I get into everything I want to welcome everyone to the 2016-17 Season of the Open League at Dundas Valley! We have a LOT of new teams this season which means a bunch of adjustments to the league. Read on for more information:

BUT FIRST, SOME BORING (but important) ADMIN STUFF:

Convener Contact Information:
Email: krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com
Phone: 905-977-8101

Game Result Submissions:
Unless I have personally collected your game results, ALL results should be sent electronically, either by email or text message, using the information above. Please include your team name and final scores. Results and statistics are updated immediately on the website so the faster you get them in the faster the site gets updated!

Team Information:
Please check the team page on the website to ensure that all spelling is correct and that all members of your team are accounted for. Some of the writing on the signup sheet is very tough to read!

AND NOW, THE EXCITING (to me) LEAGUE STUFF:

Teams / Schedules:
We have 27 teams this year! BUT we also have a yet-to-signup 28th(!) team that is in desperate need of a 4th fulltime player before they can commit to the season. If you know of an individual who is looking to curl this season in the Open League but didn't make it on a team PLEASE let me know so we can get that spot filled. It would be fantastic to have 28 teams!

Open League curling starts October 12th and 13th this year. Schedules will be posted on October 9th or 10th to allow for any last minute teams to signup. Once posted please check your schedule often prior to game time in case of a last minute adjustment.

Also a quick reminder that all non-returning teams are placed in either C Flyte division initially regardless of skill level.

Rule Changes / Format Changes:
With 27+ teams comes some long awaited adjustments to the league format. See the attached files for a visual explanation - otherwise here is my best attempt at a quick and dirty explanation:

26 or 27 teams: B Flyte will increase to 8 teams with the top 2 teams moving to A Flyte and the bottom 4 teams moving to C Flyte after each session. In each C Flyte Division the top 2 teams will move to B Flyte after each session.

28 to 33 teams: B Flyte will split to two divisions (B1 and B2) with the top 1 team moving to A Flyte and the bottom 2 teams moving to C Flyte after each session. In each C Flyte Division the top 2 teams will move to B Flyte after each session.

In regards to rules, they've been slightly updated to reflect the new size of the league as well as to clarify some sparing rules. As always, I recommend everyone take a quick look at the rules prior to the start of the season!

Sponsors:
Finally, a big thank you to McNally Construction for being the Title sponsor of the league this season and thank you to Clean Sheet Curling (Norm Gervais and Sheilagh Lamb) for continuing to provide web hosting for the league. Of course we're always looking for additional sponsors to help grow the league and enable us to run more fun events so if you are interested please contact me for more information.

Just a quick reminder to everyone that the DV Curling Open House will take place on September 28th @ 7-9pm! So start figuring out your teams for this upcoming season now so that you can quickly signup on Open House night!

Our goal this year is 26 teams (up from 24) so if you know of any people who may be interested in playing make sure to send them a message.

If you are looking for additional players, please contact me and I will put you in touch with some members who are interested in playing in the Open League this year.

It's been another great year for the Open League and I wanted to quickly re-cap the events of the season!

50/50 Brier Challenge
This was the first season we ran our Brier Challenge and it was a great success! In about a week we managed to get 59 participants and we were very impressed to see that the curling knowledge at Dundas Valley is very high!

Big congratulations to our winners, Dan Schellenberg and Dave Gaylor, who topped the list with a whopping 53/68 correct answers.

A big thanks to Lori from Team Coe who ran the challenge and make sure to play next year when we make it bigger and better!

Hot Shots
For the second year we ran our popular Team Hot Shots competition to see how you stack up against other teams. Based on the final overall standings we award one winner from A and B Flytes, and two winners from C Flyte.

Congratulations to our 4 Winning teams:
Team Goll (B Flyte - 41 pts - 6th OVerall)
Team WInslow (C Flyte - 46 pts - 4th Overall)
Team Snell (A Flyte - 48 pts - 2nd Overall)
Team L. Blonski (C Flyte - 50 pts - 1st Overall)

And, while there is no official prize except for the title "Best Curler at Dundas Valley", congratulations to Paul Winslow for the highest individual points with 23!

Season Accomplishments
Welcome Peter Kastrau, Brian Olson, and Brian Snell to the 200 Lifetime wins club!

Congratulations to Team K. Blonski for their record breaking season. They officially took possession of three long standing league records: 19 Wins (previously 18), 198 Points (previously 182), and 17 Game Winning Streak (previously 10). Check out how all the teams stacked up this season on our Single Season Team Records page.

Club Champions and Travelers Club Championship Representatives
Congratulations to our Club Champions this season: Kris Blonski, Russ Gray, Peter Kastrau, and Pete Child. Another congratulations go to our second place team, Team Coe - Candace Coe, Lori Eddy, Kristi Ahokas, and Roxane Dunmore: Both teams will represent our club at the Travelers Club Championship in October this year. Great job everyone!

Playoffs
FINALLY, great job to all the teams that made the finals this year but there can only be one winner in each flyte! So congratulations to the following teams for winning the playoffs:
A Flyte Playoffs: Team K. Blonski
B Flyte Playoffs: Team Maslin
C Flyte Playoffs: Team Sedgwick
D Flyte Playoffs: Team L. Blonski

Final 2015-16 Season Thank Yous!
I want to thank Todd for his fantastic ice throughout the year - without a doubt we have some of the best ice in Southern Ontario and we're all lucky to have someone so dedicated to the club.

I also need to thank our sponsor, McNally Construction, without whom we couldn't provide all the fantastic prizes at the end of the year.

As usual I'll be making some tweaks to the league and the website over the summer, and I'll see all of you again on September 28th at the Open House!

Thanks Everyone for another fantastic season here at Dundas Valley!

The end of the season is nearly here with only one game left: The Finals

The schedule of events for the evening will be as follows

Game Start: 6:30PM
Dinner Service: ~8:15-9:00PM (Subject to slight adjustment)
Awards: 9:00PM

As always, I encourage everyone who isn't playing in the finals to come out and enjoy the last game of the season with the rest of your teammates and league-mates. If your team has won a session at any point during the year, it is especially important to come out as any unclaimed prizes go back into the prize pool for the following season!

Congratulations to all the teams who've made it to the finals! Here are the matchups for the finals:

A FLYTE:
(1) K. Blonski vs (3) M. Blonski
2009-2016 Skip Vs Skip record: M. Blonski leads 13W-12L

B FLYTE:
(7) Maslin vs (9) Richards
2009-2016 Skip Vs Skip record: Richards leads 1W-0L

C FLYTE:
(13) Sedgwick vs (17) Mackenzie
2009-2016 Skip Vs Skip record: Sedgwick leads 1W-0L

D FLYTE:
(21) L. Blonski vs (22) Boag
2009-2016 Skip Vs Skip record: Boag leads 1W-0L


Good luck and good curling to everyone!

The Hotshots Schedule has been officially announced and can be seen below. Please note that the second game on March 23rd starts at 8:20PM (We have found that Hotshots only take about 1:15hr to 1:30hr to complete)

I will be there before each draw to do some quick announcements and get everyone started on the right path!

Congratulations to our Brier Challenge Winners: Dan Schellenberg, Dave Gaylor, and John Price! Make sure to attend the end of the year banquet to collect your winnings!

The standings are as follows:

31 Points

• Kris Blonski

30 Points

• Russ Gray
• Josh Erion
• John Price
• Cam Knapp

29 Points

• Dan Schellenberg
• Dave Gaylor
• Paul Winslow
• Cathy Smith

3 more days to go! Lots can change!

This is straight from the official scorekeeper, Lori:

Tied for first with 17/19

• Joyce Neal
• Paul Winslow
• Kris Blonski
• Mark and Candy

One back from the leaders at 16/19

• Brian Snell
• Ron Richards
• Alan Finlayson
• Cam Knapp
• Linda Blonski
• Russ Gray

We will be (finally) billing all players the $25 league fee in the next week or so. Please confirm that your team members on the league website are accurate. These will be the rosters you'll use going into the playoffs, so it is important that they are correct.

Now something a little more fun:

We're going to try our first ever 50/50 Brier Challenge! The challenge is simple:

• $10 per individual entry for those interested in participating
• Pick up a draw sheet at the club
• Choose who you think will be the winner of every game in the round robin by CLEARLY circling the winning team
• Choose you you think will win the Pre-Qualifier Tournament (Between NS, YT, NT, and NU)
• Submit your completed form to Todd or Kris and sign the official entry sheet in the curling lounge by Saturday, March 5th at noon!

The winner of the challenge will be the person who guesses the most games correctly and will receive the 50/50 winnings! In the event of a tie, the winner will be determined by the player who correctly guessed the Pre-Qualifier Tournament winner. If the players are still tied, they will split the prize money! All prizes will be handed out at the End of the Year Banquet on April 6th.

Good luck for those who choose to participate!

Congratulations to all our session 3 winners: Teams K. Blonski, M. Blonski, Maslin, and Schellenberg. It would be best for the morale of the league if you would try to stay indoors this weekend and not lose any fingers to frostbite.

In what is becoming slightly embarrassing for the convener, congratulations to team K. Blonski for becoming the first team to win three sessions in a row with perfect 5-0 records in each.

We will be billing all of our players in the coming week or two the $25 entry fee for the league. Please review your official team list and let me know if there are any changes that need to be made. Remember that these will be your official rosters going into playoffs where the roster rules are a little more strict.

