The ninth edition of the Laphroaig Cashspiel on Dec 2-4 is being planned by Mark Hartman, Lori Mountford and Jeremy Roe. Again this year, the spiel will be sponsored by Laphroaig Scotch Whiskey; thank you to Scott Hamilton for his relationship with Laphroaig! There will be some exciting changes to the 2011 cashspiel; it is now affiliated with the new Great Lakes Curling Tour – more about that later. One goal of the tour is to grow competitive women’s curling. To that end, a 12-team women’s event will run concurrent with a 16-team men’s event. As of this writing, the men’s side is FULL, and there is room for four more women’s teams. If a women’s team would like to enter or a men’s team  be placed on the waiting list, please contact Mark Hartman or Jeremy Roe, or go to greatlakescurling tour.com and click on the “Schedule” tab to register online. As always, organizers appreciate any help from volunteers in the areas of game timing, kitchen, bartending, and ice maintenance. MCC members are what make the event first class!

What is the Great Lakes Curling Tour you ask? An idea of Pat Berezowski, co-chair of the Courtesy Freight Superspiel (Thunder Bay, Ont.) and John Benton, Olympian and co-chair of the St. Paul Cashspiel, the Tour was established in June of this year to facilitate co-operation of similar events in the Great Lakes region. President Jeremy Roe and the chairs of eight cash bonspiels have been meeting monthly via Skype since June to develop a non-conflicting calendar and share planning information. As mentioned earlier, one of the goals of the Tour is to grow women’s competitive curling. To that end, four existing events are adding dedicated women’s competitions. All teams that compete on the Tour will be eligible for a season-ending grand prize of $2,000 for the men and $1,000 for the women, based on final Order of Merit.

For Great Lakes Curling Tour general information, participation information, and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Tour President Jeremy Roe at Jeremy.roe@amfam.com. You may also find information at www.greatlakescurlingtour.com.

For live results and team rosters, go to the event website:

www.worldcurlingtour.com/events.php?eventid=2498