Sports

Alliston Curling Club hosts Meltdown Spiel to celebrate end of season

April 16, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

It was the final time for many club members to get out on the ice sheets and enjoy one last day of curling before the ice is removed at the Alliston Curling Club.

The club hosted its annual Meltdown Spiel on Saturday, April 11, and it had a full turnout of curlers who wanted to have one final match in a non-competitive afternoon of play.

Curlers will have to wait until October when new ice is made before they can enjoy their sport again.

“We started doing the Meltdown Spiel years ago. This is an annual event,” said Alliston Curling Club President Shawn Evans. “The event is just for fun. It’s not competitive. The ice comes out on Thursday of next week, so that’s why we call it the meltdown. It’s the final club event before all the leagues wrap up for the year.”

The ice at the club is normally removed in April of each year. It is a process that takes several days, as the ice sheets are around three inches thick and produce a lot of water that has to be pumped out of the facility.

“It takes two to three weeks to remove the ice,” Evans explained. “They shut the ice plant down, then it takes a good week for it to melt, then it all has to be pumped out.”

A total of 64 curlers were on the ice, and games went on all day. There were 16 teams of four players – the maximum number of players that can fill the bonspiel on the four ice sheets.

Each team played two games.

The Alliston Curling Club is currently celebrating 125 years as a club. The current building was built in 1956, and a lot of the work was done by volunteers.

The club will be celebrating the anniversary with a big party on May. 31.

Club members enjoyed the final day of non-competitive fun on the ice before they moved on to summer sports.

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