Thistle-St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John, N.B., celebrates 150 years with past presidents bonspiel

The Past Presidents’ Cup Funspiel took place at the Thistle-St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John, N.B. (Avery MacRae, CTV)

The Thistle-St. Andrews Curling Club in Saint John, N.B., one of the largest east of Montreal, is celebrating a huge milestone. For 150 years, people have been throwing stones, end-over-end, at the club, which currently boasts more than 500 members.

As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, the club is hosting the inaugural Past President’s Cup Funspiel on Saturday. There are 16 teams registered in the two-day tournament. Each squad has a teammate who has served as a past president from the club.

“At this club it's a combination of social curlers like myself and there's a wealth of talented curlers here that have been to provincials, nationals and even world championships,” said event co-chair Bill Ayles. “We have wheelchair curlers, stick curlers, so we cover all the bases when it comes to curling.”

Ayles, who served as president of the Thistle-St. Andrews Curling Club on three separate occasions, most recently in 2012, is also taking part in the tournament. He said it is a friendly and fun competition, consisting of three round robin, 6-end games for each team on Saturday spread across the arena’s eight sheets. All teams advance to the first draw of elimination games Sunday, with the finals set for Sunday afternoon.

The tournament is a bonspiel held for fun but Ayles said it’s still competitive among curlers on the pebbled ice.

“I'm sure everybody's here to win, but there's also some great fun and a little bit of smack talking goes with it,” said Ayles.

Greg Hanlon has been a member with the club since the 1970s. He served a term as president in 1985. He said the club has grown from his early days when a membership was needed to enter the facility. He said curlers can get one night memberships now. He said he thinks it helps the sport and the club stay successful after a century and a half.

“It's always been a very competitive club,” Hanlon said. “We're the biggest club in eastern Canada with eight sheets of ice. We have a great committee, lots of great volunteers, a great bonspiel and I think it's just a very good club.”

Sandra Franey was the club’s president from 1994-1996. She has been a member since the mid-70s when women did not having voting rights in the club. She has watched the club grow into a place where everyone is welcome.

“I love the people here and I love the atmosphere here,” Franey said. “It's not elitist. So you walk through the door and nobody said where are you from and how much money do you make. It's been a wonderful experience to be here. Basically my friendship base came from here.”

Following the opening draw Saturday morning, the club’s current president Kevin Kyle said it’s special for so many of the club’s past presidents to be together on the same sheet of ice.

“These are all people that have done a lot for this club,” said Kyle, who joined the club in 1988. “150 years. That's a huge milestone for us. I'm just so proud to be the president and I look forward to another 150 years here at this club.”

Kyle said winning the weekend funspiel would be a bonus to enjoying time at the rink with friends.

The Thistle-St. Andrews Curling Club plans to make the Past Presidents’ Cup Funspiel an annual event.

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