It began in 2003, by Chris Munns. Set up to provide people with an opportunity to experience curling in the UK where there had previously been no access or facilities to players with a passion or interest in the sport. The club was based in South England and opened to a flood of interest and membership support. The club would take regular travels to Europe and learn the game by training and competing with other national teams in various leagues. Whilst the club was growing in interest from curling enthusiasts, Chris Munn, would set out campaigning for curling facilities to be made available in England.
In November 2004, Chris Munn
managed to complete his task of getting the Ice Melters curling club the
necessary equipment to play and firmly base themselves in the UK. The club would
have its first-ever curling rink located near Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
The grounds, equipment and facilities including the curling rink was made
opened to the public to use and invigorate the local community and attract
budding sports enthusiasts from all over the country, especially with a game
that had never before been made available to play in any capacity.
At the turn of the year in 2005, the Ice Melters Curling Club were crowned Super League Champions. During this spell of success, the team still would compete within other areas of the country that later developed or adapted previous rinks to suit the curling game.
Such was their rapid success, they managed to catch the eye of teams further abroad and soon the Ice Melters Curling team became twinned with the Malmö Curlingklubb, one of the biggest in Sweden
By being able to twin with Malmö Curlingklubb, it provided great opportunities for both club and players to strike new business friendships, spread the appeal of the game within both countries by host special matches and creating a global branch of the sport to show it was something to be taken seriously as a competitive sport.
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Having cemented their dominance over the game in the United Kingdom, in 2004,
the Ice Melters Curling Club picked up an award for ‘Community Amateur Sports
Club’, giving them official sporting status inside the UK. This recognition towards
the qualities of the club and how they had set-up finally became the last marker
for the goals that Chris Munn had planned for the club and for the people that
had a keen interest in the sport of curling. Next, would be the process of forming a
national team to compete within the Winter Olympics, the rest on that side of
the sport is history having seen England become one of the best teams in each
competition they’ve taken part in.
Because of the closely knitted community that came together to help the sport, the Ice Melters Curling Club began to work with charity organisations. They included ‘The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund’ and through each summer money would be raising money for local and national registered charities via their sponsored activities.