CARP – A couple dozen brave newbs hit the curling rink and gave a new sport a try last Saturday afternoon.

The Huntley Curling Club (HCC) offered free curling sessions to the community on Oct. 27 and gave a group new to the sport an opportunity to learn a few skills and tips and see if joining the club would be a fun recreational event to do this winter. Spoiler alert, it is.

The HCC ran four sessions on Saturday between 3 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Club members volunteered to lead small groups, give interested participants an opportunity to try the sport and give an introduction to the friendly club. West Carleton Online witnessed about 30 people taking part in the first two sessions of the afternoon when we dropped by around 3:30 p.m.

Carp resident Maria Muprhy was one of the participants to come out for the first session.

“I’ve lived here for 12 years and never tried curling before,” she told West Carleton Online shortly after the first clinic finished.

Murphy says she has played sports her whole life including in several softball leagues around the area and is “pretty competitive.”

Murphy said she enjoyed the session and when asked if she would be taking up the sport joked “we’ll see how sore I am in the morning.”

“These are very nice people,” Murphy said. “It’s nice to meet your neighbours. Now I’m going to get in to the social aspect of it.”

With that, Murphy headed to the club’s lounge.

Louise Briere, a Carp resident, was also trying the sport for the first time. She signed up for the clinic with a friend who had played before. Their husbands were taking part in the next session and the foursome was considering joining the club as a group.

“It was tough,” Briere said. “It was more difficult than I expected with the balance and the rocks and the falling.”

Briere said she learned about the club through Facebook. Briere and her friend decided to head back out to the rink to join their husbands in the second session.

“The whole goal of the club is to have fun,” HCC club manager Peter Smith said. “It’s a sport you can enjoy well in to your older years and I say that as a 73-year-old curler.”

This Saturday, Nov. 2, the HCC is hosting a Curling Technical Skills Clinic with Video Analysis.

“Need help with your delivery, weight control/judgment, sweeping or all the above?” the HCC released in a statement. “Join us on Nov. 2 for all the help you’ll need. All this help for the bargain price of $20.”

For more information on the Huntley Curling Club, click here.