A new sport sweeps into Bloor West

[attach]557[/attach]A new kind of curling is sweeping the city.

Kurling, an off-ice version of the popular game, has pushed its way to Bloor West all the way from across the Atlantic.

A kurling event was held at High Park Curling Club on July 17.

Josh McIntyre and a group of his classmates from the post-graduate sport and event marketing program at George Brown College ran the event with the help of Rock Solid Productions,

“It was part of our event planning course,” McIntyre said. “We’ve been planning this for several months now.”

The game is played similarly to its on-ice cousin, McIntyre explained.

Two teams of four play each other, he said. Each player gets to throw two rocks.

“So you have two players down at one end and two players on the other end keeping score,” McIntyre said. “The way they throw is that everyone alternates, until all the rocks are down at the other end. So however many rocks you have close to the centre circle, that’s how many points you get.”

The event was a fundraiser for the Canadian Curling Association, McIntyre said.

“We’re using a program from Rock Solid Productions called Rocks and Rings,” he said. “They do it in partnership with Capital One to raise awareness of the sport of curling and get people interested in it in a new way.”

Participant Graham Hood said it was an excellent tournament.

“It ran like clockwork, and could not have been better organized,” said Hood, who was winner of the golf package raffle prize.

The event was host to many great raffle prizes, including an NHL prize package, a L’Oreal gift bag, Casa Loma passes, dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory and more.

The event raised over $1,000 to help support the Canadian Curlers for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“I think any time an organization like the Canadian Curling Association has people help out and run an event like this at a grassroots level to generate awareness and interest, it’s always nice to see,” McIntyre said. “People caught on to the game quickly and all of the feedback we’ve received so far has been very positive.”