Trident Feb 6 2006 - Tridentnews.ca

TRIDENT, FEBRUARY 6, 2006 23
Sidelines sports trivia
1. Which sport involves athletes riding
down an ice track seated two
or four to a sled
2. Name the sport where two teams
push 42 pound stones across the
ice toward a target. Matches consist
of 10 ends, and during each
end a team scores one point for
every stone that is closer to the
center of the target than all of the
opponent’s stones.
3. Which sport is a two day event,
involving both ski jumping and
cross country skiing
4. In which sport do athletes ski
cross country with pauses to
shoot at targets, with competitors
skiing penalty loops or receiving a
time penalty
5. In which event do athletes race
down an ice track singly or in
pairs, sliding on their backs
6. Athletes in this type of skiing
competed in Aerials and Moguls.
7. Introduced at the 1998 Winter
Olympics, what is the name of
the event in which athletes compete
in the halfpipe and parallel
giant slalom
8. Events in this type of alpine skiing
included the ‘Giant’ and ‘Super G’.
9. Athletes race down a track of ice
on their stomachs head first.
10. What sport was part of the
summer Olympics before it was
moved to the Winter Olympics.
— By MS Sherdian, HMCS Halifax
ANSWERS: 1. Bobsled. 2. Curling. 3. Nordic Combined.
4. Biathlon. 5. Luge. 6. Freestyle skiing. 7. Snowboarding. 8.
Slaloms. 9. Skeleton. 10. Hockey.
Formation Halifax Broomball Club
By Virginia Beaton
Trident staff
Broomball has some things in
common with hockey and with
curling, but it is not the same as
those games.
“Basically, the game is similar to
hockey,” noted broomball player
Jennifer Doyle, president of the Formation
Halifax Broomball Club.
“The key difference is, we don’t
skate. It is a running sport.”
People have been playing broomball
for approximately 100 years,
Doyle stated. The exact origins of
the game are uncertain, but it may
have been established as an alternative
to hockey, or “in communities
where there were no arenas.”
The Formation Halifax club meets
to play on Thursday evenings at the
Shannon Park Arena, and usually on
Monday nights in the town of Windsor,
depending on the schedule. “We
have about 18 members right now, all
female,” stated Doyle. There used to
be a men’s team as well but several
years ago broomball was dropped as
a military sport, so there is not a
men’s team at this time.
Though there is not the number of
broomball players that there was 20
years ago, “We play against some
teams in the Valley, from the Windsor
and Brooklyn areas,” Doyle stated.
“We play in a league with five
The Formation Halifax broomball club at the World Championships, 2004.
women’s teams.”
Broomball is played on an ice rink
but unlike hockey, the players wear
broomball sneakers which have soles
with an inch of soft rubber that gives
the player traction on ice. Broomball
players wear helmets, knee and
elbow pads, and gloves.
The purpose of the game is to score
goals over the opposing team. Each
team has six players and the players
use a stick made of rubber, with
wood or aluminum shafts and shaped
like a paddle, in order to propel the
ball around the rink. The ball is made
of material like that of a basketball
and is about five inches in diameter.
A broomball game consists of two
periods, each one 20 minutes long.
The six players comprise a centreman,
two singers, two defencemen,
and a goalie.
The Formation Halifax club is
affiliated with Broomball Nova Scotia
and also with the Canadian
Broomball Federation. There is a
provincial tournament and the winning
team is eligible to compete in
the national championship.
Formation Halifax Broomball
welcomes players of all ages and
experience levels. “Some of the girls
on the team are in their first year of
playing and there are others who
have been playing for 15 years. So
we have a wide range, and it’s the
same thing with the ages. We have 18
year olds and we have 50 year olds.”
New players can learn all the basics
of the game, Doyle commented. “We
are trying to promote it and get more
people out to play.”
“Our club has always been about
playing because we like to play. If we
win, that’s just a bonus.”
The Formation Halifax Broomball
Club will host a tournament at
Shannon Park on February 18 and
19. “We are hoping to have at least
12 teams, and coed as well. We play
coed in the tournament.”
The provincial broomball tournament
will be in Tatamagouche from
March 10 to 12, but according to
Doyle, the February tournament in
Shannon Park is unique. “Right now,
our club is the only other club that has
a tournament in Nova Scotia.”
Because the broomball community is
smaller now, there are no longer as
many tournaments, Doyle observed,
adding that the February event has
created excitement. “I had people
calling me from New Brunswick,
back in November.”
The Formation Halifax Broomball
Club team won the provincial championships
in 2005. Instead of attending
the Canadian national championship,
the club has decided instead
to attend the world broomball championship
to be held in Minneapolis in
October 2006.
“So we have been fundraising
since last summer, to attend the
world championship. Some of our
military members who were transferred
last year have already put
their money down, and they will
meet us there.”
For more information, contact Jennifer
Doyle at 864-9272 or by email
at jenniferdoyle@eastlink.ca.
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