Finally, barring any winter storm closures, we will be running our team hot-shots competition again during the final week on March 23rd/24th. If your team does not wish to participate, please let me know ASAP so I can create some appropriate schedules.

The schedules for Session 4 will be posted by Saturday. Good luck on the final session of the year! And a reminder to all that the playoffs occur on: March 30th (Quarterfinals), March 31st (Semi Finals, and April 6th (Finals).

Congratulations to our Session 2 Winners: K. Blonski, Snell, Stanyar, and Lawler. I'll put in a good word with Santa for all of you!

An extra congratulations for team K. Blonski who officially captured the best 1st-half season record in league history at 10-0. This also ties them with the longest winning streak of all time and makes them only the second team to win back-to-back sessions with 5-0 records. Will this particularly handsome team be stopped in the new year? Probably.

Schedules for session 3 have been posted. Just a reminder that we start back up on January 6th. There is no curling the following week (Jan 13, 14) due to the districts. After that there are no more missing weeks for the rest of the season. Playoffs are scheduled for March 30th, 31st and April 6th with the end of the year banquet immediately afterwards.

Wishing everyone a safe and fun holiday season!

The schedules are complete but unfortunately there is an issue with the server preventing me from uploading them. I will update it when possible but for now, see below for week 1's schedules.

EDIT: Schedules are posted

Congratulations to our Session 1 Winners: K. Blonski, Goll, Coe, and Wardlaw. I will forward any press interview requests that I receive!

A reminder that all tie-breakers at the end of a session are broken by head-to-head results first and then by accumulated league points second. In the case of C2, the winner was determined by head-to-head results: In the group of 4, two teams were 2-1 and two were 1-2. We then look at the two teams at 2-1 and compare their head-to-head results against each other to get the winner.

I should have the schedule for session 2 posted by Saturday evening. Next week we will be doubling up our Wednesday games due to the Mixed Districts taking up our Thursday space. After next week, we shouldn't have any more odd scheduling for the rest of the season (unless we get snowed out one week).

I want to thank everyone for submitting their scores quickly this session! It makes things much easier and gets the site updated much faster!

Quick message: All games that were originally scheduled for November 11th @ 9pm have been moved to Nov 12th @ 645pm. I had mistakenly thought the mixed districts was next week and scheduled around them.

The following week will have the schedule doubled up in order to accommodate the districts.

Just a notice that the schedules for session 1 are up! Take a look at the Schedule/Results page to view them. For our new teams: You can click your team name (pretty much anywhere it is listed) to be taken to your individual team page which has in-depth stats and a personalized schedule.

Some clarification for November 10th and 11th: Because of the Mixed Districts, we only have ice available on Wednesday. Rather than cancel the week, we have opted to move most Thursday games to either Wednesday @ 9pm or Tuesday @ 7pm.

Please click here to read the kickoff announcement for the Open League!

Good luck to all teams this season!

Couple brief announcements:

OPEN HOUSE:
The annual Open House is being held on September 30th from 7pm-9pm. Be there and sign up your team!

NEW WEBSITE:
Gone is the longtime green colour scheme! The new site is functionally identical, however it is now mobile-friendly which means no more squinting and zooming on your phone or tablet. For those iPhone or iPad users out there, click the "Send To" icon (The box with the arrow point out the top), and then click "Add to Home Screen" and the website will then function as an independent app. Neat!

SERVER SPEED ISSUES:
The server that this website is being hosted on has been having issues over the last couple weeks and, as a result, you'll notice that the website speed is up and down. It is something that they are working on but unfortunately do not have an ETA for a fix yet. Sorry for the inconvience!

Don't forget to Follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, and Bookmark DV Curling's website!

twitter.com/dvcurling
facebook.com/dvcurling
www.dundasvalleycurling.com

First of all a big thank you to our Sponsors Home Renovations by Barbara (Barb Boag) and Clean Sheet Curling (Sheilah and Norm Gervais). We have, without a doubt, one of the best leagues in the district and sponsors like them enable us to continue to provide a top quality experience!

A big congratulations to all of our champions this season:

Club Champions: K. Blonski
A Flyte Champions: M. Blonski
B Flyte Champions: Snell
C Flyte Champions: Styles
D Flyte Champions: Tkachuck

I will post the pictures of all our champions as soon as I get them!

Accomplishments:

We had a lot of teams break into the Top 10 Team Records list this season! Particular congratulations go to Team K. Blonski with 17 wins, tying them with the second most wins of all time, Team Sedgwick for their 9 game winning streak, again tying them for second all time, and lastly team Shiraishi for the 2.03 PF vs PA record, which is the best ever!

Hot Shots:

This year was the first year that we ran the Team Hot Shots competition - 20 of our 23 teams participated in what turned out to be a very entertaining event. I was originally concerned that the A Flyte teams would run away with the top prizes, but turns out that most of them are overrated; 4 of the 6 A Flyte teams finished in the bottom half of the overall standings. Congratulations to our winners: Teams Styles, Boag, B. Knapp, Goll and Vollick! We will certainly be running another Hot Shots Event next year, so make sure to practice up!

Next Year:

While this may only be exciting to me, we will have a new website for the upcoming season! It's been completely rebuilt with mobile viewing in mind, so that means it will be fully responsive on your phones and tablets - no more zooming required! I'm also strongly considering running a Calcutta for the playoffs next year as an added ripple to change things up - expect an email about that next season to gauge interest!

In club news, we'll have two new bonspiels next season: The Hunger Games Spiel (Open Event) and the Men's Beer Spiel (Mens - shockingly). I'm particularly excited to announce that we'll also be running a 5-week trial Doubles League (Open) that uses a format that I believe is unique to curling. Look for signups and more information at the Open House in September!

Finally, I want to thank everyone who participated in the league this season and I want to encourage everyone to to tell their friends and get them playing in the league. While it is a little competitive, it's primarily about playing with good friends and having a good time!

Thanks again to everyone and we'll see you at the Open House on September 30th.

YOUR BACK-TO-BACK OPEN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS ARE:
Skip - Kris Blonski
Vice - Russ Gray
Second - Peter Kastrau
Lead - Peter Child
Spare - Steve Dawe

Overall they finished with an impressive 17-3 record collecting three session wins along the way, totalling 178 points for the season. This ties them with the 3rd highest points total and 2nd highest amount of wins since 2003. Click here to see where other teams ranked this season in comparison to the top finishes of all time.

SESSION 4 WINNERS:

Hidden amongst all the celebration are our flyte winners for this session: M. Blonski, B. Knapp, White, and Sedgwick. You're all really swell people.

PLAYOFFS:

The playoff schedules have officially been posted. Due to the nature of the playoffs, rescheduling games is not permitted unless approved by the convener. Please note that the start time for the finals on April 8th is 6:30pm, not the typical 6:45pm.

Check out the playoff schedule and brackets here

Remember that there are a couple modified rules for playoffs as outlined below:

- The timeclock will NOT be used during the playoffs
- All games that are tied after regular play will be determined by a FULL extra end played towards the glass. Should that end not decide the winner, then skips rocks will be used to break the tie
- Teams may play with 2 registered members (posted rule requires 3 registered members) and a maximum of 1 spare who must play front end on a 4-man team and must play lead on a 3-man team.

While I encourage all teams to play quickly without the timeclock, please be aware that this will likely cause some delayed start times for 9pm games. In the spirit of sportsmanship I ask for your patience and understanding in the matter as we would all hate to a lose a playoff game due to a time infraction that may be out of our control.

Good luck and good curling to all teams in the playoffs!

Hello Everyone!

The schedule is officially set for the Team Hot Shots event taking place next week. Please see below:



I will be there both nights to kick off the event and to answer any questions that may arise throughout.

PS. The Playoff Schedule is officially posted. Stay tuned for the official playoff kickoff.

I just want to give everyone a heads up as to what the final few weeks of the season are going to look like:

March 18-19 - Week 20 - Final Week of Session 4
March 25-26 - Open League Hotshots (information to come soon)
April 1 - Playoff Quarter Finals
April 2 - Playoff Semi Finals
April 8 - Playoff Finals and End of the Year Banquet

Remember to sign up for the end of the year banquet in the curling lounge! I would recommend that all Open League participants choose the 8pm dinner serving so that it doesn't interfere with any potential games you might have to play!

Please be aware that there has been a minor scheduling change for the last week of this session.

Congratulations to our Session 3 winners: Teams K. Blonski, Maslin, Shiraishi and Vollick!

The schedule for Session 4 is officially posted. Due to the large volume of rescheduling requests, I wasn't able to accomodate every single one but still managed to fit in most!

We are actually running ahead of schedule this year, so I will be in touch with each team to figure out the general consensus in regards to what to do on that day. Perhaps a Hot Shot's competition is in order!

Just a reminder that the $25 league fee will be billed to your accounts in the next month. This fee is used to supply all the fabulous prizes at the end of the year!

Congratulations to this sessions winners: Team K. Blonski, Goll, Maslin, and our three-way tie, Richards, Styles, and Vollick. Your success has brought hope to the rest of us that one day we will be as awesome as you!

Schedules for Session 3 will be posted sometime over the break (even the convener needs a rest occasionally). We will be returning on January 7th and 8th, skipping the following week due to the districts and then running straight through to the end of the season. Don't forget, the end of the year banquet and finals take place on April 8th!

