Four members from CCVA teamed up to play in the Cool Duck 5 and Under Bonspiel hosted by the Ardsley Curling Club this past weekend in Dobbs Ferry, NY.  The team was led by Scott Burk with Alexandra Carroll as Lead, Barbara Jo Palsa as Second, and Jenn Fox as Vice, all second-year curlers. 

Team Burk had a rough start on Friday after a broken compressor made the ice slippery for players and sluggish for stones.  They ended up losing their first two games against Team DeSouza from Philadelphia and Team Rybak from Broomstones CC, but came back with an important win over Team Guerin from Jersey Pinelands CC.  It was a good match between the two arena clubs and Team Burk brought it down to the final end.  The win qualified them to play in the “3rd” Event Finals on Sunday afternoon against a Pot Luck team from multiple clubs in New York and New England.  Team Burk started off strong scoring 6 in the first end, but by the third end it was tied up again.  The opposing team stole 2 in the eighth, tying up the game and forcing an extra end, which ultimately ended in favor of the Pot Luck Team from New York/New England.  

The Cool Duck 5 and Under Bonspiel is an open format tournament for beginner curlers.  This year the event was co-sponsored by the US Women’s Curling Association.  Twenty-four teams from twelve different clubs competed in this year’s bonspiel.  This was Team Burk’s second year competing in the Cool Duck and their second year ending as Runner’s Up in the “3rd” Event.

CCVa had a booth at Carytown's Watermelon Festival this past Sunday and we had a blast! There's nothing love curlers love more than talking curling with others, and we met so many future curlers we can't wait for our next Learn2Curl classes on August 29 and September 12! Tons of people were amazed to see their first curling stones and brooms in person, and we had plenty of fun explaining the game using the table top curling game!

We'll be sure to be back next year, and hopefully we'll still have the GNCC Arenas trophy proudly displayed in the center again after we won it this year!

We had a great time hosting the GNCC Arenas at the Prince William Ice Center from August 31st to September 2nd, so a big thank you to all of the teams and volunteers that helped make it a great event! A special thanks is owed to Rich and Kirsten Collins for serving as the Bonspiel Chairs and putting everything together, as well as all of the volunteers that pitched in to help prepare the ice between the draws, particularly Michael Dobbs.

Congratulations to CCVa's very own Sam Sparks, Brent Cooke, Mary Millage, and Travis Hamilton for winning the whole thing, CCVa's first ever bonspiel victory! You can see (most of) the play by play of their victory over Woodstock's Flanders here at Curling Geek. As for the other events, Ocean State's Rosler won the 4th Event, with Long Island's Team Spensieri and Team Yang respectively winning the Second and Third Events.

Also, congrats to all the other CCVa teams, particularly Team Burk for making it to the Fourth Event and Team Collins for making the Third Event Finals (after defeating CCVa's Team McBride)!

The full results are below, including the Calcutta results.

CCVa Members and Friends,

Next Friday CCVa will host the 2015 GNCC Arena Club Championship at the Prince William Ice Center, about 80 miles north of Richmond.  This post details all the opportunities we have for volunteers to help us this weekend.

VOLUNTEERING AND SCHEDULE
We primarily need ICE PREP and HOSPITALITY help.  On the ice, we will be scraping, mopping, pebbling and nipping (past experience is helpful but NOT necessary).  On hospitality we will be serving breakfast and broomstacking snacks, selling raffle tickets and merchandise, and hanging out with our guests in the warm room. We will also be setting up prior to and cleaning up after the event. PW Ice will staff the bar and serve lunch and dinner.

Although the first game does not start until 6:30pm on Friday we will begin setting up at 3pm.  There will be 5 draws on Saturday, beginning at 9am and ending at 10:30pm.  Finals will be Sunday at 9:15am and awards presentations should be done by noon, and with everyone's help cleaning up we should be finished cleaning up by 1pm.

Volunteer sign-ups are available online here.  Draw times are listed on the sign up sheet. Please select any of the empty highlighted boxes and add your name to volunteer.  If you have any problems or questions, please feel free to contact Rich ([email protected]) or Kirsten ([email protected]).

DONATIONS - RAFFLE ITEMS and BAKED GOODS
We will need donations of baked goods, snacks, juice and bottled water for our guests to munch on and drink over the course of the weekend. If you can bring something please email Kirsten ([email protected]) to let her know what/how much you are bringing so that we can plan appropriately (no one wants her to cook!). 

As a part of next weekend's festivities, we will also be raffling off some donated items as a fundraiser for our club's future.  Some of you have seen these raffles at other bonspiels -- sometimes called a chinese raffle where tickets are put in designated cups for a particular prize.

We have been collecting basket items throughout the summer, and would love more!  We have several baskets started that could always use more to fill them, and we always love items that stand alone. 

A few ideas (but are not limited to) include:

• alcohol (wine, local beer, etc.)
• curling paraphernalia
• specialty foods
• collectibles
• handmade/knitted items
• movies/DVDs
• art
• games/sport items

Some donations will be bundled into theme baskets.  Items we have collected so far include: wine charms, gift certificate to a brew house, golf bag cooler, specialty poster, cooking package, and assorted curling items.  Just about any donation is welcome; but please donate things you would bid on and not a white-elephant or garage sale item.  Please email Kirsten with any questions and/or to let her know ahead of time what you are bringing, then bring your item(s) to the rink on Friday or early Saturday and give them to Rich or Kirsten.

T-SHIRTS
In keeping with the tradition of this event, there will be limited number of event T-shirts available for sale at the event for $13 each. The design is "revolutionary" and celebrates Virginia's rich history.

BROOMS UP
Brooms Up Curling Supply will have their trailer on site Friday evening and Saturday until mid afternoon - so if you need any curling equipment please stop by in the parking lot and say hi to Gary!

And even if you aren't curling you can still be part of the fun!  We would love to have our members come out and share in the curling spirit - watch games, share a meal, participate in the raffle, or volunteer!  See the signup sheet for more detailed schedule information! 

We look forward to seeing all of you this weekend!

CCVa's 7-week summer league begins tonight at 7pm at the Richmond Ice Zone. The four teams will complete a double round robin format concluding with Championship and Consolation games the 7th week of the season.

Team rosters are listed below, and the schedule may be found here.

• Team Millage:  Mary Millage, Jenn Fox, Alex Carrol
  
• Team Burk: Scott Burk, James Deyerle, Dennis Bebel & James Jenkins
  
• Team Ours: Stephen Ours, Doug Chalmers & Christine Alessi
  
• Team Hamilton: Travis Hamilton, Tom Stablein & Sean Jenkins

Good luck to all of our teams!