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Grand Match, Grenadier Pond, High Park Curling Club Jan 3o, 1993

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EPISODE 155     THE  GRAND MATCH OF CURLING…ON THE ICE BENEATH WHICH THE GRENADIERS WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE DROWNED

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THE Schneller Team entry in the High Park Curling  Club GRAND MATCH 1993 celebrating  80 years of fine curling.  Left to right:  Mike Dent, Alan Skeoch,
Dave Snyder ,  Brad Schneller (skip).  


alan skeoch
Oct. 2020

Dateline: Winter 1993
Occasion: HIGH PARK CURLING CLUB GRAND  MATCH
Location:  Grenadier Pond, Toronto
Danger: Would the ice support 64 curling jteams
with their stones?

THE  GRAND  MATCH, HIGH PARK CRLING CLUB, 1993

The telephone  rang  as the winter wind blew.

“Hi, Alan, I have an adventure for you.”
“Great Brad, spill it out.”

Brad  Schneller was almost breathless…excited.

“Let’s get a curling team together for the Grand Match”
“What Grand  Match?”
“The HighPark Curling  Club is 80 years old  this winter…planning a
special competition on Grenadier Pond…let’s enter a team.”
“Did you say the Grand Match would be on Grenadier Pond?”
“Yes.”
“How many teams?”
“64 Curling Teams”
“That’s a lot of people on ice that could be  thin.”
“Lucky this is a bad winter…I figure there will be more
than 300 people out on the ice when pipers and Fort York guards are included.”
“Remember what happened  to the Grenadiers in 1812?”
“I’m not sure that really happened, Alan…the drowning of the Grenadiers is a myth I think.”’
“According to the story the soldiers were retreating from Fort York hauling their cannons
with them…that’s a lot of weight.”
“About as  much as 300 curlers?”
“Right.”
“Didn’t you do a dive last summer to see if there were cannons at the bottom of the pond?
“We did…a CBC radio story…Kevin and Andy did the diving while Christopher Thomas  and
I were in a rowboat.”
“Well…the result?”
“Andy reported  ‘Dad, I  shoved my arm deep  in the mud at the bottom…right up to my elbow…no cannons yet.”
It was  a  stupid idea.  Dangerous.”
“If we all break through the ice…there will be a lot of curling stones down there
for future divers.”
“Ice collapse  is Not likely this year…been dreadfully cold winter…ice  as thick and tough as old concrete.”
“And now a snowstorm is coming.”
“Nothing stops the bagpipes so we should not feel intimidated…let’s throw some rocks…find
a team willing to play.  A lot of people trying to clean the ice with their brooms…
sort of hopeless  for real curling.’
“Suppose we  get Mike Dent to lie down and  use him and his coonskin  coat as a sweeping  machine.”
“How?”
“You grab his feet, I’ll grab his arms…now walk … see  we are clearing a sheet.  How do you feel Mike?”
“Just keep my coonskin closed…otherwise  I will turn into a block of ice.  Pull…pull.”
“Any help with the game?”
“Not much…snow keeps  coming.”
“Throw your rock, Brad.”’
“Just throw, forget about the fine tuning…most rocks do not even get to the other end.”
“Let’s refine the game…forget about accuracy…see how brute strength works…wind  up with
a big back swing and then rifle the rock down the ice.”
“See who can throw the rock the farthest…forget about real curling.”
“When the rock  hits the ice, it echoes.”
“Hits like a cannonball.”
“Let go, Mike…let go!”
“Holy Samoley, Mike did not let go and threw the rock with all his might…he flew with the
rock…parallel  to the ice.”
“Here come Ed  Werench…top curler of 1993…looks sceptical…not exactly optimum conditions…he wans
to meet the so called ice maker.”
“This is turning into a wonderful afternoon…a real  celebration for the High  Park Curling Club…
an event that I wish we could duplicate each year.”
“i think the insurance companies would put an end to that idea.”