Due to the volume of ties this session, I wanted to include a brief explanation as to how the ties were broken. As a reminder, the rules state that ties are broken by head-to-head results first, and then by accumulated league points and then, if no other option is available, they are broken by convener discretion.

The C Flyte 3-way-tie could not be broken by head to head results since each team had a 1-1 record against the other two (Richards beat Styles, Styles beat Vollick, Vollick beat Richards). So, the tie was officially broken by accumulated league points, meaning that Team Styles will be moving up to B Flyte in Session 3.

The B Flyte 4-way-tie was broken by head-to-head results. Of the 4 teams tied, two of them had 2-1 records against the others in the tied sub-group, and two had 1-2 records against the others in the sub-group. This means that Teams C. Knapp and Gomes will be staying in B Flyte, and Teams Reimer and Shiraishi will drop to C Flyte.

Hopefully this helps clarify the logic behind the decisions!

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

The schedule for the second session is officially posted.

Just a note in regards to November 26th and 27th. The Mixed districts are being played at the same time, so you will not be able to reschedule games for November 27th at 6:45pm as that ice is already spoken for.

Congratulations to our Session 1 winners: K. Blonski, M. Blonski, Olson B. Knapp, Shiraishi, and Gomes. For the first time since 2008, we had a session tie in the A Flyte, so congratulations to those teams for making my convener life just a little more difficult!

I just want to remind everyone about some of the upcoming events at the club:

Friday Night Entertainment:

Nov 14 - Loralee McGuirl and Bruce Tournay
Nov 28 - DV Curling's Own: A Flyte Band (Pete Child, Steve Dawe, Kris Blonski)
Dec 12 - Doug Feaver


Club Functions:

Nov 14 - Pasta Night
Nov 21 - Gourmet Wine Night
Nov 28 - Steakhouse Night
Dec 6 - Breakfast with Santa
Dec 13 - Dinner Dance
Dec 16-19 - Lunch Buffet
Dec 31 - New Years

The schedules for session 2 will be posted this weekend. We will be cramming all 5 weeks in before the Christmas, so I hope you're ready to curl!

The schedules are officially posted!

Just a quick note on scheduling this season: I've been asked by the ice maker to only schedule a single game for Wednesday Nights at 9pm. I HIGHLY encourage this team to try and reschedule their game for Tuesday Night at 6:45pm so that you're not stuck out there all alone!

We we see how this system works for this session and then re-evaluate for the second session.

Welcome everyone to the 2014-15 Season of the Open League! We're nearly ready to kick off the games but, before we do, there are a number of things that you should know!

Game Result Submissions:
Using the above information, I ask that everyone to please submit their scores to me after each game via email or text message. When submitting, please include your score, the opponents score and if the game was completed on time.


Teams / Schedules:
We are currently sitting at 23 teams this year which means there will be a placeholder BYE team added to the league. Should you be scheduled against this team, you will not have a game that week. No team will be given more than two BYE�s the entire season.

I absolutely hate BYE�s, so if you know of any players or teams who are interested in playing who may have not found a team this season, please have them contact me and I�ll be happy to create a spot for them.

Please make sure to check the schedule prior to your gametime and they will have a potential to change up until October 14th in the evening.


Rule Changes:
After successful test runs during the previous season, we will permanently sticking with the following rules

Time Clocks � The rule states that if the final skip rock of the 7th end is in motion (the skip leaving the hack) before the time runs out, you will be able to start and play the 8th end.

Playoffs � TWO registered team members (reduced from three) must be present for playoff games. However, only ONE spare may play in a playoff game and must play front end (if three registered team members are present) or lead (if two registered team members are present).


New Sponsor:
A big thank you to Home Renovations by Barbara (Barb Boag) for becoming the title sponsor of the league! I would also like to thank Clean Sheet Curling (Norm Gervais and Sheilagh Lamb) for continuing to provide web hosting for our league.

We are always looking for additional sponsors to help support and grow the league. If you or your company would like to become a sponsor, please contact me at krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com for more information.

It's almost that time again! Some important dates for you to know:

Open House - September 24th @ 7pm
Open Ice - October 6-10
First Game of the Season - October 15

We have a new sponsor this season! Thanks to Home Renovations by Barbara!

Make sure to check the sidebar for other events that are happening around Dundas Valley Curling!

Congratulations to all of our playoff champions:

Club Champions: K. Blonski
A Flyte Champions: M. Blonski
B Flyte Champions: Vollick
C Flyte Champions: Simonits
D Flyte Champions: Stanyar

See the bottom of this post for pictures of our really ridiculously good looking winners!

I'll try to keep the rest of this short, but I really want to thank Ernst & Young (Bob Neale) for their continued sponsorship of the league. We have without a doubt one of the best leagues in the district in terms of available prize money and sponsors like Bob enable us to do that.

Finally, a big thank you to all of you who participated in the league. You really make it easy and fun to run the league.

Make sure you encourage everyone who doesn't already participate in this league to consider signing up as a team or as an individual. This really is the premiere league at Dundas Valley and everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy it!

Thanks again to everyone! Have a great summer and we'll see you back here in October!

Click each picture to see a larger version:

The finals have arrived. The evening schedule of events will be roughly as follows:

Game Start: 6:30pm
Dinner Served: 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Awards: 9:00pm


I encourage everyone who isn't playing to come out and have some drinks while enjoying some good curling! This is especially important if your team has won a flyte throughout the year so that you can pick up your prize - otherwise it goes back into the pot for next year!

The teams playing in the finals are:

A FLYTE:
(1) K. Blonski vs (3) M. Blonski
2009-2014 Head-to-head record: M. Blonski leads 10W-8L

B FLYTE:
(8) McCall vs (10) Vollick
2009-2014 Head-to-head record: McCall leads 4W-1L

C FLYTE:
(14) Simonits vs (16) Shiraishi
2009-2014 Head-to-head record: No Previous Games

D FLYTE:
(19) Winslow vs (24) Stanyar
2009-2014 Head-to-head record: No Previous Games


Good luck and good curling to everyone!

YOUR INCREDIBLY HANDSOME 2014 OPEN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS ARE:
Skip - Kris Blonski
Vice - Russ Gray
Second - Peter Kastrau
Lead - Peter Child

With a strong start they were able to hold onto the top spot and never let go for the remainder of the season. Overall they finished with an impressive 16-4 record winning two session wins along the way, totalling 168 points for the season. This gives them the 6th highest points total since 2003. Click here to see where other teams ranked this season in comparison to the top finishes of all time.

SESSION 4 WINNERS:

Hidden amongst all the celebration are our flyte winners for this session: K. Blonski, M. Blonski, Reimer, and Richards. You're all really swell people.

PLAYOFFS:

The playoff schedules have officially been posted. Due to the nature of the playoffs, rescheduling games is not permitted unless approved by the convener. Please note that the start time for the finals on April 9th is 6:30pm, not the typical 6:45pm.

Check out the playoff schedule and brackets here

Remember that there are a couple modified rules for playoffs as outlined below:

- The timeclock will NOT be used during the playoffs
- All games that are tied after regular play will be determined by a FULL extra end played towards the glass. Should that end not decide the winner, then skips rocks will be used to break the tie
- NEW FOR 2013-14: Teams may play with 2 registered members (posted rule requires 3 registered members) and a maximum of 1 spare who must play front end on a 4-man team and must play lead on a 3-man team.

While I encourage all teams to play quickly without the timeclock, please be aware that this will likely cause some delayed start times for 9pm games. In the spirit of sportsmanship I ask for your patience and understanding in the matter as we would all hate to a lose a playoff game due to a time infraction that may be out of our control.

Good luck and good curling to all teams in the playoffs!

It is nearing playoff time, so I encourage everyone to head over to the rules section and refresh their memories on the slight differences between Regular Season and Playoff play!

THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT!!!

However, since apparently half the league has forgotten that the playoffs are always held during the first two weeks of April, I will be making a slight modification to the playoff eligibility requirements. Instead of three original members, each team will be allowed to play with only two original members. The spare rule will remain in effect, so should you only have two eligible players, you may only get one spare who must play lead, effectively limiting you to a 3-person team.

As a reminder the dates for the Playoffs are as follows (please note the start time adjustment for the finals:
Quarter Finals - April 2nd @ 6:45pm and 9pm
Semi Finals - April 3rd @ 6:45pm and 9pm
Finals and Banquet - April 9th @ 6:30pm

With the blizzard that we're currently going through, the club will be closing and all games are cancelled for today.

All games that were to be played at 6:45pm will be moved to tomorrow, March 13th @ 9pm.

All Games that were to be played at 9:00pm will be moved to next week, March 20th @ 9pm.

My apologies for the immediacy of some of the rescheduled games but we're simply running out of time to play. Please try your best to accommodate the new schedule or alternative scheduling requests by your opposition. All games for this session MUST be completed by March 27th.

Thanks for your understanding,

Read about our very own Team Simonits (the team with the pants) and their trip to the Ontario winter games on the main curling members website here:

Day 1 Recap
Day 2 Recap

Congratulations to teams Olson, Vollick, C. Knapp and Gardiner-Dean for successfully making it through all the winter storms and coming out on top.

The schedules for the final session should be up on the weekend. The Quarter Finals and Semi Finals will take place on April 2nd and 3rd. The finals and the end-of-the-year banquet will be on April 9th.

