A popular slo-pitch tournament west of Edmonton has been abruptly cancelled.
The Kinsmen Club of Edson posted on its Facebook page Monday after that “due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, we have been forced to cancel this year’s tournament.”
The post went on to say refunds will be issued starting Friday.Janice Gauchier is an Edson resident who has competed in the tournament for 20 years. She was disappointed that it was cancelled.
“There’s a lot of local teams that like to play ball. You commit to a tournament and then you find out pretty much last minute that the tournament’s cancelled,” she said.“Then you’re all like, ‘OK, what do we do?’ You have nothing to do, you have nowhere to play, most tournaments are full by now.”Gauchier and her team decided to put on their own tournament, but the Kinsmen Club wouldn’t allow them to rent the diamonds.“We’re not too sure why they won’t let us use them,” she said.“I’ve been hosting a tournament here for probably about 10 years and never had a problem renting the diamonds from them before. So I’m not too sure why they won’t allow us to use it this weekend.”Gauchier said a small, 16-team tournament will be hosted for local teams at some diamonds outside Edson.She said it was too soon to say whether her team would be back next year.The tournament’s cancellation means the town could lose lots of revenue, Gauchier said.The tournament, which runs every August long weekend, was heading into its 38th year.The tournament’s website said it hosted 272 mixed teams every year.630 CHED News reached out to the Kinsmen Club for comment and was told more details would be released next week.
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