The Dunedin Curling Club secretary and life member has spent countless hours sifting through archives and chipping away behind the scenes as the club gears up for its 150th jubilee this weekend.
About 60 people are expected for a get-together at the Dunedin Ice Stadium on Friday night followed by a full Saturday of events.
Members will have a social curl at the rink on Saturday afternoon and a dinner at the former Wains Hotel, now known as the Fable, where the club held its first meeting.
Bagpipes and haggis will feature at the function, as well as the Baxter Cup, thought to be the oldest trophy in New Zealand sport still being played for. One of the club’s original stones will also be on display throughout the weekend.
"I’m just looking forward to the event going off," Cuttance said.
Among those attending the weekend will be Peter Becker, the first Kiwi to be inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame, Jock Davis, known as M’Lord of New Zealand curling and Curling New Zealand vice-president Stew Francis, .
It will be a time for all players, past and present, to reminisce about the club’s journey.
Dunedin curlers had an initial meeting in 1873 and formed a club in 1874 at their first official meeting at Wains Hotel.
They ordered curling stones from Scotland, and began playing on an outdoor ice pad they created in Leith Valley.
With nowhere else to play, the club’s hand was forced and it folded.
The Baxter Cup, donated by founding Dunedin member David Baxter, was originally played for in Dunedin, but when the club went dormant, the trophy was given to the Naseby curling council, of which Dunedin is now a part, and it has been played there on natural ice since.
By the 1990s, well-known New Zealand curler Edwin Harley moved from Central Otago to Dunedin and wanted to resurrect the Dunedin club for local players.
On April 4, 1990, they held a meeting to get the club up and running again and they began competing at the former Big Chill facility in Kaikorai Valley Rd.
That facility shut in 1992 and Harley, alongside other curling identities, was adamant there needed to be a new ice stadium in Dunedin.
When sport at the old Dunedin Stadium in Victoria Rd was moved to the new Edgar Centre, the local ice sports group banded together to get a rink set up at the venue, now known as the Dunedin Ice Stadium.
"Curling was instrumental in the move to the stadium," Cuttance said.
"We’re a major part there."
