The Wine Country Curling Club is hosting the annual Barrel Bonspiel at Skatetown Ice in Roseville from March 14 to March 16. Photo courtesy of Pixaby

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - Wine Country Curling Club is excited to once again host our annual Barrel Bonspiel at Skatetown Ice in Roseville from March 14 to March 16.

The club has 20 teams from Sacramento, Roseville, Northern California, Nevada and Oregon coming to Skatetown Ice to curl in pool-play-to-bracket tournament with the winning team getting their name added to the legacy trophy.

Each team will play two games on Friday, March 14, and two games on Saturday, March 15. There is also a HOT SHOTS contest on March 15 at 8:30pm. Finals are scheduled for Sunday, March 16. 

This year’s tournament will also include a banner-unveiling ceremony for the current USA Curling Arena Nationals Champions: Team Spangler.

Team Spangler [Camren Spangler (Meadow Vista) , Chris Hillman (El Dorado Hills), Junior Feldman (Sacramento), and Brian Feldman Sacramento)] won GOLD at the 2024 Arena National Championships held last fall in Wausau, Wisconsin. The Arena National Championship was created for curlers who curl on ice that is shared with hockey players and ice skaters. 

Curling is an ice sport that requires players to slide 42-pound stones over an ice sheet to a target at the other end. Clubs around the country and the world host tournaments (called bonspiels) which brings players together in friendly competition. Wine Country Curling Club hosts two tournaments a year, The Barrel Bonspiel in March and the Crush Bonspiel on Labor Day weekend. 

Considered to be one of the most captivating sports, curling is popularly known as chess on ice and a hybrid of bowling and shuffleboard. Americans flocked to the sport with intrigue and fascination when the Winter Olympics were televised from Torino in 2006, Vancouver in 2010, Sochi in 2014, South Korea in 2018, and Beijing 2022.

Readers might also remember that Team Shuster from the United States brought home GOLD in the 2018 Olympics from South Korea. Shuster’s win catapulted curling to the front page of every newspaper and the lead story in every newscast.