AS the title states, I thought an effective manner to celebrate Gerry’s birthday would be to give you one example of Gerry’s contribution to Shuffleboard.  The timing is appropriate as the example used is the 3rd IP (Inter Provincial) and of course, our 4th IP begins this July 20th.     

In this article by Allison Toogood of the Times & Transcript newspaper of Dieppe, she is speaking with Gerry Curwin.  Gerry was our prime On  Site Contact with the local press for the III IP held in Dieppe NB in 2013.  

Youth, physicality and athleticism, important in many types of sports and competitive activities, are not needed here.  The game of shuffleboard is much like the game of chess: precision, skill and strategy are the keys to success.

The Arthur-J.-LeBlanc Arena in Dieppe is host to 102 players from across Canada competing in shuffle­board singles this week during the Canadian National Shuffleboard Association’s Interprovincial Shuffleboard Tournament.

All of the provinces save for British Columbia and Alberta are represented and host New Brunswick has two teams -16 people – made up of returning and new players in the biennial tournament.

With the success of 2011’s World Shuffleboard Championships in the city, which saw over 80 competi­tors from 10 countries, Gerry Curwin, a member of the provincial association and a member of the event’s organizing committee, said to continue its relationship with Dieppe is a no-brainer.

“We’ve been playing here for seven or eight years now,” he said. “The City of Dieppe is very good to us … there’s been lots of preparation, about a year, put in to make it go smoothly. We wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this without the co-operation of the city.”

This afternoon will see practice rounds at the arena as players get accustomed to the venue and the area as a whole. The official opening ceremony and the parade of flags will go tomorrow morning, beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Tournament play will extend right through to Friday afternoon and the evening banquet, held at the St-An­selme Rotary Lodge Pavilion will see the presentation of trophies and a few entries into the Hall of Fame.

The sport, which dates back about 500 years to Eng­land, caught on in North America during the mid-20th century beginning in Florida, and became a major organized pursuit in Canada about four decades ago.

The simple rules belie the strategic complexity of the game. Players face off across a rectangular court onto which triangular scoring zones have been outlined at either end. Using long cues, players attempt to shove weighted disks, or pucks, into the scoring zones to earn points and strategically push their opponents’ disks out of play, or into negative scoring areas.

So not only can you score points, you can also cause your opponent to lose points.

Curwin, who lives in Florida most of the year and plays in outdoor tournaments frequently, said that although the sport sees many seniors joining teams and associations, it can an accessible activity for children and young people as well.

Happy Birthday Gerry, from Shufflers Everywhere!! 

Stan McCormack.  2015 06 27.