There’s lots of cool news today, and we’ll get to that in a moment. But for now, the February 2008 issue of
The Curling News is in the building –
got yours yet?–
Regina Will Rock: the ultimate Scotties preview
–
Pal Trulsen does Dubai
– Guest column by
Ben Hebert:
Be Careful What You Wish For–
Chevy and
Witt: the ultimate curling sendoff
– A supersized edition of the
JVC TV Curling Guide: where to find men’s provs in N.B, Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario and more
–
Martin and
Howard: double Slam wrap and next stop: St. John’s
– A Tale of Two Cities: in Toranna and The Peg, curlers just wanna have fun
– Fun II: 10 years later, we expose Canada’s legendary Nagano moonshot
– A Tale of Two Ryans: and millions of MySpace hits
– Ferb Furor:
Randy Ferbey lets it all hang out
– All Hail the Blogosphere: new entries from The Gap, Hogtown and more
– Outdoor curling part two: Montreal’s Fraser Highlanders
–
They Said It: a supersized edition of curling’s most eye-popping quotes
– More
They Said It: is Olympic status ruining curling?
–
The Dominion of Canada Club Corner: the challenges clubs face
–
The Business of Curling: three spring symposiums for clubs
–
Rodger Schmidt on the Controversial Cup
... and MORE!
Elsewhere...
•
Russ Howard gets a week-long tryout as a TSN curling commentator – his second go ’round – as the morning draw colourman at next month’s Tim Hortons Brier. He’ll be paired with
Vic Rauter, while stalwarts
Ray Turnbull and
Linda Moore work with Rauter for the evening draws.
Bob Weeks has
the scoop ...
• And here’s our scoop: following his success as Rogers TV curling commentator in Toronto in December,
Eddie “The Wrench” Werenich will return as the
Rogers TV curling colourman for the final three days of the Ontario men’s championship, which starts today in K-W (preview stories
here and
here) . Draw 1 (1:00pm ET) features defending-everything-champ
Glenn Howard against
Rob Todd, while former champ at-just-about-every-position
Peter Corner takes on
Rob Lobel (7:30pm ET) ...
•
Murrdogg reports that
Mark Lang, a 2002 Sask Brier rep with
Scott Bitz (who now plays for
Joel Jordison) will partner with
Global TV’s
Warren Woods for coverage of the Sask Tankard, which starts Wednesday.
Former Sask Brier skip
Lyle Muyres is the regular guy, but he’s watching his son
Dallan compete at the Canadian Junior men’s this week ...
• Kudos also to
Eugene Hritzuk: he
won the Sask Seniors; he starts play in the Tankard on Wednesday (he was runner-up last year to
Pat Simmons), he spared for Toronto’s
Wayne Middaugh in a game at the Masters; and was also mentioned in
Friday’s blogpost about Great Prairie Names (TM). Popular guy ...
• Lots of Canadian men’s provincials start today (
like B.C.) or on Wednesday (like
Nova Scotia) and a few go the following week (like
Alberta) ...
• Long-time Ottawa Rideau ice technician
Gerry Keeler died on Saturday, after further complications from health problems suffered on the eve of December’s JSI Insurance Canada Cup East tourney. Keeler had been on the job for some 35 years.
The funeral will be at 11:00 am on Friday February 8th, with a reception to follow at the Rideau Curling Club (details
here). Meanwhile, a
Facebook page has sprung up
in his honour ...
• The Windsor Curling Club in Nova Scotia not only
plans to rebuild on their original site – by October, no less – they also had 270 people come out for
a 100th anniversary whoopup ...
We like this quote, from emcee and past president
Kevin Matheson:
Tonight proves we didn’t lose our curling club, we only lost our building.• Anything else to remember from the Windsor arson incident? Get your club a new, simple yet comprehensive
insurance plan... and do it right the heck now!
• Speaking of club planning and finances: Monsanto Canada has
seriously upped the ante following an overwhelming response to their
Imagine a Better House community curling club bursary program ...
•
Don Turner passed away about a year ago – maybe more? – but
his fantabulous curling museum lives on in fanatbulous Weyburn, Saskatchewan ...
•
Paul Wiecek is reporting that
Kevin Koe’s Edmonton boys just got snubbed by the Alberta curling cops. Seems the
awesome retro unis the boys unveiled at the Masters last week “contravene the association’s uniform policy” and now the lads have to spend some $1,500 to re-embroider new duds for the provincial.
Can you say marketing opportunity missed?
The top three seeds at that shootout, by the by, are Team Kevin Martin, Team Koe and Team Randy Ferbey ...
• Bad news from Gander, Newfoundland, where
the famed DBC is no more ...
• Curling stories abound in the U.S., from
Rochester, NY... to
Mitch who
got his curl on in St. Paul... to
Detroit, where their membership numbers are up... to sunny Cali, where
Greg just
wants to curl before he dies ... in Bismark, North Dakota, where they did a little
outdoor spieling... and in Walpole, MA, at the home of an all-outdoor club (thanks to
CurlDuluth for
the video evidence).
Did you enjoy the January issue feature outdoor curling in
The Curling News? Yeah, we know you did... we have been besigned by stories and photos, indicating you guys just love to get your outdoor freak on.
So make sure you check out the February issue of
The Curling News (see top story) for part two of our new, revised three-part feature on outdoor curling. That’s right.. we are stretching this baby out, all the way to the March issue!
• Speaking of Yanks, the
Chicks With Brooms are battling for the U.S. junior women’s title this week. We’re rooting for them because they choose the long-forgotten kilt ...
• DID YOU KNOW: that
it was in Bobcaygeon, where we saw the constellations, reveal themselves, one star at a time ...?
• Harbin
is number one in Chinese domestic curling. No surprise there ...
• And finally, an
Edmonton Sun online poll from Jan. 20 posed the question
What would get more kids involved in curling? There were only three not-very-serious answer options, and here are the results:
Remote-control stones – 26 per cent
The friendly competition – 37 per cent
Big-screen TVs on every sheet – 37 per cent