“The (World Curling Tour) screwed us." Southwest Women's event folds

Steve Green in the London Free Press has the story of one of the longest-running and most popular women's cashspiels ending due to what it says is bad planning by the World Curling Tour.

“The (World Curling Tour) screwed us,” said Lynn Baker, who chaired the event in recent years. “We were here first and the WCT put themselves on either side of us. We’ve had the same weekend for 15 years, but the girls can’t play three weekends in a row with all that travelling. It’s just not possible.“We’ve had a lot of great teams here over the years, including from Europe and China, and the city and curling in this area is losing because of this. But everything has a shelf life and this seemed to be the right time to say goodbye and leave on a good note.”

This year's Slams are in Calgary Oct. 7-10 and then Winnipeg Oct. 21-24. The Southwestern Ontario Women's Charity Cashspiel has traditionally been held in that middle week, but no more. The event raised more than $200,000 for breast cancer research over its run. There are no plans to shift it to a different part of the year or even talk of reviving it.