Maxville Curling Club

The old Maxville curling club began in 1952 with over sixty members and today celebrate over sixty years of excitement. Jim Campbell and Don McIntosh are the only surviving members of the group that brought pride to the small town.

“They used to pull in the sidewalks of Maxville early on winter nights, but things changed with the addition of the curling club,” claimed one newspaper article found in Archie Hughe’s scrapbook.
The silence of the quiet village had been dispelled by the roar from a long frame building where bright lights were an oasis of warmth and cheer in the snow-shrouded streets. “We had a lot of good times in that old club,” recalls Jim Cambell of Maxvill who stopped playing two years ago at the age of 82 due to a hip injury. “And it wasn’t from curling,” he proudly says.

The first curling club in Maxville was organized in 1931 when the Jubilee Rink was built. Membership was $6.00 and a set of ‘granites’ cost $15.00. Rent for the year was $40.00.

Members of the club included; Wm. Morrison, E. S. Winter, R. G. Jamieson, Duncan Macdonald, Jas A. Ross, B.F. Villeneuve, A. A. Badnage, Wm. Dousett, Dr. W. B. MacDiarmid, Rev. J. Hamilton, Myles MacMillan, D. J. Kippen, T.W. Dingwall, E. L. Bronskill, Christopher MacRae, D. S. Ferguson, Joe Armstrong, W.A. MacEwen, Dr. Duncan McEwen, and Dr. Ed MacMillan.

The total receipts for the season were $162.00 and the expenses were $161.80. The granites were paid for, but the season wasn’t successful because the ice was always too sticky and heavy. At the annual meeting on Nov. 3 1032, it was decided to suspend operations.

Twenty years later in 1952 at a director’s meeting of the Maxville Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Don Gamble brought up the idea of a curling club for Maxville. President of the C.C., Hubert and all members were in agreement. The next morning, plans began to find a building. Eventually two church sheds from St. Raphel’s that were about to be torn down were secured for $700. A bee was held to tear down the sheds and rebuild them as the new curling rink in Maxville.Rev. M. Langer, a retired United Church Minister, donated an old barn that became the clubhouse.

The club and rink went through the usual ups and down of curling clubs… mild winters and bad ice, not enough money, collapsing roofs, frost heaving, grant money denied, zoning by-law issues.
In 1986, a building committee was formed and in 1987 a grant for $208,000.00 was received.
Construction began, problems ensued but eventually the first curling club bonspiel took place on January 6, 1989 at the MacLeod Bonspiel.

According to curling club director Catherine Kippen who takes club bookings, membership is string. “We have over a hundred members,” she comments, “and we have a lot of fun.”
Curling is still a big part of Maxville life and the club is clearly deserving of the respected award