The schedule for games missed on January 5th are below. Due to the tight schedule please try to avoid rescheduling unless a significant number of your teammates are unable to make the new date. All other previously scheduled games will continued as planned.

Should you need to move your game please keep in mind that all games MUST be completed by the evening of February 20th.

I'm sure you've all received the notice from the club but if not, all the games schedule for February 5th have been CANCELLED. Please alert your teams!

I will be preparing a separate schedule just to make up the games that were originally scheduled today and should have it out by the weekend. All the other previously scheduled games for the remainder of the session will remain the same.

With upcoming blizzard that is being forecasted we are at risk of a possible club closure for tomorrow, February 5th. If this is the case, we will be rescheduling the evening games to be played sometime over the next two weeks either on Wednesday's @ 9pm or Thursday's @ 9pm. If things get really crazy we may also have to play games Tuesday @ 7pm.

Todd will be keeping me up to date and the final decision will likely be made early to mid-afternoon tomorrow.

Please do your best to keep an eye on your email as well as our league website as I will contact you through both sources as soon as I find out.

A message from Linda Spratt:

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness that I inform you that my darling husband, dearest friend and life soul mate has passed away. Noel ended his battle with cancer on Thursday, January 30, 2014. He was in his 68th year of life, born December 21, 1946. He was so brave and always positive until the end. We celebrated 40 years of marriage last August 4th and he battled cancer for 20 of those years. The last two years were difficult ones for him. When diagnosed with metastasis to his bones in December, 2011, we decided that we would live each day to the fullest and be positive about our time together. We did just that. We traveled to Arizona, The Dominican, England, Ireland and France to visit friends, family and just to holiday. Noel got to spend the whole summer at the cottage which was his favourite place to be. Noel never complained. He told me every day how lucky he was to have this time with me and his family. He passed peacefully at home with our sons, Michael and Jonathan, and me by his side.

Noel and I had time to talk about what he wanted after his death. He wanted a party where people drank a toast to him and told �lies� about him. And so that is what he will have. You are all invited to come to a celebration of Noel�s Life at 2pm on Saturday, February 15, 2014 at Dundas Valley Golf and Country Club. I have no way of contacting everyone, so please extend this invitation to people who knew Noel. He touched many people over his 40 years in Canada through family, friends, colleagues of Hillfield, The Jewish Academy and Lee Academy, the curling club and at our cottage. An obituary will be in The Hamilton Spectator on Saturday, February 8th. You can also sign an online book of condolences at Marlatt Funeral Home in Dundas, Ontario. If you have any special memories of Noel that you would like to share, please email me. It gives me great pleasure to hear people�s stories about Noel.

Linda Spratt

Read all about it on the main curling website at curling.dundasvalleygolf.com or by clicking this link:

CLICK ME!!!

Congratulations to our Session 2 Champions: Teams M. Blonski, Olson, Shiraishi, and Thachuk. You came, you saw, you didn't get nearly as rusty over the winter break as the rest of those teams out there.

I have FINALLY posted the session 3 schedules, so take a look when you feel like it. At this point we will play ten straight weeks in a row with no breaks so make sure that fitness regime is in place!

Good luck to everyone in the third session!

Just wishing everyone a Happy Holiday Season full of family, friends and good food!

Session 2 will finish up on January 8th and 9th, and Session 3 will begin after the districts, on January 22nd!

Another Session 1 is in the books and with it comes another group of new celebrities! Congrats to our session winners: K. Blonski, Goll, McCall, C. Knapp, and Winslow. Autographs are available on request - signed 8x10 headshots will be expensive.

The schedules are now posted for the next session with a record setting 12 schedule requests. Please check to make sure that your schedule makes sense!

A reminder that the rosters will be locked upon the conclusion of next week's games. Please check the website via the link below to ensure that the roster posted for your team is indeed accurate:

Team List

I will be asking the club to bill everyone on the final roster the $25 league fee at the same time - you should see this apply to your monthly bill. To our Junior teams (Reimer, Simonits, and the youthful half of Team Hagen), since you do not have member numbers, can you please coordinate with Todd Maslin (curling@dundasvalleygolf.com) for payment.

Now, on a bit of a lighter note...

For those who are interested, I have added the ability to look back in time and view overall standings and team pages from seasons past. You can find it via the "Statistics" section of the website or through the link below.

Past Season Standings

Just a reminder that all games require you to run the clock for your games. Any team that is playing on Ice 4 is responsible for starting the clock at 6:45 or 9pm. Please and thanks!

Hey Gang,

While this post isn't about this league, I'm sure you've all seen the little (ok, giant) side banner advertising the Friday Entertainment Series.

The first night is this Friday, October 25th and I'd like to encourage all Open League participants to go out and have a good time listening to some awesome Celtic Music and having a couple drinks with friends. There is no signup required, no entry fee and is open to all members of Dundas Valley as well as any outside guests you'd like to bring!

Hope to see you out there!

The official schedule for the first session has been posted. Please check it out and make sure you have the most up to date schedule of your games!

Just a quick note: We have added a 25th team to the league. This means that B-Flyte will be increasing to 7 teams. I will update the schedules on this website as soon as my hosting company fixes a technical glitch. Each B-Flyte skip has been informed of the change via email.

Welcome everyone to the Open League sponsored by Ernst and Young. We're nearly ready to start the season, but before we do, there are a number of things that you should know!

Time Clock Rule Change:
After seeing teams and players nearly kill themselves to start the 8th end on time I have altered the Time Clock rules slightly. Previously, teams were not allowed to start the 8th end if the time ran out prior to the first rock of the 8th end being released. The new rule states that if the final skip rock of the 7th end is in motion (the skip leaving the hack) before the time runs out, you will be able to start and play the 8th end.

You can read the rules here: The Rules

Game Result Submissions:
I ask that everyone to please submit their scores to me after each game via email or text message. I will also be tracking if the game was completed on time or if you had to cease play due to the time clock.

When submitting, please include your score, the opponents score and if the game was completed on time.

Teams / Schedules:
We are currently 24 teams this year which means no BYE's for anyone! The schedule is currently posted and can be found at: The Schedule

Please check the schedules often as they have a tendency to change prior to the start of the season.

Sponsors:
A big thanks to Ernst and Young (Bob Neale) for their continued sponsorship of the league. Without their help our league would not be nearly as fantastic as it is today. Additionally, having excellent sponsors has enable the Open League to help with various curling initiatives over the years like the on-ice cameras. I would also like to thank Clean Sheet Curling (Norm Gervais and Sheilagh Lamb) for continuing to provide web hosting for this site.

We are always looking for additional sponsors to help support and grow the league. If you or your company would like to become a sponsor, please contact me for more information.

Welcome Back (Almost)!

Some important dates first:
Open House / Signups - Sept 27 @ 7pm
First Games of the Season - October 16/17

The league has been renamed! It is now known simply as The Open League and you'll see that reflected throughout the club this season.

The website is largely the same! In a shocking turn of events I left the website generally as-is (save for a few visual changes). I do however need your help! You'll notice that the Past Champions page has been re-done to include pictures of all our winners. If anyone has pictures that I am missing please send them to me to be included!

I have players for you! With the influx of new members, I have a handful of singles and pairs who are looking for teams. If you're in need, send me a message and I'll see what I can do for you.

Send me messages! For those looking, my phone number is 905-977-8101 and email is krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com . It's also at the top of this page!

That's all for now. Keep your eyes open for the big official league announcement!

Congratulations to all of our playoff champions:

Club Champions: M. Blonski
A Flyte Champions: K. Blonski
B Flyte Champions: Simonits
C Flyte Champions: Goll
D Flyte Champions: Macintosh

See the bottom of this post for pictures of our really ridiculously good looking winners!

Also a BIG congratulations for the Macintosh team for scoring an incredibly rare 8-ender during their finals game last night! Click the picture to see the 8 Ender in all it's glory!

I'll try to keep the rest of this short, but I really want to thank Ernst & Young (Bob Neale) for their continued sponsorship of the league. We have without a doubt one of the best leagues in the district in terms of available prize money and sponsors like Bob enable us to do that.

Finally, a big thank you to all of you who participated in the league. You really make it easy and fun to run the league.

Make sure you encourage everyone who doesn't already participate in this league to consider signing up as a team or as an individual. This really is the premiere league at Dundas Valley and everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy it!

Thanks again to everyone! Have a great summer and we'll see you back here in October!

Click each picture to see a larger version:

The finals have arrived. The evening schedule of events will be roughly as follows:

Game Start: 6:30pm
Dinner: 8:30pm
Awards: 9:00pm


I encourage everyone who isn't playing to come out and have some drinks while enjoying some good curling! This is especially important if your team has won a flyte throughout the year so that you can pick up your prize - otherwise it goes back into the pot for next year!

The teams playing in the finals are:

A FLYTE:
(1) M. Blonski vs (2) K. Blonski
2009-2013 Head-to-head record: M. Blonski 8W-6L

B FLYTE:
(8) Boag (10) Simonits
2009-2013 Head-to-head record: No Games

C FLYTE:
(14) Winslow vs (15) Goll
2009-2013 Head-to-head record: Winslow 2W-1L

D FLYTE:
(19) Macintosh vs (21) Tkachuk
2009-2013 Head-to-head record: Tkachuk 1W-0L


Good luck and good curling to everyone!

With an eerie sense of deja vu...

