Junior ChallengeBRANDON ยท MANITOBA
Sun Life Junior Challenge

Bonspiel rules

For team members and coaches. We strive to run this bonspiel as close to a provincial playdown format as possible. Please read carefully to fully understand these rules.

Team registration

  • Your team package includes your team members' and coach's accreditation lanyards.
  • Players' and coaches' banquet tickets are behind your accreditation. Extra banquet tickets ordered ahead are included in the package and can be paid for then.
  • Players' gift packages are given out at registration.

As participants, you are expected to wear your accreditation lanyards at all times, except when you are playing on the ice. Volunteers, spectators, officials, committee members and the press need to be able to tell the athletes from everyone else at all times. We appreciate your co-operation.

First game

  • Please be ready 45 minutes before your first scheduled start.
  • Committee members will say a few words.
  • The event official, Derek Papegnies, will review the rules with teams and coaches and answer any questions.

Rules

  • Games are eight (8) ends using the five (5) rock free guard zone rule. Teams must play a minimum of five (5) ends before the completion of the game.
  • Teams flip a coin 30 minutes before the game. The winner of the toss chooses first or second practice. Rock colour is shown on the draw.
  • Practice is timed. Be ready for practice 25 minutes before the scheduled game time. A bell rings to start practice; 5 minutes later the bell rings again and the practicing team places all rocks back at the home end. A short bell rings when 1 minute of practice remains.
  • Immediately after your practice, two members of your team throw a draw to the button at the home end. Sweeping is allowed. Each player must throw at least once during the round robin. The total of all 6 throws during the round robin counts as the skills-based ranking. Closest to the pin gets hammer in the first end, once both teams have thrown their draws to the button. Do not remove your rock until it has been measured. Both teams throw their first rock with a clockwise rotation and their second rock with a counter-clockwise rotation.
    • If both team members record a total distance of 0.00 or 399.2 cm, the team leaves the ice. If the second team matches the first team's distance with both of their stones, another player from the first team alternates with another player from the second team until the hammer is decided.
  • Coaches may be on the back boards, away from the ice surface, and must not engage team members during the draws to the button.

Timeouts

  • Each team has two 90-second timeouts per 8-end game, and one more per team for each extra end.
  • After the 4th end, there is a 5-minute break. The team meeting must be held near the ice surface, not inside the waiting room.
  • If your game goes to an extra end, there is a 2-minute break between the 8th and the extra end.
  • When a timeout is called, coaches go to their designated areas to consult with the players.

Bells

  • A bell rings at 1 hour 50 minutes: finish the end and play one more. If needed, a second bell rings at 2 hours 10 minutes: finish the end and the game is complete.

Brooms and brush heads

  • The bonspiel follows the WCF and CCA broom and brush head regulations. All teams should make themselves aware of these regulations.

Electronic communication devices

  • One-way and two-way communication devices between the coach and players are not allowed during games.

No-tick shot

  • If, before the delivery of the sixth stone of an end, a delivered stone causes, directly or indirectly, an opposition stone in the free guard zone that is touching the centre line to be moved off the centre line, the non-offending team may either:
    • remove the delivered stone from play and put all displaced stones back where they were before the violation, or
    • leave all stones where they came to rest.

Warm-ups and stretching

  • All warm-ups and stretching are done inside the curling club; the upstairs lounge or the change rooms are best. No warm-ups or stretching in the main Keystone concourse: too much dirt and debris is dragged from there onto the ice.

Advancing to the playoffs

  • After the round robin, playoff positions are decided first by win/loss record (who beat whom), then by team ranking from the total of your 6 draws to the button in the round robin.
    • If 2 teams are tied for 2nd, they play a tie-breaker game. The winner gets 2nd place and the loser 3rd.
    • If 3 teams are tied for 1st in their pool, the team with the best skills ranking gets 1st place. The other 2 teams play an 8-end tie-breaker: the winner is 2nd, the loser 3rd.
    • If 3 teams are tied for last in their pool, the team with the lowest skills ranking is 4th. The other 2 teams play an 8-end tie-breaker: the winner is 2nd, the loser 3rd.
  • Once the 4 teams in each pool are placed, the 4 pool winners cross over to play the 2nd-place teams in the playoff round.
  • All teams, junior men and junior women, finishing 3rd and 4th in their pools play in the consolation event.

Consolation event

  • The consolation event has 16 teams: the 8 junior men's teams on one half of the draw and the 8 junior women's teams on the other, so the final is always a junior men's team against a junior women's team.
  • Teams are encouraged to play in this event.