Friday, May 16, 2008

Save The Oshawa




















The Oshawa Curling Club is in deep trouble, as this story and this chat thread both reveal.

Club president Rob Faulds, above in this TCN photo by Anil Mungal, is best known to blogreaders as the voice of Rogers Sportsnet curling coverage, which had its run from the fall of 1998 through spring 2006. And like other curling commentators before him – such as TSN’s Vic Rauter – we can see that Rob has become quite the curler himself. Enough to get involved at the grassroots level too, at his home club, which is additionally impressive.

Rob’s young son also curls.

Question: can the Greater Toronto Area, the financial H.Q. of Canada and host of one heckuva big tournament in 2009, really afford to lose yet another curling club? And one with eight sheets of ice, so soon after the appalling death of Avonlea?

Will the Toronto, Ontario and Canadian Curling Associations take any proactive measures?

Does anybody care?


More stuff for a Friday ...

• We couldn’t resist scouring the web for some vintage Faulds: here he is way back in 1988, on the baseball beat, in this funny piece called “Expos Dragnet” ...

• There’s a dearth of season wrap-up stories this year; but good old Jim Bender has one, located here ...

• Manitoba Curling Association chief Ian Staniloff is moving on after 12 years at the helm; stories here and here.

Obviously Staniloff’s last official gig will be to represent Manitoba at the Canadian Curling Association’s annual Congress, held early June in Ottawa. This will be CCA CEO Greg Stremlaw’s first Congress – hard to believe he’s only been on the job for eight months – and he is expected to reveal that a significent dent has been made in the CCA’s infamous $1.4-million deficit ...

• Sounds like Bob Cowan will be kept busy for a while as the stories behind the Scottish women’s Vernon debacle continue to twist and turn, and spring turns to summer ...

The Bubbler recently declared the Green Bay Curling Club portal to be their “Site Of The Week” ...

• Here’s a look at Pittsburgh’s other ice sport in the news these days ...

• Word has it that Charley Thomas and his 2007 world junior championship squad of Brock Virtue, Matt Ng and Kyle Reynolds were recently named Alberta’s Team of the Year.

Presumably, this award celebrates 2007 achievements.

The Canadians routed Sweden 8-3 in eight ends last year in Eveleth, Minnesota to earn a second gold medal in two years. Thomas and Reynolds were also on the 2006 world championship team, along with Geoff Walker and Rollie Robinson, that captured gold in Korea ...

• RIP to a Cornwall curling legend ...

• And finally, our heart goes out to Ontario’s Dave “Hutch” Hutchison and his wife, who were victims of a recent burglary with a particularly sad twist.

Hutch is a true curling guy, who ran the Annandale “Eager Beaver” cashspiel (no laughing!) for years before joining the the Ontario Curling Association as an employee. He discovered the theft when he returned home from the OCA office.

Hopefully the press on this story will reach the ears of the thief, who will then choose to do the right thing.

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