Three individuals, including one from London, will be inducted into the builders wing of the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame.
London’s Peter Inch will be accompanied into the hall by Patricia Ray and the late David Beesley during a celebration banquet at Curling Canada’s National Curling Congress later this month in Ottawa.
“I started this back in St. Thomas running the Canadian Seniors, and am just finishing up my fifth year on the board of Curling Canada,” said Inch.
“I’ve always just looked at ways to grow the sport, but my mind had never wandered in thinking that I could get into the hall with all those great people already.”
Inch was first elected to the Board of Governors during the 2013 National Curling Congress in Ottawa. Prior to that, he worked tirelessly in helping organize numerous championship events in London, including the 2006 Scott Tournament of Hearts and the 2011 Tim Hortons Brier.
“I remember back to when we were hosting the Canadian Seniors championship in St. Thomas, I kept pitching to Curling Canada about hosting a Brier or Hearts tournament in London,” said Inch.
“Of course, they told me to just focus on the event at the time. But after the success of the Seniors, the ball began rolling and the rest became history.”
Fellow inductee Ray spent 29 years at Curling Canada as the organization’s chief operating officer, and served as interim chief executive officer on three separate occasions.
Beesley rounds out the final inductee into the hall, whose work behind the scenes helped raise the bar of curling as a marketing powerhouse. Beesley, who passed away on Jan. 6, helped negotiate sponsorship and television deals that put Canadian curlers on bigger stages than ever before.
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