YOUR (BACK TO BACK) 2013 OPEN COMPETITIVE CHAMPIONS ARE:
Skip - Mike Blonski
Vice - Chris Dion
Second - Derek Blonski
Lead - Alan Finlayson

After bouncing back from a tough 5-5 start, they went a perfect 10-0 in the second half of the season, outscoring their opponents 72-32 (2.25 PF vs PA). Not only is a 10 game winning streak a league record, but it is also the first time in league history a team has posted back-to-back session wins with 5-0 records. Overall they finished with an impressive 15-5 record, totalling 159 points for the season. This gives them the 6th highest points total since 2003 (when A-Flyte wins switched to 10 points).

SESSION 4 WINNERS:

Not to be forgotten, congratulations to our flyte winners for this session: M. Blonski, McCall, Hagen and Simonits. You came. You conquered. You escaped C Flyte.

HOLY CRAP IT IS PLAYOFF TIME:

Playoff schedules have officially been posted. If you viewed the schedules before this was posted, please double check to ensure you are playing at the right time on the right ice as there were changes made. A reminder that you CANNOT reschedule your playoff games.

There will also be a couple regular season rules altered for the playoffs are as follows:
- The timeclock WILL NOT BE USED during the playoffs.
- All games that are tied after regular play will be determined by a FULL extra end played towards the glass. Should that end not decide the winner, then skips rocks will be used to break the tie.

Be aware that this may cause some delayed start times for the 9pm games, however I would prefer a team not lose due to a time situation that is potentially out of their control. In the spirit of sportsmanship, I ask for your patience and understanding in the matter.

Good luck and good curling to all teams in the playoffs!

It's been mentioned before in these updates, but to clarify, the playoffs will run on the following dates:

Quarter Finals - April 10 @ 6:45 and 9:00
Semi Finals - April 11 @ 6:45 and 9:00
Finals - April 17th @ 6:30

The playoff schedules should be posted on Friday after the completion of the games tonight.

For those of you who are looking for a good night out, Friday night curling is hosting some musical entertainment!

April 5th @ 8:30pm - Steve Sinnicks (Folk Music)
April 12th @ 8:30pm - Joe Callura (Las Vegas Style Hits)

Thanks to John Price for organizing these performances and all the musical acts throughout the year. Friday night has always been a great social league and I encourage everyone looking for a fun night of curling to take a look for next year!

Last weekend the OCA Bantam Mixed Zones competitions were held at Glendale. Two Dundas Valley teams, Simonits and Macintosh, both participated and both qualified for the regional competition held in beautiful sunny Vanastra on March 9th and 10th. This ranks them amongst the top 32 Bantam Mixed teams in the province and we're happy to have them playing amongst us!

Congratulations and good luck next weekend!

People often comment at the collection of records and statistics that this league has to offer. There are actually a lot more that aren't published that you might find interesting. So, that being said, with the crowning of the overall champions just around the corner, lets take a look at the biggest blowouts and closest finishes in The Open League's history:

Largest Margin
Year	Pts (1st / 2nd)
2005	53 (182 / 129)
2011	48 (177 / 129)
2006	41 (180 / 139)
2002	37 (191 / 154)

Closest Margin
Year	Pts (1st / 2nd)
2007	1 (135 / 134)
2010	4 (143 / 139)
2003	6 (146 / 140)
2001	16 (170 / 154)

One additional note: The 2006-07 season is actually the tightest race in the history of the league with the top 4 results being: 135 (13-7), 134 (14-6), 133 (13-7), 128 (12-8)

First things first: Congratulations to team K. Blonski, Richards, Shiraishi, and Webber for winning each of their respective flytes. You'll notice on the standings page that a star is beside every team who has won a session this season. Unfortunately, we simply don't have the budget to provide gold stars to all members of the team, so you'll have to share the digital version instead.

Cross your fingers, but we shouldn't need to double up weeks for the remainder of the season unless we're faced with a unscheduled club closure. This means that the 4th session will end on April 4th, and the playoffs will take place on April 10th, 11th and the finals on the 17th.

Todd has asked that we do not play any games on sheet 1 if at all possible. This means that if you do need to reschedule games, the only available time is Wednesdays at 9pm on Sheet 5.

Finally, please post your scores on the board after each game so that they can be collected and posted to the website. Not doing so causes unnecessary delays in scheduling and countless emails from me harassing you throughout the week.

Just a reminder to everyone that the curling season fires back up again this week. We, of course, will follow this with another week off for the Districts. After that we should hopefully not miss another week for the rest of the season.

Just a quick reminder that if I am not there to gather the scores, PLEASE either post them on the board at the end of the game, or email them to me.

Congratulations to Teams Olson, Knapp, Sedgwick and Lawler for winning each of their respective flytes. Usually I promise bronze busts for each of the winners, but due to construction, we just don't have the budget. Fortunately, the plan is to sneak into the construction zone and write all your names onto one of the wall studs instead. That way you'll always be a part of the Dundas Valley legacy.

Schedules have been posted for the upcoming session, so go check them out now. For those not in the know, if you click your team name, you'll be presented with a quick summary of all your upcoming games, as well as standings and results focused on your team.

For those wondering about the long gaps in the schedule, the club is closed for two weeks over the holidays, and then the Districts are the second full week of January.

The schedule has been updated to reflect a few rescheduled games. Please double-check the schedule before coming out to practice to ensure that there still is free ice available!

I've had this question a few times, so I figured I would address it on the website: The schedules for Session 2 will be posted likely on the weekend following our last scheduled games next week.

What I can tell you is that we will be playing all weeks until April with the exception of the following three:

December 24th, December 31st, January 14th (Districts)

Of course this is subject to change based on the weather and construction conditions.

I've been asked a few times about scheduling conflicts with the Mixed Districts being held next week (Nov 14 and 15). Our ice is not being utilized those days by the Mixed Districts so we will proceed as normal with our regularly scheduled games.

In years past we've taken the week off, however due to the construction delays, we cannot afford to cancel any games. For those affected, I encourage you to either find spares or to reschedule your games for a later date. We have plenty of free ice-time available, just make sure you inform me so that I can make sure Todd prepares your ice. Thanks for your cooperation!

Welcome everyone to the Open League sponsored by Ernst and Young. We're nearly ready to start the season, but before we do, there are a number of things that you should know!

Contact Information:
Email: krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com
Phone: 905-977-8101

I try to avoid mass emailing, so the vast majority of future updates will be posted only on the website. I encourage everyone to check it at least weekly!

BYEs and Teams:
We have settled at 23 teams this season, which means that one C Flyte team will have a BYE each week. I have inserted TeamBYE as an actual team so if you are scheduled against them you can use the ice for practice, the bar for some 9th end training, or just have the day off.

That being said, if ANYONE knows people who would be willing to put in a team, or individuals who still want to play, please let me know so that we can replace TeamBYE with an actual team! See below for a list of leads and seconds who would love to team up with a vice and skip.

Spares:
For those teams who are still looking for 4th players or potential 5th players, I have a handful of potential players still looking for teams.

They are: Annette Bailey, Jim Craig, and Judy McNaughton.

If you are interested, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with them!

Scheduling:
Due to the unfortunate construction issues, the schedules have tentatively been posted based on an October 31st starting date. Should the season need to be pushed back further, I will inform all the skips via email as well as the league website.

The late start also adds some complications with regular season scheduling. In order to make up for some lost time, we will likely have one or two weeks after Christmas where you will play a game on both Wednesday and Thursday. I'll communicate more about this issue closer to the actual dates.

Rules:
I have completely revamped and fleshed out the rules from previous years, as well as added a few addendum and adjustments. I strongly recommend that everyone, including seasoned veterans, give the rules a quick read.

I want to re-emphasize to everyone that Reciprocal Drinks (buying a drink for the opposing team) are not enforced, required, or encouraged in the Open League. I realize this rule may ruffle some feathers of some of our loveable grumpy old men traditional players. Regardless, it is important to remember that we are an economically diverse, all-ages league that needs to be accessible to any player who would like to play and, as such, we should be willing to embrace the removal of any potential barriers to play. I would greatly appreciate your support in this matter.

Sponsors:
A big thanks to Ernst and Young (Bob Neale) for their continued sponsorship of the league. Without their help our league would not be nearly as fantastic as it is today. Additionally, having excellent sponsors has enable the Open League to help with various curling initiatives over the years like the on-ice cameras.

We are always looking for additional sponsors to help support and grow the league. If you or your company would be willing to become a sponsor, please contact me at krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com for more information.



I'll end this essay-like update here. As always, if you have questions feel free to contact me!

Good luck to everyone in the upcoming season and good curling!

Hello everyone! I hope you have all been mentally and physically preparing yourself for the grueling 20 week season that lies ahead!

As you can see I've been making some changes to the website over the summer, with all the official changes to be revealed once the season starts. Browse around in the meantime and see if you can discover what has changed.

I have re-written a large portion of the rules, so I suggest that everyone (including you 15+ year veterans) go to the rules page and refresh your memories!

For those looking for it, my phone number is 905-977-8101 and email is krisblonski+dundas@gmail.com . It's also at the top of this page!

I'll post a far more in depth welcome in a few weeks time! Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Here are all the photos from the finals! If you weren't there, look at how much fun you missed! For future reference, you can access these at any time from the "League Information" tab at the top.

Take me to the pictures!

