Xposed: Gay curling championships

February 23, 2012 · by David P. Ball · in Xtra!. ·

Published in Xtra! newspaper | February 23, 2012 | Circulation: 39,600

Photo by David P. Ball

Curling queers? You heard us right!

Vancouver hosted the 2012 Canadian Gay Curling Championships (CGCC) and HSBC Pac Rim Cup from February 3-5. Sixteen teams from across Canada spent the weekend sliding their rocks across coloured ice and then scrubbing it with swift brushes. One of Vancouver’s own hometown teams won the bonspiel (curling-speak for tournament): Stephen Schneider (the team’s skip, or captain), Shaun Eklund, Shelley Birston and Glenn Smith. It’s the first time the national cup has come home to our city in seven years.

Teammates said afterwards that the narrow victory really came down to the final rocks thrown into the house – the name for the concentric coloured target at the far end of the ice aimed at by curlers. Exhausted after throwing polished granite stones all weekend, the curlers wrapped up with a party at 1181 Lounge.