Best-on-best shuffleboard tournament in Beaumont pits Canada against U.S.

A battle between Canada and the U.S. is underway in Beaumont on the shuffleboard court at an inaugural tournament. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson has more.

A cross-border battle on the shuffleboard court is brewing in Beaumont.

Organizers are staging the CanAm Shuffleboard Tournament Monday through Friday at the Alberta city’s Ken Nichol Regional Recreation Centre.

There, 40 of Canada’s top players will face 40 of the best from the United States.

Wally Bentt, the tournament’s director and member of the Greater Edmonton Shuffleboard Association, said the competition between the Canadian and U.S. players should be very close, with the American side bringing younger players.

He told CTV News Edmonton on Monday the first day of the tournament has featured plenty of camaraderie.

“I’ve never heard so much laughter and voices talking,” Bentt said.

It’s the first time the five-day event, which is being hosted by the Greater Edmonton Shuffleboard Association, has been held.

Qualifying rounds began Monday and run through Thursday, with finals slated for Friday along with an evening banquet, medal presentations and closing ceremony.

Canadian competitor Vickey Siler said she started playing shuffleboard 13 years ago, when she moved south of the border and could no longer curl.

She compares shuffleboard to curling, in that you “have to have your weight, you have to have strategy.”

“I try and pretend I’m curling some days,” said Siler, who’s hosting a friend from Yuma, Ariz., who’s an American competitor.

Bentt says the competition is strictly for medals and bragging rights.

“It’s not like there’s money involved or anything like that, (although) some people come a long way to do this, staying in hotels, riding airplanes, that sort of thing,” he said.

The plan for the tournament moving forward is to hold it every two years, with host cities alternating between Canada and the U.S.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson