Curling tournament
This article is about bonspiels in general. For the Scottish curling tournament known as The Bonspiel, see
Grand Match
.
A
bonspiel
is a
curling
tournament, consisting of several games, often held on a weekend. Until the 20th century most bonspiels were held outdoors, on a frozen freshwater
loch
. Today almost all bonspiels are held indoors on specially prepared artificial ice.
Bonspiels in North America
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]
Canada
[
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]
Curling Canada
, formerly known as the Canadian Curling Association, is the national governing body of the sport in Canada. While bonspiels originated in
Scotland
, the most notable competitive curling tournament in the world nowadays is the Canadian Men's Curling Championship,
The Brier
. For many Canadians, this tournament equals or nearly equals the importance of the Olympics and the
World Curling Championship
.
[
citation needed
]
The Canadian Women's Curling Championship is called the
Scotties Tournament of Hearts
. Several
Cashspiels
are played in Canada every year, with the most important cashspiels being part of the
World Curling Tour
(WCT). Many local curling clubs and other organizations in Canada also host casual, social bonspiels indoors, and a few are also held outdoors like the
Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel
in
downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba
.
United States
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The
United States Curling Association
(USA Curling) is the national governing body of the sport in the United States. Many bonspiels are listed on
the USA Curling website
. Most bonspiels in the United States are held indoors in dedicated curling facilities, but a few bonspiels are held outdoors if the weather allows it. One example of an outdoor bonspiel is the
Sawtooth Outdoor Bonspiel
held each January in the Sawtooth Mountain Range of Idaho. Bonspiels are popular throughout the United States during curling season, typically October through April. Some special bonspiels are held in the summer as well as some that are hosted by clubs that play on arena ice as there are usually fewer scheduling conflicts with other sports at the area such as hockey and figure skating.
Bonspiels in Europe
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Scotland
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]
In Scotland, outdoor bonspiels are now very rare; most lochs that formerly hosted bonspiels, such as
Loch Earn
, rarely freeze over anymore. The
Loch of Aboyne
was the site of a bonspiel in 1891 and the private railway station,
Aboyne Curling Pond
was used for the event. The word
spiel
is sometimes used to refer to an informal curling game, as in
parish spiel
. The most important
Cashspiels
in Scotland are part of the
Curling Champions Tour
(CCT) The
Grand Match
was last held outdoors in 1979, although it was revived as an indoor tournament in 2000 and has been held every five years since.
[1]
[2]
Between 1853 and 1935 twenty-five 'Grand Matches' or bonspiels were held at the
Royal Caledonian Curling Club
's own pond at Carsebreck Loch in
Perth and Kinross
served by the society's own private
Carsbreck railway station
.
Other European countries
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Dozens of bonspiels are held in European countries every year. Switzerland hosts multiple
Curling Champions Tour
events.
Bonspiels elsewhere
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]
New Zealand
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Curling bonspiels are held when ice conditions permit in the
Maniototo
, part of
Central Otago
in the
South Island
. The region is one of the few in New Zealand to have conditions suitable for outdoor curling, and is also a fitting site for the sport given that
Otago
's original European settlers were mainly from Scotland. Several artificial and natural lakes around the towns of
Oturehua
,
Naseby
and
Patearoa
provide good conditions, on average every second or third year.
The national bonspiel has been held when conditions permit since 1879, with Oturehua's
Idaburn Dam
the venue since 1932.
[3]
The most recent national bonspiel, the 66th, was held on 13-14 July 2015.
[4]
Most New Zealand curling clubs are located in
Otago
,
Canterbury
, and
Southland
, and owing to the difficulty of getting teams to the relatively inaccessible venue, it is rare for teams to travel from outside the southern South Island to the bonspiel.
Indoor curling rinks exist in Otago's main centre,
Dunedin
(at the
Dunedin Ice Stadium
), and in the towns of
Naseby, Otago
and
Gore, Southland
, and also further north in the country's largest city,
Auckland
. Open air ice rinks exist in Naseby and
Alexandra
.
[5]
List of notable bonspiels
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]
- The largest and oldest indoor bonspiel in the world is the
MCA Bonspiel
, which is held in and around Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada every January since 1888.
- The largest outdoor bonspiel in the world, the "Ironman Outdoor Curling Bonspiel" put on by
Ironman Outdoor Curling
, has been held at or near
The Forks
in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, every February since 2002. In 2015 there were 72 teams competing on 6 sheets of ice the on the
Assiniboine River
in The Forks port, and in 2016 as the bonspiel continued to grow the event was moved over to the larger
Red River
to make room for 10 sheets of curling ice. In 2020 the event was played outdoors across the street from the
Manitoba Legislative Building
in Memorial Provincial Park to honor Manitoba's 150th birthday. The annual event then returned to the
Red River
but at a new location, the
Redboine Boat Club
, to allow for even more space and teams and continues to hold the event there each year on the first full weekend of February.
- One of the longest-running outdoor bonspiels in the world, the Bonspiel on the Lake in
Invermere, British Columbia
, Canada, has been held on
Lake Windermere
every January since 1983.
[6]
Each year 64 teams compete.
- The
Sawtooth Outdoor Bonspiel
is held in the Sawtooth Mountain Range in Stanley, Idaho every January since 2013.
- The Bonspiel
or the
Grand Match
, between the north and the south of Scotland, is held on a frozen loch (most recently the
Lake of Menteith
,
Stirling
) when the winter is cold enough. It was last held outdoors in 1979.
- The Crush Bonspiel
in
Placer Valley, California
, is notorious for its unique combination of curling tournament play and
wine festival
.
[7]
This tournament originated in
Vacaville
in 2006 but was moved to
Roseville
[8]
in 2012 because of its rising popularity in surrounding areas.
- The Brier
(Men's Senior Championship of the
Canadian Curling Association
) is regarded by most curlers as the world's premier curling championship
- The
Tournament of Hearts
(
Canadian Ladies Curling Association Championship
)
- The
Men's World Curling Championship
(
Scotch Cup
/
Silver Broom
)
WCF
WCC
- The
Women's World Curling Championship
WCC
- The
World Junior Curling Championship
(WJCC)
WCF
- The
Winter Olympics
Cashspiels and carspiels
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A cashspiel is a bonspiel played for money, and a carspiel is one played for the prize of an automobile. There are different types of cashspiels, some are small, with prizes in the hundreds of dollars, and others are quite sizeable, with the rewards running into the tens of thousands of dollars.
Etymology
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Possibly from Dutch
bond
"league, association" +
spel
"game".
See also
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Notes
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External links
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]
Look up
bonspiel
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.