— Nicole Fay Barr

GUILDERLAND — Melvin Abelseth’s favorite time of year is winter. It’s then that he feels a camaraderie with friends who share his passion — curling.
"It’s a very gentlemanly sport," said Abelseth of the Scottish game in which two teams of four slide heavy stones over an ice sheet towards the center of a circle. "It’s one of the only games where people shake hands before they get on the ice and, in most cases, when they’re done."

He’s been a member of the Albany Curling Club for 35 years; the club, on McKown Road, is one of the best-kept secrets in Guilderland, he said.

Last Wednesday, the curling club asked the Guilderland Zoning Board of Appeals for a variance to build an addition to its clubhouse, for storage and viewing. The club, which now has two sheets of ice for play, is also asking for a variance for two more sheets of ice.
"We’re bursting at the seams," Abelseth said. This is because, with curling’s increasing popularity — it’s now an Olympic sport — more and more locals are joining the club.
"It’s a major world sport," he said.

Popular sport

The Albany Curling Club, about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, started in 1955 with 16 members.

Abelseth, who grew up in Saskatchewan, began curling over 60 years ago, when he was in high school. Curling is a popular sport in Canada, he said.
"Every little town there has a curling rink," he said.

In 1970, Abelseth moved from Toronto to Voorheesville, to take a job with the Department of Health.
As soon as he moved here, he said, he and his wife made friends with residents who were in the Albany Curling Club. "That’s how most people join the club," he said.
"We have considerable membership and, with the Olympics, there’s a growing interest in curling," Abelseth said. The club now has 150 members.

Curling clubs are more popular in mid-western states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota, Abelseth said. In the Northeast, there are only 35 clubs.

Albany Curling Club members play from the beginning of October until the end of March. The rest of the year, Abelseth said, it’s too expensive to maintain the ice. The ice is put in the rinks by a sprinkler system, he said.

A curling rink has rings, resembling a bull’s eye, on each end. Four players are on a team and they stand on alternating sides of the rink.
Curlers do not wear skates; that would ruin the ice, Abelseth said. Wearing special shoes — "one has a gripper and the other has a Teflon sole" — a curler places one foot in a hole in the ice, he said.
The players then shove "rocks" — flat, oblate stones with handles — 140 feet across the ice, toward the rings. Those who come closest to the center ring, score. Opponents can knock others’ rocks out of the ring, however.

The rocks weigh 43 pounds and are made of solid granite. They are manufactured only in Scotland and are ground in a special way for sliding on the ice.
The rocks are slid by hand. But, Abelseth said, "now we’re getting into stick curlers, for people who have knee problems or arthritis."
Games usually last two hours, he said. Outside the rink, in what’s called the "warm room," curlers watch others play or "shoot the breeze," he said.
"It’s a technical sport," Abelseth said. "The better you are, the more chances you have at beating your opponent."

Need to expand
"We started out with two sheets of ice and that’s what we still have," Abelseth said.

It is the only club of its kind in Albany County. Another club in Schenectady has four sheets, he said. Most curling clubs have more than two sheets of ice, he said.

With eight players per game, members of the club sometimes have to wait long periods of time before getting on the ice, he said. Leagues that start at 6 p.m. often go until after midnight, Abelseth said.
"That’s not good," he said. "People have to work."

Monday and Wednesday nights, the club’s men’s league curls from 6 p.m. to midnight, he said. Tuesdays, the women’s league curls and Thursdays, members of both genders compete.
Other days, the club’s junior members and children from schools and Scout troops play. The club also has "Little Rockers," a program where children as young as five are taught to curl. They use a lightweight, plastic rock.

The club has limited its membership, Abelseth said, although many want to join.

The Albany Curling Club also has tournaments, called bonspiels. Teams from other towns, as far away as Canada, come to Guilderland to compete for trophies.

When the club applied for its zoning variance, members left phamplets about the club at the homes of neighboring residents. The club owns four-and-a-half acres on McKown Road, near Schoolhouse Road.
"Six or eight people came to see what we do," Abelseth said. "They had no idea what goes on in that gray building."

The addition would be 5,100 square feet and would match the existing building, with a pitched roof. Last Wednesday, the zoning board decided to table the discussion.
"We really hope to get the variance," Abelseth told The Enterprise this week. "We feel we’re good neighbors. We try not to harass anybody."

If the club gets the okay to expand, it first must find a contractor and get cost estimates, he said. Abelseth hopes construction will begin in a year or two.