It’s the time of year where wishes are made real with a little holiday magic.
Thanks to the hard work of Peace Arch Curling Club manager Ross Scott and their ice plant maintenance worker, a Dec. 27-28 bonspiel that had to be cancelled due to a plant component failure has now been rescheduled for Friday and Saturday, Dec. 29-30.
“Thanks to a Christmas miracle performed by Ross to fix our ice surface, the Bonspiel is back on track, two days late,” said ‘Hutch’ Bonspiel organizer Doug Holmyard in an email.
“The new dates are Friday-Saturday, Dec 29-30.”
The ice initially wasn’t co-operating for the bonspiel, an an annual curling event named for longtime club member Elmer Hutchinson, so it was cancelled at the last minute, because a component of the ice plant failed the night before (Dec. 26).
“We’re attempting an emergency repair right now and trying to see if we can get parts for it,” Peace Arch Curling Club manager Ross Scott said Wednesday (Dec. 27).
“It happened last night. Alarms were going off… the ‘Hutch’ bonspiel was supposed to be happening right now – we’ll see if we can get it rescheduled, but I’m just trying to keep the ice from melting right now.”
The in-house spiel is a longtime after-Christmas tradition at the club – an event to provide exercise for everyone during the week of festivities between Christmas and New Year’s Eve – and open to all members of the club and their friends and family, usually drawing 60 or more curlers every year.
READ ALSO: By the Sea ladies bonspiel a success at Peace Arch Curling Club
The ice plant part, which is a controller that communicates between the compressor and the evaporator at the top of the roof, Scott explained, “basically communicates to turn this one motor on so the heat can be released when the compressor goes on.”
“It overloaded so it wasn’t able to turn on so the plant shuts down,” he noted.
With a curling club and ice plant system originally built in the 1960s, Scott said Wednesday that his and the club’s maintenance worker’s goal is getting things running properly once the new part is in.
“We’re just crossing our fingers it won’t be too expensive… when you have an aging plant like we have, his concern and mine is there’s something else… is there a secondary problem somewhere else?”
“Fingers crossed right now we can get things going.”
With the upcoming Bye the Sea ladies bonspiel planned for Jan. 12-14, a one-day sturling spiel set for Jan. 20 and a Fraser Valley men’s over 60 and over 70 bonspiels set for Feb. 16-18, Scott is hopeful they’ll get everything fixed and running smoothly as soon as possible.