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Nipawin to set up Crokicurl at town square

NIPAWIN — Nipawin will be adding a crokicurl arena to the town this winter, giving residents and guests a chance to play the sport that’s been spreading throughout the region.
file-crokicurl
Submitted photo by Taylorlarocque/Wikimedia Commons

NIPAWIN — Nipawin will be adding a crokicurl arena to the town this winter, giving residents and guests a chance to play the sport that’s been spreading throughout the region.

Chelsea Corrigan, Nipawin’s director of parks and recreation, said its success – or lack thereof – this winter will determine its future in the city.

“This year will kind of depend on how we do it next year, for sure,” Corrigan said.

“We just think it will be another opportunity for Nipawin residents to participate in a winter activity.”

Crokicurl is the combination of the board game crokinole and the winter sport of curling that was created in 2016 at Winnipeg.

Crokicurl is played as a larger sized version of crokinole on the ice, with lighter curling rocks made of plastic or wood. Each player takes a turn throwing a rock, starting clockwise and alternating teams and players. Same as a crokinole board, the play area of crokicurl has posts around the inner ring to make it a little more challenging. The rules will be posted by the arena to teach people how to play.

The game has arenas in Melfort and Carrot River.

The Nipawin arena will be located at the Town Square.

“It [takes up] most of the Town square and we’re working on it right now, but it’s been really warm out,” Corrigan said. “Making ice becomes challenging with warm temperatures.”

She said the arena will be set up as soon as temperatures allow, with the original goal being to have it up by the Christmas Tree Lighting on Dec. 5.

The arena will be stay around for the season.  

Corrigan said besides weather, the greatest challenge with setting up the arena was logistics.

“Just the logistics of figuring out how to make it accessible for everybody, how to make it so the people can get the rocks and stuff. We think this way will work, so we’ll see. ”

The rocks will be located locked in a box at the Town Square. The players will need to go to the Nipawin Centennial and Jubilee Arena Complex to get the key to unlock it.

“We’re going to try it that way and see how it goes, see how that works.”