The Canadian Police Curling Championships took place in Chilliwack, B.C. from Mar. 25 to Apr. 2.
Dickson retired from the WRPS in January of last year, where he spent the last bit of his career manning the front desk at the Elmira detachment following extensive leg surgery. He spent 26 years on the local police force.
Dickson, along with teammates skip Garth Mitchell from RCMP Stoney Creek, vice retired OPP officer Don Shane, and lead Saugeen Shores Police chief Dan Rivett, were up against Team Saskatchewan in the finals. They came close to winning it all, if it weren’t for a few pesky rocks.
- Advertisement -
“Saskatchewan won the whole shebang,” said Dickson. “In the third end, we had a chance to get a couple of points, but they made a few good shots and stole two on us. It’s curling, though. It happens.”
This is the third time Dickson has represented Ontario at the Canadian Police Curling Championship, and this time around was his team’s best showing, winning eight games and losing three.
“(The other times) went a lot worse,” he said with a laugh. “This is the first time we have made the playoffs. It was pretty good overall. We lost the final on the last rock. We did very well all week. We ended up second in the round robin after playing 11 games.”
With the team members spread out around the province, Dickson says they never had a chance to practice together before showing up to compete against police officers, active and retired, from across the country.
“We never practice. We show up and see what happens. We won provincials two years in a row, so we are a pretty good gel, I would say.”
The team faced a couple of challenges while out in Chilliwack, but still managed to make it to the last round.
“This year, our skip, his father-in-law died two days before the final. I don’t know (if it affected our game). He is a very competitive player. We are all pretty competitive that way,” he shared, adding that team lead, Rivett, doesn’t even curl in his spare time. “This (competition) is all he curls. He gave up curling years ago. He just didn’t have the time. But, he made the time for us.”
Outside of the curling rink, taking a trip to the west coast was a nice reprieve from the winter weather in the Waterloo Region the last couple of weeks.
“It was gorgeous. It was tough to come back,” he said. “We heard that there were snow squalls and wet snow, but we were sitting in 23-degree weather in the sunshine, so it was hard to picture. The golf courses were open out there. Alberta lost the tie breaker in the first playoff game, and they booked a tee-off time. They lost and were golfing the next day.”
To see the full results of the Canadian Police Curling Championships, visit www.policecurling.ca.