If you would like a copy of the stunning full high resolution picture and not just the small website version, email me at krisblonski [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll gladly send they your way. Just remember to let me know which one you'd like!

A big congratulations to all of our champions this season. Our big winners this year are as follows:

Club Champions: Team M. Blonski
A Flyte Winners: Team Olson
B Flyte Winners: Team McCall
C Flyte Winners: Team Lloyd
D Flyte Winners: Team Lawler

Click below to see all of our fabulously good looking winners. If you'd like a fully high resolution picture, just email me at krisblonski[at]gmail[dot].com and I will send it to you. We've been assured by Larry that the picture quality is so high that you can print, frame and mount it above your fireplace. I should have the on-ice action photos up sometime this weekend. All photos from the finals are available here: GO NOW!


So to close out the year, I need to thank all the people who helped make the league possible:

• Ernst & Young (Bob Neale) for their continued sponsorship of the league. We have without a doubt one of the best leagues in the district in terms of available prize money and sponsors like Bob enable us to do that.
• All the people who helped pick up the scores for me throughout the season.
• And finally, a big thank you to all of you who participated in the league. You really make it easy and fun to run the league.

Make sure you encourage everyone who doesn't already participate in this league to consider signing up as a team or as an individual. This really is the premiere league at Dundas Valley and everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy it!

Thanks again to everyone! Have a great summer and we'll see you back here in October!

This is just a reminder that all the final games are being played this Wednesday starting at 6:45pm. There is unfortunately no banquet this year due to all the construction, however I would encourage everyone who plays in the league to come and support your fellow players and we'll all have a great time throwing 100% games from behind the glass. Please let your teammates know.

As an added incentive, all the prize money will be distributed that night and if you don't show up, well, then the convenor is going to have a really great summer!

The following teams have already won money this year:
M. Blonski, McCall, Snell, L. Blonski, Knapp, Webber, Richardson, Boag, Whetham, Olson, K. Blonski, Goll, Marcinkowski and Hagen.

Don't miss out!

Brace yourself: A huge newspost is coming...

AND YOUR 2012 OPEN COMPETITIVE CHAMPIONS ARE:
Skip - Mike Blonski
Vice - Chris Dion
Second - Derek Blonski
Lead - Alan Finlayson

Throughout the course of the season they racked up an impressive three A Flyte Session wins with their 16-4 record, totalling 170 points for the season. This gives them the 5th highest points total since 2003 (when A-Flyte wins switched to 10 points).

Included in the budget that the renovation committee has outlined for the curling lounge is a lifesize bronze statue of our champions. Expect to see it installed in October of this year!

SESSION 4 WINNERS:

Congratulations to our flyte winners for this session: K. Blonski, Goll, Hagen and Marcinkowski. While you may not get to move up in flyte this season, your win will of course be taken into consideration for next season! Sadly, the building renovation budget only included enough money to award these teams with "Participant" ribbons.

HOLY CRAP IT IS PLAYOFF TIME:

Playoff schedules have officially been posted. If you viewed the schedules before this was posted, please double check to ensure you are playing at the right time on the right ice as there were changes made. PLEASE do not reschedule your playoff games.

There will also be a couple regular season rules altered for the playoffs where are as follows:
- The timeclock WILL NOT BE USED during the playoffs.
- All games that are tied after regular play will be determined by a FULL extra end played towards the glass. Should that end not decide the winner, then skips rocks will be used to break the tie.

Be aware that this may cause some delayed start times for the 9pm games, however I would prefer a team not lose due to a time situation that is potentially out of their control. In the spirit of sportsmanship, I ask for your patience and understanding in the matter.

Good luck and good curling to all teams in the playoffs!

This is a copy of the Eulogy presented by Paul Peacock on the past weekend. Many people who weren't able to hear it have asked to have it reposted.

On behalf of Candy, thank you for joining us in this celebration of Bill�s life. Personally, I spent a fair bit of time with him over the past 15 years or so. Whether it was on the ice, on the water, or just chatting, I mostly remember laughing together, most often at each other�s expense. I have and will miss him!

Bill was a big man in every way. Big heart, big personality, big dreams. Outgoing and gregarious and almost invariably cheerful. You always knew when Bill was in a room. A generous man. Always willing to help his friends.

Bill adored Candy and was very proud of her. After he was diagnosed, he was very concerned with her state of mind and well being, much more so that his own. He maintained a positive attitude right to the end. He fought this disease as hard as he could but even the big man couldn�t win this one.

He loved their cats and, given the opportunity, would go on and friggin� on about them. He was an avid and proud curler and sailor and a huge auto-sport fan. It is appropriate that we would hold this memorial on the day of the Daytona 500, one of his favourite events of the year.

Bill was not a religious man but I sensed a spiritual kinship between he and the water. He always seemed happy and at peace at the helm of any watercraft.

We are immensely saddened by this passing but will remember him fondly, and, I hope, with laughter at his often outrageous sense of humour. May his spirit be wherever he would be happiest.

Before closing, I would like to read an e-mail from a sporting hero of his: I think he would have appreciated it.

Dear Paul: I received your news regarding the passing of your friend Bill. Sorry to hear that but I trust with Bill enjoying sports that he lived a fun and full life. Thank you for thinking of me to pass on a message to everyone at the memorial. Curling is a small community and with events across Canada, I have had the opportunity to meet many curlers and curling fans and I am sure I would have loved to have a beer with Bill. Take care, Kevin Martin�

Thanks again for coming. I would like to end with a toast to our good friend, Bill.

Cheers, Buddy!

Congratulations to teams M. Blonski, McCall, L. Blonski and C. Knapp for winning their flytes this session. The C-Flyte was especially close with a 3-way tie between C. Knapp, Richardson and Webber, broken only by the overall points (as per the rules).

The 4th and final session schedules are finally posted. As per usual the official C Flytes look like this:

C1: Boag, Hagen, Sedgwick, Lawler, Tkachuk
C2: Vollick, Richardson, Marcinkowski, Webber, Lloyd

Playoffs are just around the corner and we will again be running the quarter and semi finals during the same week (April 4th and 5th) due to time constraints. So make sure to book all your corporate travel around it!

Just a quick note that the $25 entry fee will be charged to your account in the next week or two. Thanks!

For the few remaining people who haven't heard the unfortunate news, Bill Stevenson has passed away. Bill will be remembered, not only for his big weight on the ice, but for his big heart and personality off the ice.

There is a celebration of life planned at the Winchester Arms Pub in Dundas Ontario on Sunday February 26th, from 130 to 430 pm open to anyone who'd like to attend.

Congratulations to our Session 2 winners: M. Blonski, Snell, Boag and Whetham! If you are interested, you can always take a look at all the past session winners. My goodness this site has everything, doesn't it!

The one thing it doesn't have is properly functioning C Flyte standings, so like last session, here is the official C-Flyte lineup:

C1: Sedgwick, L. Blonski, Lawler, Marcinkowski, Hagen
C2: Webber, C. Knapp, Tkachuk, Lloyd, Richardson

We will continue to leave the time clock as it is (at 1:50). I cannot stress enough that most of the time lost occurs between ends and waiting for players to get ready in the hack.

Here are some tips that may help speed up your game:
- When the end is complete, the lead should NOT help clear off the rocks and should instead find their own rock and get in the hack, ready to throw. Think of it as a perk of playing lead!
- As soon as the opponent has released their rock, you should be in the hack getting ready (removing your gripper, cleaning the rock, etc). That way, when your skip puts the broom down, all you need to do is line yourself up and throw.
- When your teammate is taking their gripper off while getting ready to shoot, do them a favour and grab their rock from the pile.

Due to the club being closed the first week of January, the season will not resume until January 18th. Games originally scheduled for Jan 4th and 5th have been moved to the 18th and 19th.

Hi All,

The schedules are up! For those wondering, we have returned back to our split C flyte system. Each team will have one cross-over game where they play a team from the other flyte. I figured this was better than having a BYE!

Just a quick note about the standings page on the website. Due to a bug in my programming (I know, I know...), currently the C flytes are shown with 6 teams in one, and 4 in the other. This is not the case. Each flyte has 5 teams each, and for clarity, the teams are as follows:

C1: Marcinkowski, Richardson, C. Knapp, Boag, L. Blonski
C2: Tkachuk, Whetham, Hagen, Lloyd, Lawler

Until I get it fixed, please reference this list when determining flyte rankings.

Congratulations to the M. Blonski, Olson, Snell, and McCall teams for winning their respective flytes. C flyte was particularly close, with a large second place tie that was broken by the roll off scores. Congratulations to all teams!

A quick note about the second session. It will begin on Nov 23rd as we have the week off due to Mixed Districts. Regardless, the schedule should be out sometime this week. We will also be reverting back into our typical A, B, C1 and C2 flyte system again. If anyone is unfamiliar with that setup, you can check out the rules for more information.

Finally, I will be sending around an email to all teams in regards to the new game clock, as well as posting on this site.

As usual, if you have any questions feel free to email me at krisblonski[at]gmail[dot].com

Due to the nature of this session we've ended up with a huge number of teams in C Flyte. This will be rectified in the next session as we return to the typical C1 and C2 system we've used in previous seasons.

However, it is looking like we're going to have a variety of ties at the end of the session, which can make deciding which teams move up and down slightly messy. So for this session, we will be doing a roll-off to use as the final method of tiebreaking. The roll-off will take place after each of your games this week on the sheet you just played on.

