Long-lost curling trophy recovered

Curling enthusiast Ian Crain plumbs a mystery of history

In late 2023, the 65-year-old St. Columba Curling Club was reunited with a trophy that was last presented over 25 years ago. Two churchs groups would award the “Ecumenical Bonspiel” trophy to the winner of a (friendly) rivalry between the two. The much-coveted trophy disappeared from sight sometime in the late 1990s.

This is basically the story of two churches – well, three churches really – all tied up with the rapid growth of the then-new community of Manor Park, as well as the construction of a grand new curling rink.

Solid evidence has been hard to find. A small plaque in the trophy case in the locker room of the RCMP rink (near the RCMP Musical Ride stables) displays a relatively firm date for the beginning of the St Columba Curling Club (St. CCC). The message is dated 1988, congratulating the St. CCC for 30 years at that facility, confirming that our club started there in 1958.

It was a busy time in the young growing neighbourhoods.

A tale of three parishes

St Columba’s Anglican Church, led by Rev. John Stewart, was established in an old schoolhouse (in turn a converted stable) on Sandridge Rd. in 1951. Construction of the existing church on the site began in 1959 while some of the congregation was apparently already happily curling.

Saint David’s Presbyterian Church, where the minister was Rev. W H Brown, was established in 1955 in rather temporary quarters on Donald St., and St. Martin’s Presbyterian church, led by Dr. P C Wotherspoon, opened in 1957 on St. Laurent Blvd. Of these two ministers, Rev. Wotherspoon reputedly had enormous enthusiasm for curling, and urged parishioners to participate, forming the St. Martin’s Curling Club.

Meanwhile, the ‘new’ RCMP rink with its fine laminated roof beams (beneath which we curl today) was constructed in 1957. This replaced the “naturally cooled” rink they were using in one of their stables.

It is not at all clear when St. Martin’s Club hit the ice, but at some point both churches enjoyed the “roaring game” at the RCMP rink, and a friendly rivalry ensued.

In 1968 St. David’s church merged with St Martin’s with Rev Wotherspoon in charge,. This led to the creation of the St. David’s and St. Martin’s Curling Club (known as “The Saints”). The exact nature of the competition between the Presbyterians and the Anglicans (St. CCC) is uncertain. A few sources indicated there was an annual bonspiel almost always won by The Saints.

There were rumours of some sort of trophy described as “a plaque with tags attached to show the winning club names”.

For years, the curling relic eluded all efforts to locate it.

A mystery of history

As time went by, curling enthusiasm waned at “The Saints”. Its curling club folded sometime in the late 1990s. The remaining members migrated to St. Columba’s (for curling, not for church services).

Over the subsequent years, direct connections with parishioners of either of the churches faded. By the beginning of the pandemic, St. CCC had only one such player – our good friend, Charlie Craig. He provided much of the historic information about the trophy.

Many have said that since Charlie’s retirement, no-one in the club has any connection to either of the churches. Well . . . not quite true. With the return of Phil Hurcomb, there again is one refugee from the days of the St David’s and St Martin’s Club. He does not remember when he switched allegiances, so to speak, but a good time ago.

Another mystery is when (and how) the ladies joined our club. The Saints CC was men-only. Now at St. CCC, we are about 50 percent. In 2017, Dorota Sobkowski became our first female skip. The club has had several more since, including current Club President Mar Warrender.

Following some unsuccessful attempts to get historical information before the pandemic, the St. CCC contacted the church Ministers (Rev. George Zimmerman at “The Saints,” and Rev. Karen Coxon at St. Columba, both now retired), but not much was forthcoming. Both expressed great interest – especially Rev. Coxon who, it seems, is an experienced curler. We are hoping to get her to show up as a spare sometime.

Raiders of the lost trophy

We followed up several leads to try to find some past names, dates, newspaper references, and of course, the elusive trophy. With the help of Rockcliffe historian, Martha Edmond, we located a single Ottawa Citizen article dated November 1985. It noted, “Reg Harvey, Roger MacIntosh, John Burton and Jim Andrew who absorbed a 16-0 shellacking at the hands of Dennis Robinson, John Read, Bud Sunderland and Murray Southerland during St. Columba CC play on RCMP ice.”

This seems typical of some of our contemporary matches (or mis-matches). Does anybody recognize any of those names? The short clip ends with “Enjoy your Snake River, fellows”. (Research indicates this was a brand of blended Canadian whisky.)
Still, nothing about a trophy. We were beginning to doubt its existence.

In the end, we had a chance meeting (on an unrelated topic) with St. Columba Parish Administrator Diana Poitras. She had seen the request for information, and told us, “I think I have seen your trophy”.

Dust-covered and a bit battered, she found it while cleaning out an old cupboard in the depths of the church.

The trophy is shaped like a large wooden shield and labelled “Ecumenical Bonspiel”. Two rows of brass plaques indicating winners, including “St Martin’s” in 1967. The trophy was last awarded to “St. David and St. Martin” in 1996, with lots of St. Columba in between. In fact, the rumoured dominance of The Saints was apparently exaggerated. Out of the 38 years represented on the trophy, over 25 were won by St. Columba.

There is still more we would like to know about the history of these two curling clubs. We would love to hear from anyone with memories or memorabilia, feel free to contact me at stcolumbacurling@gmail.com.

Personal postscript

On a personal note, I experienced a bizarre coincidence during a trip to Ireland to visit my wife’s sister. We were travelling there shortly after joining the St. CCC. I accidentally stumbled upon a memorial plaque marking St Columba’s birth in the year AD 521 at an obscure place called Gartan in County Donegal.

Suitably, the plaque is carved into a granite boulder.

This article was written by Ian Crain, who is in charge of membership and community development at the St. Columba Curling Club.