Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Priceless curling video unearthed
















In the above Kevin Stevens photo published in a fall 2005 issue of The Curling News (click to zoom in), we can see a shirtless Heath “Heater” McCormick, among many others, celebrating something. He seems to be facing the wrong direction, but more on that later.

It was no less than an eight-ender, scored against the unfortunate Kristy Jenion (a Manitoba women’s runner-up) at one of the silly season’s spring celebrity/charity bonspiels, the House of Hearts in Duluth, Minnesota. The same HoH which, this year, is chartering transit from the Winnipeg Brier to lure celebs – there’s 20 on the bus so far – and participants down to the bonspiel.

Well, ancient video of this feat has finally surfaced, and can be found here on YouTube. And this is good, because McCormick never actually saw his own shot.

Say what?

Here’s how spiel organizer Tim Wright – a fellow who is pretty good at stories – described it three years ago:

I proclaim this to be perhaps the greatest curling photo ever (aside from a few Saturday nite shots I refuse to put online).

For those not there, this took place Friday March 4th around 9pm. The stud with the shirt off just threw the yellow stone (which is in motion) by the hogline, which is a few seconds away from removing the red stone in the 4-foot for an eighter.

While everyone else was still watching the stone, Heater was more interested in acknowledging the 150 people upstairs pounding on the glass behind him than watching his once in a lifetime moment (assuming he could see that far).

I still can’t stop laughing. You just can’t orchestrate this kind of stuff.

Eagle-eyed readers may be able to spot Hall of Famer Jon Mead, the ex-Jeff Stoughton and current Wayne Middaugh third with brush upraised at the far house... and that’s Toronto’s Peter Corner in the foreground, wearing his 1993 worlds jacket.

Looks like Alison Pottinger standing next to Mead – she’s off to her third consecutive Ford Worlds next month – and that’s either John Morris or Craig Savill wearing the red baseball cap. Savs will soon defend his title at the Brier, but Morris is missing this week’s Canada Cup due to yet another pre-Brier injury.

The Cup, meanwhile, is underway today with games on CurlTV up to the weekend, where CBC-TV and CBCSports.ca kick in for the semis and finals.

Good times, Duluth is... this year’s event runs March 13-16, and check out the website for the entry form, more videos, galleries, the list of skips, and more!


Elsewhere:

• Speaking of Savill, his famous 2007 Brier pratfall was the original priceless curling video, but it has now been removed by YouTube due to “terms of use violation.” This is a travesty, of course, and we need to get this rectified. Any ideas? For now, here’s a print report on that glorious wipeout to tide us over. Ah, the memories ...

• Will The Ferb see a shrink? Well, why the heck not? ...

Mike Harris’ newest critic is still at it, and she’s got some friends ...

• Yes, that was a mighty fine come-around thrown by the Canadian champion, wasn’t it?

Star-Spangled Canuck recently noticed JJ’s “extreme hotness” ...

Cynthetic wants to be a Rockstar!

• Yep, it’s true, there are some people in the western world who have never heard of curling ...

Chris Juan has started playing, and he’s hurtin’ ...

Hali went curling in Utah, not once, but twice ...

• Er, okay ...

• Finally, check out the stone walls of this club, in the former “Calumet & Hecla drill house” in Calumet, Wisconsin. Very cool ...

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