The rules of the roll-off are as follows:
- Each team member takes turns throwing one draw, with sweeping, into the house.
- The rock is then measured from the distance from the button to the closest edge of the rock
- Each team member's distance is added together, with the resulting number being your team's final score
- The lower the score, the better.

Ties will still be broken by head-to-head results if at all possible, and then roll-off scores will be used.

If you have questions, please let me know. I will be at the club both nights to assist in the measuring and to gather scores.

There was a minor glitch in the schedule that has been fixed. Please check the schedules again!

Schedules:
A quick note to remind everyone that the schedules are updated to reflect the additional team that was added to the league. Please check to see if your team is playing at a new time!

Reciprocal Drinks:
We are continuing on with the system we had last year. For those unfamiliar with that, reciprocal drinks are not required. This means that you continue to buy your own drink after each game.

Start Times and Game Clocks:
I will send out a more detailed description of the clock rules when it is installed, but here are a few items worth noting. The clock will start at 6:45pm (and approximately 9pm, depending on ice maintenance). This means that your team should be down on the ice ready and doing your practice slides approximately 5 minutes before game time (6:40pm and 8:55pm). The clock will give you 1:50 of game time, meaning that when the clock strikes 0:00, you cannot start any additional ends. The system will be loosely enforced for the first half of the season to allow teams to get used to the change.

Contact Information:
I can be contacted at krisblonski@gmail.com (most reliable method) or 905-648-0414.

Hello everyone! The 2011-2012 curling season is upon us and I�m sure everyone is excited to get this season underway. Look for the first session schedule to be posted in a day or two. The first game is schedule for October 12th.

For those teams who are looking for additional teammates or spares, I have an available list of people who can be contacted. Just send me an email and I will pass along the list. The �official� league email that should be going out in the next couple of days will have a complete list as well.

There are going to be a couple changes this season due to the small number of teams that have entered the league this year. The flyte distribution will be:

A Flyte � 6 Teams
B Flyte � 6 Teams
C Flyte � 9 Teams (1 team gets a BYE each week)


For those paying attention, that means that the C-Pool system we have been using the last couple years will be removed (although it will hopefully return in future years once we get additional teams). Each session will continue to consist of 5 games each, with 4 sessions in total. Now, due to the nature of the club this year, the final session may not be fully completed. If this occurs, we will complete as many schedule games as possible, but not reward the session winner bonus points for that particular session.

The playoffs will continue to run as normal barring any construction mishaps.

On the topic of the ongoing construction, should a game need to be cancelled, all teams will be contacted via email and an update will be posted on the league website. Depending on the time and severity of the cancellation, makeup games could be played on Tuesday�s at 9pm or Thursdays at 9pm. Hopefully it shouldn�t come down to this, but I will keep you informed nonetheless.

Hello All! It's almost that time of year, so I'm going to take this time to remind you about the Dundas Valley open house on September 23rd! This is where you can sign up your teams for this wonderful league! I'll see you there!

Hello! It's been a while I know, but a delayed congratulations to all our playoff champions and league champions. For those of you who didn't attend the end of the year banquet, or forgot to venture over to the playoffs section, the winners this year were:

Club Champions - Team Blonski
A Flyte Winners - Team McDowell
B Flyte Winners - Team Olson
C Flyte Winners - Team Hagen
D Flyte Winners - Team De Villiers

And of course everyone's picture:


A big thank you to our sponsor Ernst and Young for their continued sponsorship of the league. And finally a big thank you to you, the players. You make running this league very easy! Remember next year to tell your friends so we can continue to grow the league and provide even more fabulous prizes!

See you all next year!

Congratulations to the team of Kris Blonski, Russ Gray, Peter Kastrau and Steve Dawe for becoming the 2010-2011 Club Champions! Along the way, they racked up a 17-3 record and two flyte wins to earn them 177 points. I believe the club will be contacting them soon about creating some bronze busts to be displayed in the curling lounge.

Not to be forgotten, the session winners were: K. Blonski, Goll, Whetham and Irvine. As there is no 5th session, there are obviously no move-ups associated with these wins, however it will be taken into account for next year's seedings.

Finally, the playoff brackets have been finalized. Head over to the Playoffs Page and find out when you're playing. Remember that the finals schedule for April 13th start at 6:30, not at the usual 6:45.

Congratulations again to all our winners and good luck to all the teams in the playoffs!

Due to the weather, curling scheduled for March 23rd has been postponed.

Makeup games will be held on the following days:

Games scheduled for 6:45pm are now going to be played TUESDAY MARCH 29th @ 9:00pm.

Games scheduled for 9:00pm are now going to be played THURSDAY MARCH 24th @ 9:00pm.


These games MUST be played ON or BEFORE the new schedules in order to have our playoff brackets setup in time.

The playoff time slots have been posted, so head over to the Playoffs page to find out more. As per usual, the playoff rankings for each flyte are as follows:

- Teams 1 and 2 get byes to the semi-finals
- Team 3 vs Team 6 (Winner plays Team 2)
- Team 4 vs Team 5 (Winner plays Team 1)

Further rules and details can be found in the Rules section.

The Session 4 Schedules have been posted. So head over there and check when you're playing!

In more scheduling news: Due to the Bantam/Junior mixed provincials being played at the club, we are going to have to play two games in one week. That means that the quarter finals will be held on April 6th, and the semi finals will be held on April 7th. Fear not: no team will be scheduled for back-to-back 9pm games.

Congratulations to Team Vollick - Larry Vollick, Frank Stoneman, Noel Spratt, and Bill Foye - for their all-time league record of 10 wins in a row; A feat so impressive that it's broken my streak counter on this page (don't worry, it still works on the standings page)! The previous record was 9 wins, held by a handful of teams, most recently the McDowell and M. Blonski rinks.

I'm fairly certain I heard Larry saying that he was so overjoyed that he'd be more than willing to buy a round for anyone who asked. Make sure to take him up on the offer!

Here is the updated schedule for Session 3.

Session 3 Updated Schedule

Due to the club closure, all games on Wednesday, February 2nd have been postponed until a later time. Unless otherwise informed, games scheduled to be played on Thursday, February 3rd will be unaffected and should be played at the regular scheduled time.

Make-up times for the postponed games will be posted on the front page of the website and emailed to all the teams as soon as I get approval from the club to schedule games for Thursday at 9pm. The vast majority of the makeup games will be scheduled for Wednesday and Thursdays at 9pm during the remaining 3 weeks of this session.

I apologize for the change in schedule and will get the alternate schedules out ASAP.

For the first time this season we have a three-way tie for session winners. In the incredibly tight B Flyte, we had three teams finish with 3-2 records and three teams with 2-3 records. So without further ado, the session winners are: Winslow (A), L. Blonski, Sedgwick and Webber (B), Vollick (C1) and Whetham (C2). Congratulations to all our winners!

We have a one-week break due to the Hamilton Districts and will return again on January 19th!

Just some things to be aware of:

As mentioned before, practicing before the games is strongly discouraged in order to maintain high quality ice throughout the game. If you wish to practice, you may do so after the games or contact Gary Pearce for official ice times.

If you are rescheduling games, please mark it on the schedule in the curling lounge, as well as contacting me to let me know of the changes.

Finally, if I'm not available to take the scores PLEASE email them to me or post them on the curling board so that I can retrieve them at a later date. I only need the final score (no need to record ends won).

Thanks!

Congratulations to the K.Blonski, McDowell, Richards and L. Blonski rinks for winning their respective series'. If I ever get around to it, you will be forever immortalized in the "Series Winners" section that has yet to be created!

Session 2 schedules should be posted this weekend. Remember that next week there will be no curling due to the Mixed Districts. Games will resume on November 24th.

Finally, two quick league notes:
Pre-game Practicing - We encourage everyone to keep pre-game practicing to a minimum. This is to prevent the ice from breaking down before the game is finished. If you still insist on taking a few shots, please do so on your own sheet.

Scores - If I am not available to retrieve your scores, please post them on the board or email them to me at krisblonski@gmail.com . Thanks!

November 13th, 2010 @ 10am
$200 per Team - ONLY 10 Spots Available!
Two 8-End Games and a Shoot Out
Lunch Provided
UP TO $2000 IN PRIZES!

SIGN UP IN THE CURLING LOUNGE!

What is a �Skins� spiel?
Essentially you can think of a skins game as one game broken down into 8 mini-games. In Skins, you�re playing to win the end, or skin, with each skin worth an increasingly higher amount of money.

Very Basic Rules
To win a skin, you need to score 2 or more points (with hammer) or steal 1 or more points (without hammer). If the team with the hammer blanks the end or scores only a single point, the skin is considered to be �carried over�. This means the next skin is worth its current value in addition to the value of the previous skin(s).

In an effort to even the playing field, we will alternate the hammer regardless of the result of the previous end.

First of all, welcome back! As you can see we've done a little housekeeping to the website and added a few new toys. So go ahead, look around!

A couple of announcements for this upcoming season:

In an effort to increase our league numbers, especially in the younger range, we are removing the reciprocal drinks after each game. This means that you will now buy your own drinks after the game, regardless of whether you win or lose. We will be evaluating this change at the end of the season and decide whether or not to continue for future seasons.

The Open Competitive Skins Spiel will be returning this season. It will take place on November 13th, 2010 and will have fabulous(!) cash prizes. Sort out your teams now and keep checking back to the website for sign-up information and more details! Entry fees will be roughly $200-$250 per team.

