Planning timeline and checklist
Use this timeline to keep track of what needs to be done and when. You can also download it as a printable one-page checklist.
3–6 months before
- Choose a date that does not clash with other bonspiels in your area
- Form your organizing committee and share out the roles
- Decide the format, number of teams and number of games guaranteed
- Set the entry fee and a simple budget (meal, prizes, DJ, decorations)
- Pick a theme (optional)
- Book the caterer for Saturday dinner and a DJ if you plan a dance
- Check your liquor licence and event insurance
2–3 months before
- Create the poster and entry form
- Send the poster to clubs, your association and bonspiels.net
- Create a Facebook event and share it in curling groups
- Ask sponsors for prizes, door prizes and eye openers
- Arrange the ice technicians for the weekend
1 month before
- Confirm entries and collect entry fees
- Order or buy the bonspiel prizes
- Schedule volunteers: kitchen, bar, cleaning, registration table
- Prepare the bonspiel rules and prize structure
1–2 weeks before
- Make the draw (free Draw Maker or our Google Sheets draw template) and share it with the teams
- Confirm meal numbers and times with the caterer
- Prepare the team envelopes: welcome letter, rules, meal tickets, draw tickets
- Buy raffle / 50/50 tickets and decorations
- Stock the bar, including the theme drinks
The day before
- Decorate the hall, the entrance and the bathrooms
- Post the draw and the rules where everyone can see them
- Set up the registration table near the entrance
- Prepare the basket for the ladies’ bathroom
- Check the ice, rocks, scoreboards and brooms
During the bonspiel
- Welcome teams at the door and hand out the envelopes
- Update the draw promptly after every game
- Keep the club and bathrooms clean every morning
- Run door prize draws and the 50/50 during the day
- Keep an eye on the timing between draws
After the bonspiel
- Hand out the prizes and announce the winners
- Thank volunteers and sponsors
- Post results and photos on social media
- Close the books: income, costs and notes for next year
Teamwork
Teamwork is an essential aspect of hosting a successful curling bonspiel. You will need a team of reliable helpers to assist you with various tasks and responsibilities. Some of the duties mentioned below may already be assigned to a specific individual within your club. Therefore, it’s essential to have excellent communication and delegation skills to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
Typical roles for a weekend bonspiel:
The date
Firstly, you must choose a date that doesn’t conflict with other bonspiels in your area. It’s important to support other clubs in your community and avoid competing with them for attendance.
Promoting your bonspiel
Most teams decide which bonspiels to enter weeks or months in advance, so start promoting early.
- Make a clear poster with the date, format, entry fee, prizes, meals included and how to enter.
- Send it to neighbouring clubs and ask them to post it on their notice board and social media.
- Send it to your provincial or state curling association for their bonspiel calendar.
- Create a Facebook event on your club page and share it in curling groups.
- Email the poster or a link to [email protected] – we list bonspiels for free.
Entry fee and costs
Next, you should calculate the entry fee for the bonspiel. Consider the costs you need to cover and how you can make money through the bar or other means. Make sure the fee is reasonable and fair for all participants.
Bonspiels should make money at the bar. Other than that, all costs should be considered and only covered. The bonspiel cost per team must cover the meal, prizes, disc jockey, and other major costs. The cost of decorations and trivial items should be covered through the 50/50 draw or raffle. Before setting the price for your bonspiel entry, check out comparable bonspiels and see what their entry fee is. If yours is set at a much higher price, teams are likely to choose another bonspiel.
Preparing the bonspiel draw
There are many points to consider when preparing a bonspiel draw. If the person preparing the draw is inexperienced, they should seek advice and help from someone with experience.
When choosing who plays who in the first draw, it is best to write all team names on small pieces of paper. Put the names into small piles corresponding to times. Draw two names from the pile and have them meet in the first game. You may also encourage home teams to play out-of-town teams as much as possible for the first set of games.
Good rules for a fair draw:
- No team plays back-to-back games, except for the semi-finals and finals on the last day.
- Teams do not play consecutive games on the same sheet of ice.
- No team plays the same team twice, except possibly in a final.
- No team plays more than three games in one day – two is better whenever possible.
- Teams that play late on Friday night are not in the first draw on Saturday morning.
- The draw is posted large and neat, and only the chairperson (or a designate) updates it. Winners report their result promptly.
Knockout, A/B/C events, round robin, pools or Schenkel – with the schedule, sheets and brackets, and results that move teams on automatically.
A ready-made draw for weekend bonspiels with winner’s and loser’s brackets. It stays online and up to date: curlers follow the draw on their phones, you choose who can edit it, and you can embed it on your club website or print it.
Scheduling teams from out of town
Be considerate when scheduling teams from out of town. Teams may find it difficult to arrive on time for the first draw and may request a later time. If this is possible, out-of-town teams will appreciate it and are more likely to return to your bonspiel.
Team envelopes
When teams arrive for a bonspiel, they should be received at the door or near the entrance by friendly, inviting faces. A table might be set up for this purpose. If teams have already paid their entry fee, they should be given the team envelope at this time. If teams are paying as they arrive, their entry fee must be collected, and then they must be given the team envelope. Team envelopes should be labeled with team names in order to ensure that all teams receive their envelope.
What to put in each team envelope:
- A welcome letter: draws, meal time, the theme and what to prepare
- The bonspiel rules, prize order and structure
- Four meal tickets
- Four tickets for the prize draws
- Freebies, e.g. coupons, pens, gum
- A team puzzle or trivia sheet (optional)
Saturday dinner
Saturday dinner is an important aspect of any bonspiel, and it should be scheduled between games or during a two-hour break to ensure all curlers have enough time to eat and socialize. It’s important to ensure that curlers coming off the ice have time to have a drink with their opponents before dinner, and that teams going on the ice after dinner have enough time to eat and digest.
