SYDNEY, N.S. — Kurt Roach hopes to take advantage of the home ice — and rocks — when the Sydney Curling Club hosts some of the province’s top teams at the Travelers Club Curling Championship this week.

Roach said his Sydney rink, which includes third Mark MacNamara, second Travis Stone and lead Robin Nathanson, plans to play aggressively from the first stone.

“We know the ice, we know the rocks — and I think that will give us a big advantage,” said Roach, a 36-year-old Sydney River resident. “The rocks, in specific, can be very different from club to club, so we’ll know that right away and other teams coming in will have to spend a couple of games trying to figure what the rocks are going to do.”

The bonspiel kicks off Friday at the George Street club and continues until Monday as nine club champs from across Nova Scotia (including another Sydney rink skipped by the Schooner Curling Club’s Gordie Cormier and rounded out by third Stephen Leslie, second Thomas Drover and lead Mel Windsor) compete for the right to represent the province at the national Travelers Club Curling Championship from Nov. 19-24. The host city has not yet been determined.

In a way, Roach and mates are back to defend their crown after making it to the quarter-final of the 2016 tournament in Kelowna, B.C. The Travelers rules require each provincial champion to sit out the following year, meaning Roach and mates couldn’t compete last year.

“We’re pretty much the defending champions, I guess,” said Roach, whose team is hungry to compete after having to put away the shoes and brooms early last season. “It was kind of hard last year because our season was pretty much over at the end of November. There was nothing to look forward to, nothing to work towards — it was almost a lost year.”

He said in addition to league games, his team has taken part in as many cash spiels as they could and have been practising a few times a week to prepare for the one of the biggest events on the curling calendar. The Travelers championship is a chance for everyday men and women who can’t quite make it to the level of the Tim Hortons Brier or Scotties Tournament of Hearts to compete on the national stage.

“It seems to vary from province to province, in Nova Scotia, though, you seem to get a lot of really strong teams. There’s a couple of teams that play for the Nova Scotia tankard, they’re trying to get to the Brier, that are kind of head and shoulders above everyone else,” said Roach. “This is kind of another way to get to a national event, and I think a lot of people recognize that it’s very difficult to get to the Brier out of Nova Scotia, so you get some of these really strong teams deciding to compete for the Travelers and try to get there. There’s some really good curlers.”

While Roach’s team won’t hit the ice until Friday at 7 p.m., the action starts earlier in the day at 2 p.m. Play resumes Saturday with all four sheets going at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. The final matches are slated for Monday at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

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Travelers Club Curling Championship teams:

• Kurt Roach, Sydney Curling Club

• Gordie Cormier, Schooler Curling Club

• Ben Blanchard, Chester Curling Club

• Kevin Saccary, Berwick Curling Club

• Tony Moore, CFB Halifax Curling Club

• Mike Callaghan, Mayflower Curling Club

• Ryan MacIver, Halifax Curling Club

• Pierre Fraser, Truro Curling Club

• Ralph Jacob, Dartmouth Curling Club