Finally please check out the team list to make sure all your team members are on the team!

As always, if you have questions or concerns, you can contact me at:
krisblonski [at] gmail [dot] com or 905-648-0414.

Good luck on the upcoming season!

Just a reminder that the Open House will be on September 17th starting at 7pm. Why is this important? Because this is where you can sign up for the 2010-2011 Open Competitive season!

Don't forget to encourage friends to sign up for the league either in set teams or as individuals! The more players we have, the more fabulous prizes are available at the end of the season!

In preparation for the upcoming season, I will be making some adjustments to the website in order to make it less horrifyingly ugly and it make it a little more user friendly! That being said, if you do come here over the next few weeks and find something extremely broken, don't worry! Chances are I'm just making some modifications at that very moment!

See you in October!

First of all, congratulations to all the teams on an excellent season and a big thanks again to the curling committee for putting together an excellent banquet. And now to the results...

A Flyte Playoff Winners: Team K. Blonski
B Flyte Playoff Winners: Team McDowell
C Flyte Playoff Winners: Team Webber
D Flyte Playoff Winners: Team Tkachuk

And once again, congratulations to our Club Champions: Team Dion!

I will have pictures posted and available for download ASAP!
Click each picture for the fullsize version!


So to close out the year, I need to thank all the people who helped make the league possible:

• Ernst & Young (Bob Neale) for their continued sponsorship of the league.
• Pete Child and Stephen Bernard for ensuring that I didn't become the league dictator.
• Dave McDowell and Stan Shiraishi for gladly passing along all the league information for the last 13 years and essentially making all the cool things on this website possible.
• All the people who helped pick up the scores for me throughout the season.
• And finally, a big thank you to all of you who participated in the league. You really make it easy and fun to run the league.

Make sure you encourage everyone who doesn't already participate in this league to consider signing up as a team or as an individual. This really is the premiere league at Dundas Valley and everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy it!

Thanks again to everyone! Have a great summer and we'll see you back here in October!

The Little Rocks Program is looking to increase awareness of curling, our program and the Dundas Valley Golf & Curling Club.

To work toward this, Shawn and Chrim Middleton have issued invitations to some school groups and to some Brownie/Guide groups to attend Little Rock Curling Clinics.

Due to an overwhelming response, they are asking for any people who would be willing to volunteer their time to one or more of the clinics to contact them!

The clinics are:
Thursday, April 15
9:15 - 12:00 pm - Group A - 36 Participants registered
12:30 - 3:00 pm - Group B - 30 Participants registered
6:30 - 8:00 pm - Group C - 30 Participants registered

Friday, April 16
12:30 - 3:00 pm - Group D - 30 Participants registered

If you are able to help out with any of the clinics, please e-mail Chrim directly at cssj@bellnet.ca and let her know.

A big congratulations to Chris Dion, Roz Dion, Rob Eedson and Janet Klein for becoming the 2009-2010 Club Champions! They posted an impressive 15-5 record and racked up two session wins en route to a total of 143 points. Check out all the juicy details on their team page.

Not to be forgotten, this sessions winners are: Dion, Winslow, L. Blonski and Spencer. Now while they obviously cannot move to their new flytes this season, we'll make appropriate adjustments for the start of next season!

Finally we come to the playoffs! The brackets have been posted. Make sure to check back here often before your scheduled game, as schedules MAY be adjusted. Also make sure to refresh your memory on the playoff rules as they are slightly different from the regular season. In addition to the posted rules, due to the fact that there are no 9pm games, I will be waiving the time limit rule for playoffs.

Good luck to all in the playoffs!

Those of you watching curling at the Olymics or the Brier this year may have heard announcers such as Rus Howard talk about how much time the top teams take to ensure that the rocks they throw are matched, or have particular characteristics. In particular, Kevin Martin's team apparently spends a great deal of effort selecting their rocks to make sure that the rocks in a pair behave the same and that Martin's last rocks will actually curl. During the Olympics, the Swiss skip thought that one of her final draws came up short, losing the game, because the rock was actually different. If you watched the Canada-China game at the Women's Worlds, you may haved noticed that Jenifer Jones uses a different strategy. It appears as though she choses one straight rock and one rock with more curl for her skip rocks. I noted that for hits she uses one rock preferentially over the other. Presumably for draws she would chose the other. On the broadcast, you could hear her discussing this with her front end.

With that background, a group of us were interested in learning how to determine how the rocks at DVGCC behave with respect to distance and curl. In particular, do the two rocks in a pair (eg. 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8) behave the same. How does one measure that? Some clues to this were given by Rus Howard, who explained how his team did it. We decided to try it.

Each rock in a pair was thrown down the centre line using the same turn and with the same weight (within 0.1 second T-Hog split time) by the same thrower. To capture the distance the rock travelled, we measured the distance from the T-line. A negative value in inches was given to rocks that didn't reach the T-line and a positive value to those that passed the T-Line. The curl was the distance out from the centre line, again, in inches. The entire process was repeated at least twice on each sheet. The experiment was done on March 16, 2010. Ralph had scaped and prepared the ice for us beforehand.

The attached spreadsheets summarize the results for all 5 sheets. You will see the two repeats (away from the glass and towords the glass) for each sheet. Where the intial throws weren't within 0.1 second of each other, we re-threw the rocks, so you will see third and fourth attempts in some cases. All results are in inches. Negative numbers for distance indicate that the throw was short of the T-line. All measurements were to the edge of the rock, not the centre.

Download the Spreadsheet Here

Have a look at the data. We don't have any suggestions yet as to how to score each rock for distance and curl but we are working on that. If any pairs look to be different, I'd suggest you confirm that observation using your own throws. Some of the differences may be release dependant and we don't have a good way to control for that. If you have any questions please feel free to ask Kris Blonski or Peter Child.

Just a friendly reminder that all games must be completed no later than March 26th. Teams failing to do so will receive automatic forfeit losses.

Thanks!

Apparently I was drinking when I made the schedule, but it is corrected now. Please double check to see if your schedule has changed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

For those who haven't noticed, the Session 4 Schedules are now posted.

For those wondering about playoffs: The quarter finals will be starting on March 31st and April 1st. It is a single knockout event that all teams qualify for. Seeding will be based on the Overall Points with ties being broken with Head-to-Head results (if applicable) and then overall wins. Any further seeding / tie-breaking will be determined by the convener. Teams ranked 1-6 will be in the A-Flyte playoffs, 7-12 in the B-Flyte playoffs, 13-18 in the C-Flyte playoffs and finally, 19-24 in the D-Flyte playoffs.

The Club Champion is the team with the highest overall points at the end of the regular season. This team is then eligible to participate the in the OCA Dominion Championship where they will represent Dundas Valley in a nation-wide tournament.

Congratulations to teams M. Blonski, McDowell, Richardson and Vollick for winning their flytes this session! You're going to disneyland!

As seems to be the common theme with these posts: If no one is there to take your game scores, PLEASE either email me the results or post them on the curling board!

Just a friendly reminder that if I'm not there to pick up the scores, can you please email me or post them on the board. Thanks.

Congratulations to the K. Blonski, Hagen, Pearce and Whetham teams for coming in first in each of their divisions this session. The statues will be made up in due time!

Don't forget that there is no curling next week because of the districts. We'll be back up and running on January 20th with no more breaks until the end of the season.

One additional note: Upon the start of the 3rd session, all teams will be considered final and each player will be charged the league fee of $25. Once again, no players (including 5th members) will be allowed to join teams after January 20th. So if you need to make changes, let me know before that date.

One BONUS additional note: If I am not around to pick up the scores, can you please either email me after the game, or post the score on the Wednesday night section of the curling board. Thanks!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holidays! We'll see you back here on January 6th and 7th!

The second session schedules are now posted. Please make note of the weeks that we have off because of the Districts and Christmas holidays.

Congratulations to the K. Blonski, Dion, Winslow and Bishop teams for successfully becoming their division winners! Each team receives a 2 point bonus for accomplishing this feat.

As a reminder, the winner of each of the C1 and C2 flytes will be moved to B flyte and the remainder of the C flytes will be completely shuffled to try and give you the largest variety of teams.

If any team is looking for a 5th player please contact me and I will put you in touch with them. I have a handful of enthusiastic players looking to find a team. First come, first served!

The big change to curling this year at Dundas Valley has been the addition of the camera network to the curling rink. I think we call all agree that it certainly adds another element for the spectators and adoring fans who are watching the games.

What you may not know is that last year the Open Competitive League donated $1500 towards their purchase and installation. So a big thank you to last years conveners, Dave McDowell and Stan Shiraishi for their generous donation!

The schedules for the first session of the season have been posted. Should there be changes, I'll notify people here.

I'll be tweaking the layout of the schedule page as we go along, so if it looks different, you'll know why!

On behalf of myself, Stephen Bernard, and Pete Child, welcome to the new 2009-2010 curling season and to the new Open Competitive Website. Our goal is to continue to run the league as smoothly as Dave and Stan over their 20 years of service.

I encourage you to explore the website and report back to me with any bugs or oddities that you may encounter. I hope to add new features and expand on existing options throughout this season and future seasons. And remember to change your bookmarks to www.cleansheetcurling.com/dundas!

The first games of the open competitive season will begin on October 14th - 15th, although there is ice available the previous week for practice.