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“Hey, Al,where did you get your curling clothes?”
“Bearskin coat  I bought for $10 at a farm auction…”
“And the hat?”
“A Russian field hat from the Afghan war…sent from Slovakia by
our son Kevin.”
“And  your coat, Brad?”
“Sandra’s historic  beaverskin coat…expensive.”
“Makes us look like drifters from the Great Depression.”

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And so the day wore on.  Cold, snowstorm, hopeless for real curling but so
memorable … so memorable that even now, 27 years later I remember the 
day clearly.  Who dreamt up the idea? Well, I think Al White from the HPC
was one of the prime movers but there were so  many others.  

alan skeoch
Oct. 2020


 
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(PICTURES COURTESY OF BRAD  SCHNELLER)


alan skeoch
oct 2020


HISTORY OF THE HIGH PARK CURLING CLUM

Land for the club was purchased in 1910 by the club’s first president and chief financial backer, W.R. Prittie. The building, erected in 1911, was designed by architects Gemmell and W.R. Gregg and modeled after another Toronto club, the Queen City Curling Club. Today, the exterior looks very much as it did then. Facing east to west, the street façade is an unobtrusive red brick and on the west side a spectacular two-storey verandah overlooks the lawn tennis courts (formerly lawn bowling greens).

The High Park Curling and Lawn Bowling Club’s Inaugural Ball was held on the rink floor on December 15, 1911. In the early years, the club offered curling, lawn bowling, skating, indoor baseball, billiards, and cards. The new Club’s first few seasons were quite successful but with the outbreak of WWI in 1914 and the mild winters in 1916 and 1917 limiting the natural ice for curling, the club’s membership sagged and the club went bankrupt in 1917. It re-opened in 1918 as the High Park Club Limited with a new board of directors and a new charter.

HPC became the social centre for the whole community, with the vast majority of its members living within a 10-minute walk of the club. In the 1910’s and early ‘20’s, it was customary for members to visit the club in the evening and play cards. HPC was the centre for some of the best bridge played in Canada with numerous championship trophies to its credit.

Until 1919, women could not be members but wives of members had some privileges. In 1986, Anne Craig became the first female President of the High Park Club. 

From its start in 1912, lawn bowling was the principal sport at HPC, with bowlers frequently outnumbering the curlers. The Club’s sweeping verandah provided an ideal spot for watching lawn bowlers in action. Spectators watched players dressed in whites on 16 greens surrounded by climbing roses, lilacs, chestnuts, and gardens with multi-coloured flowers, shrubs and trees. As a result of the rise in popularity of golf and cottaging in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, membership in the section declined and the bowling greens were converted to lawn tennis courts.

Started in 1984, the tennis section of HPC boasts a unique feature – the only club-owned grass courts in Ontario. Tennis professionals have been known to grace its courts in preparation for the Wimbledon Championship (the oldest tennis tournament in the world).

Curling has been the other dominant sport at HPC and continues to be so today. At the club’s inception, it was a very different version of the game than what is played today. Along with their straw brooms, each player was responsible for their own rock and for $1 a year it could be stored in a wooden locker placed along the walls of the rink. In 1939, 41 pairs of stones, weighing 41.5 lbs each, and with black or white handles, were purchased for $36 per pair. The first sets of stones were lost when a German torpedo hit the Athenia, the ship carrying them. Their replacements arrived in time for the following season.

Artificial curling ice was installed in 1926, thus ending both the indoor softball league and public skating. Today, the only skating that takes place is at the end of the curling season party held in May. In celebration of the club’s 80th Anniversary in 1993, the Grand Match took place on nearby High Park’s Grenadier Pond and drew 64 teams from across the GTA. High Park Club curlers have excelled at their sport and the trophy cabinet is full of cups and plates won over the past century.

Until the mid-60’s, the club was managed by committees and the day-to-day needs were taken care of by the club’s steward or caretaker who lived in a private apartment with its own entrance on the north side of the club. 

Today, there is a full-time manager, icemaker and a part-time ice, lawn and catering staff that ensure the club runs smoothly and efficiently. Volunteerism continues to be a core tenet of the club’s culture, with over 1 in 7 members contributing time and efforts to committees, events, maintenance, decorating, and governance

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