Saturday evening dance
The Saturday evening dance is optional, and is usually only included in mixed bonspiels. It’s important to reserve tables for teams coming off the ice, even as the hall begins to fill up for the dance. A disc jockey should be hired to take care of the music, and a few prizes for spot dances can encourage everyone to get up and have some fun.
Running the bar
During a bonspiel, the bar is a very important component of the overall atmosphere of the bonspiel. Bar workers should be extremely friendly and willing to serve. It is a good idea to have special drinks to go with any theme of a bonspiel. For example, if a bonspiel has a Jamaican theme, you may want to have tequila drinks advertised and all of the required ingredients readily available. Again, it is important that bar workers are readily willing to mix the required drinks.
Also, at the first sign of not having a curler’s preferred drink or beer, it is a good idea to go out of your way to have that drink or beer available the next day. This is always a much appreciated move on your part.
Empty glasses and bottles should be cleaned off tables quickly. Patrons appreciate a clean table.
The telephone number for a taxi company must be readily available to all patrons, so that they are encouraged to take a cab home. You must encourage all curlers to NOT drink and drive.
Cleaning the club
When curlers arrive Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday morning, the club house and bathrooms must be very clean. No evidence of the good time had the night before must be visible the next morning. Curlers appreciate clean bathrooms, clean tables, and a clean floor.
The cleaning normally takes place after the closing of the bar in the evening, or very early in the morning before the first games. It must not be done while curlers are in the club house. It must appear to have been done magically, while no one was looking. That makes the curling club that much more inviting.
Choosing a theme
Choosing a bonspiel theme is usually reserved for ladies’ bonspiels. If a theme is chosen for other bonspiels, the guidelines are similar to those for ladies’ bonspiels.
When choosing a theme, you must consider many aspects: how the hall might be decorated, how curlers might dress up, what drinks at the bar might go with the theme, what “games” might be played, …
The hall must be decorated to reflect the theme. Upon entering the club, curlers must recognize the theme, so it’s important to decorate the entrance too. The bathrooms should reflect the theme as well, in some small way. You might have tablecloths and small table decorations that reflect the theme as well.
If you have a dress-up night, curlers are much more likely to dress up if the theme is an easy one to dress up for. Some themes require actual costumes, where other themes simply require a little imagination. Make sure this is something you’ve considered before deciding on a theme. Offering prizes for best costumes, funniest, most imaginative, … also encourages curlers to dress up.
It is very important that, if you expect other teams to dress up, the bonspiel organizers must be dressed up too. Encourage the bar workers to dress up for the theme as well. This always makes for a really positive atmosphere.
When choosing a few drinks that go with the theme, be inventive. They don’t have to be new drinks. They can be existing drinks that you give special names to, in order to reflect the theme. This all adds to the fun. Make posters that promote these drinks to go in or beside the bar.
You might start with some kind of puzzle or trivia on the first night of the bonspiel. This sets the tone of the theme. Make sure there is a copy of this puzzle or trivia for each team, either in the envelope they receive upon arriving, or on their table after their first game. Teams complete this puzzle and hand it in to the bonspiel chairperson (or other), and a winning team is chosen or drawn and given some little prize.You may have ongoing games throughout the weekend, or games reserved for one night. Whatever games you play, they must include everyone, and ensure that teams interact with other teams. You may have all leads play against each other, for example. Instead of games, some themes lend themselves well to skits. Invite each team to prepare a skit and present it on the fun night. If most teams participate, this usually makes for a great time and plenty of laughs.
Door prizes
Prizes and draws always make a bonspiel more interesting. Although curlers may not be winning curlers, they still feel good when they win a prize, no matter how small.
How to run door prize draws:
- Ask sponsors to donate prizes, or buy them.
- Get a roll of double-sided tickets. Put four tickets in each team envelope and the matching halves in a clean can with a lid.
- Every now and then, draw a ticket and attach it to a prize.
- Post the winning numbers with a short description of each prize.
- Curlers check the poster and claim their prize from the chairperson.
Raffle or 50/50 draw
To help pay for bonspiel expenses, you can run a 50/50 draw or a raffle.
- Buy a roll of double-sided tickets and sell them, for example $1 each or 3 for $2.
- Keep one half of each ticket in a basket or clean can.
- Go around the hall more than once and during different draws, so every curler is offered tickets.
- Count the money: half goes to the winner, half stays with the bonspiel.
- Draw and announce the winning number. If nobody claims it, post the number and the amount won.
Basket for ladies’ bathroom
During a mixed or ladies’ bonspiel, it is important to have a basket of female-type goodies available. This should include hand lotion, sanitary pads and tampons, band aids, safety pins, a child-proof bottle of aches and pain medicine, antacids, hair elastics, … Female curlers always appreciate this gesture, and although most do not need any of the items, it makes them feel good that you thought of them.
Jell-O shooters
Jell-O shooters are quite popular. You can use different flavours of Jell-O and any liquor such as gin, vodka, rye, or tequila. Follow the instructions on the package of Jell-O, but when it’s time to add the cold water or ice, add the liquor. Pour the prepared Jell-O into small 2-oz plastic cups. Place lid on top of each cup and refrigerate. Jell-O shooters must be sold through the bar and the liquor used in them must be part of the liquor license.