Do We Really Need Mixed Curling?

Mixed curling. I don’t get it.

I mean, I get the Friday night sweep-and-giggle stuff at the club. That’s fun and that’s obvious. I haven’t played mixed for some time, but I enjoyed it when I did. I even remember one guy in a league in which I once played who had a team comprised of his wife and his mistress. His wife didn’t know of course. She also didn’t know that his mistress was carrying his child. How’s that for cajones?

What I’m talking about today is the Canadian Mixed which just wrapped up a great week at the Burlington Golf and Country Club down the highway from where I live.
Former golf pro and now Timmies owner Mark Dacey skipped his Blue Nose rink to victory. By all accounts the week was a smashing success both on and off the ice. (although how someone wins the 2010 Mixed in 2009 is a bit of a mystery.)

I’m not trying to shoot down any of that, but I don’t get why we have a national mixed championship in the first place. I mean, other than those Friday night leagues at the club and some social bonspiels, no one curls mixed competitively. The only time there’s any sort of competitive mixed curling is. . . at the playdowns leading to the Canadian mixed. (I’m not including the newly created mixed doubles here which is another story -- enjoy Russia Mark and Heather!).

Every other national championship makes sense as guys and gals form competitive teams, play hard all year and then enter the playdowns. There are cash events for juniors, men’s, women’s and senior’s – but not for mixed.

I don’t want to be the bad guy who suggests this, but maybe we don’t really need a national mixed, which, by the way, hasn’t had a national sponsor since the days of the corn broom.