VANCOUVER – As teams and officials struggle to escape snowed-in Chilliwack, TCN is warm and snug at a hotel minutes from the airport, and bound shortly for the Centre of the Universe.It was the European curling universe which delivered a sound thrashing to Team North America at the Continental Cup, clearly viewable on CBC the final two days and, of course, on CurlTV every day, every draw since last Thursday.
For a quick study of the themes of the event, scroll down to the previous post and check out a barrage of exchanges between TCN and TCS (The Curling Show), which you can find under "COMMENTS".
You'd be wise to also check out the upcoming December issue of TCN, which will feature a report and op-ed from ace columnist Larry Wood. Why not subscribe today? You can only read it in the hard copy of The Curling News.
Line of the day: from WCF past president Roy Sinclair of Scotland, as quoted by Paul Wiecek in today's Winnipeg Free Press:
A guy slides down a hill on his back, and they call that luge. But if he slides down on his belly, well, that's skeleton. If those are two separate sports, then don't tell me mixed doubles curling isn't a sport.
The IOC will be voting on whether to include Mixed Doubles, which played to strong reviews in Chilliwack, at the end of the month.
Stay tuned ...
5 comments:
Sinclair's quote about luge/skeleton is brilliant. He could, however, go even further with the luge comparison.
"A guy slides down a hill on his back, and they call that luge. The same guy slides down a hill on his back with some other guy lying on top of him, and they call that two-man luge. If those are two separate sports..."
Two-man luge as a separate sport might be even more ridiculous than skeleton.
-- Dean Gemmell
Can you expand on the "strong reviews" part? As far as I could tell, Europe beat North America, and the entire world, including most of the curling world, responded with a resounding "Yawn".
There wasn't one mention of the event in the Ottawa Citizen, save for a few lines on Saturday morning. Not sure that would quality as "strong reviews".
Mike
Mike,
I agree that the CC was a bit of a snoozer but the mixed doubles is something that the players tend to review positively. I personally like it a lot more than singles — that bores me to death.
I think the format for the CC needs work and that it would be better to steal a page from the Ryder Cup — have a lot of games going on at the very end with a lot points at stake versus just two games for a bunch of points. I'd rather see the curlers actually curling instead of cheering.
And let's be blunt about the location. I'm sure the people of Chilliwack are great and worked very hard but I think it's now proven that you're not going to get big crowds to a curling event in B.C. Maybe Kelowna or Vernon can work but it's time for people to forget about Chilliwack, Kamloops, etc. It's depressing to watch an event with so many empty seats.
-- Dean Gemmell
I think they need to simplify the format a bit. Needing 201 points (or whatever it is) to win is a bit much.
One of the reasons that the Ryder Cup is so successful is because its simple. One point per match, 26 matches total. You need 13.5 to win, 13 to retain. Not much math involved there.
The idea may be good, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Lower the number of points, make each point worth one game (even if you make the skins themselves worth various amounts), and you may have something.
It may not matter. The writing appears to be on the wall for the CC: no sponsor, reduced prize money and low - zero interest from the media, especially state side. Apart from showcasing new ideas for the Olympics, there's not much here to see.
I'd rather see all that money put into 3 skins games. I think the TSN skins games did more for curling than the CC.
Mike
I liked mixed doubles. History was made when Debbie McCormick threw a perfect six-ender!!!
Wow!!! And I had the pleasure of seeing it live in person!!!
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