Since 1989, the Ray Kingsmith Memorial Bonspiel is held every December in the Greater Calgary Area of Alberta. The bonspiel is one of the oldest, most prestigious junior bonspiels in the country with arguably the biggest prize purse. In this episode, I speak with Andy Jones of the Calgary Youth Curling Association (CYCA) and Marlene Kingsmith, Ray's daughter. We talk about the history of the bonspiel, the life of its namesake, the CYCA, and why the prize money doubled at the most recent "Kingsmith" in December 2021.
NOTE: Both interviews were recorded in late January and early February 2022.
Some of the topics we discuss:
* Bonspiel details and basic history (1:57)
* How did Andy get involved in the first place? (5:16)
* What is the CYCA? (7:45)
* How the CYCA dealt with COVID (12:07)
* What makes the "Kingsmith" special? (15:52)
* Jim's version of Marlene's prize money story (17:28)
* Marlene: What was Ray like as a dad? (23:39)
* Ray loved sports besides curling (26:03)
* .Why did Ray love curling? (30:40)
* Marlene accompanied her dad to Switzerland for the 1974 Silver Broom (31:49)
* Her experience at the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics (33:42)
* Parents and organizers make the "Kingsmith" special (39:06)
* Marlene's version of the prize money story (42:07)
* What would Ray think of the bonspiel created in his name? (44:50)
* Ray Kingsmith posthumously wins the World Curling Federation's Freytag Award (45:45) & a funny story about the award ceremony in Regina (46:58)
Links to the resources mentioned in this episode:
Calgary Youth Curling Association (& "Kingsmith" bonspiel details)
https://cyca.curling.io
2021 Kingsmith news article "Team Wipf wins CYAC Ray Kingsmith Memorial" on the Cochrane Now Web site (Dec 31/21)
https://cochranenow.com/articles/team-wipf-wins-cyac-ray-kingsmith-memorial
Ray Kingsmith's entry on the Curling Canada Hall of Fame Web site:
https://www.curling.ca/hof/people/kingsmith-raymond-a-ray/
World Curling Federation Freytag Award Recipients
http://worldcurling.org/awards/freytag/
"Sticks and Stones" Documentary (2014) on YouTube
https://youtu.be/FRiMLH3n3mA
"Sticks 'n' Stones" Book (2021) by Warren Hansen
https://www.warrenhansenauthor.com/about-the-book.html
Andy's E-mail Address: curl@cyca.ca
Follow our podcast on Twitter: @kidscurling
Glenn Gabriel is an NCCP-certified curling coach who lives in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. He has been the coordinator of the Little Rocks (U12) program at East York Curling Club in Toronto since 2011. If you have a question or feedback on the podcast, send us an e-mail at coachingkidscurling@gmail.com
The intro and outro music is "Golden Sunrise (Instrumental Version)"
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/The_Wake_1790/JoshWoodward-TheWake-NoVox-10-GoldenSunrise
By Josh Woodward
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward
Licensed under CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/