Three-time world curling champion Glenn Howard arrives at Canada’s reknowned Shouldice Hospital today, and will miss this weekend’s AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic.
He’ll miss the first few weeks of the curling season, too.
Howard has a hernia, and will undergo immediate surgery. He is scheduled to depart Shouldice, which is located in Thornhill, a northern suburb of Toronto, on Sunday.
“It’s a pretty simple procedure, apparently, and I’m optimistic I’ll be back competing within three weeks,” said Howard.
“I could curl right now – it’s pretty sore – but my doctor said it’s not going to get any better (without surgery).”
The 2007 world champion skip (CCA photo above by Michael Burns) first noticed the problem two weeks ago.
“It was something I did at work,” said Howard, who manages two Beer Store operations in Midland, Ontario. “I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but all of a sudden I sat down because I had felt something move down there.
“Gradually this egg starts popping out of my groin.”
Team Howard third Richard Hart will skip the squad as they start their 2008-09 season tonight against Quebec’s Martin Ferland.
“We tried to find a skip, but guys are either already playing this weekend or the weekend is not in their schedule,” said Hart. “So the boys are stuck with me.”
His boys – front enders Brent Laing and Craig Savill – have recruited former world junior champion teammate Andy Ormsby to replace Howard.
Howard’s eye will definitely be on the first three “big” events of the season, as he works on his post-op recovery: The Masters (Nov. 12-16) and National (Dec. 3-7) Grand Slams followed by the later-than-normal Casino Rama Skins Curling Classic (Jan. 10-11).
This is the second injury to hit some of the high(est)-performance competitors this year. As we reported in July, Team Randy Ferbey second stone Scott Pfeifer fractured the fifth metatarsal in his sliding foot, and is recovering from a cast and crutches.
Pfeif, incidentally, has promised to send pictures of said cast – and even an x-ray of his injury – but he is holding out on us. Come now, Pfeif... resistance is futile.
Edmonton skip Brent MacDonald – the older brother of Kevin Koe’s last rocker Blake MacDonald – will spare for Pfeifer tomorrow at western Canada’s WCT opener, the Boston Pizza Shootout.
On another serious note, we hope to see Shorty Jenkins himself make an appearance in Brockville at his namesake tournament. As TCN readers well know, Shorty’s health has taken a turn for the worse in recent months.
Elsewhere:
• Our friends at CurlTV starts their new season of coverage today, live from Edmonton ...
• There’s more curling this weekend out east, with Sandy Comeau versus Russ Howard at Moncton’s Early Bird Challenge, kicking off today ...
• Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott is on an intensive three-week tour of Canada, training in Edmonton before leading up to today’s Shootout, followed by Regina (CUETS Schmirler Curling Classic) and then Vernon, BC (Twin Anchors Houseboat Cashspiel). So is Team China, led by Bingyu Wang, who together with the men’s team skipped by Fengchun Wang basically live in Canada for three or four months each curling season ...
• That Vernon spiel also has a strong lineup, and smart guy Dave “Merk” Merklinger has scheduled a marquee Jennifer Jones vs. Bingyu Wang encounter for the Friday night... and with no apologies! On the men’s side we happen to note the rather bizarro men’s lineup of John Morris, Dean Joanisse, Don Walchuk and Steve Petryk ...
• Congrats to Toronto’s Jason Thomas, who was first out of the blocks in Monday’ TCN Blogcontest... and he also got all four correct! The four curling moments in the new book 100 Greatest Canadian Sports Moments are:
#94: Team Randy Ferbey wins fourth World Championship (2005)
#87: Team Sandra Schmirler wins third World title (1997)
#76: Team Brad Gushue wins men’s Olympic gold in Turin (2006)
#37: Team Sandra Schmirler wins Olympic gold in Nagano (1998)
Jason wins a copy of the book, courtesy of Wiley Publishing and, of course, The Curling News.
Thanks to all who replied via this blog and/or our Facebook page... some other suggestions were Al Hackner’s miracle shot to eventually win the 1985 Brier, and even Boots Labonte’s infamous punt to blow the 1972 world title.
By the way, there’s also a website for the book, where you can read about author James Bisson’s media tour, feedback and you can even vote for your favourites and debate the final choices! Click here... and get your copy today!
• Congrats to Texas Dan on the birth of his first grandchild. Dan is burbling with excitement and to answer his request we hurriedly point him toward a pair of tiny Asham curling shoes (bottom of this page).
What Dan didn’t mention is that the birth went down as he was providing shelter to a bunch of Hurricane Ike refugees... about six or eight of them in his house at once!
Texas Dan: MVG – Most Valuable Grandpa – and an all-round gentleman to boot.
• Here’s a nice feature on the lure of family curling in Pittsburgh, PA ...
• And here’s another on the phenomenal Thunder Bay Major League, which signed a new sponsor for 2008-09. The league has seen only one forfeited match in 34 years of top-notch competition, according to veteran Rick Lang ...
• Corner Brook’s Recplex has finally been sold, meaning the new owners – Memorial University, or MUN – can get on with building a new curling facility ...
• Portage La Prairie’s unique hotel/curling club arrangement will take another step forward with a new year-round tavern replacing the club lounge ...
• Señor Guertez is the latest and greatest at The Curling Show ...
• A few Winnipeg women, including world champion and TCN columnist Jill Officer, have answered the call for extras in the filming of Throwing Stones, a new CBC-TV pilot ...
• U.S. curler Ann Swisshelm is supporting Chicago in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Right on! More on the race for the 2018 Winter Games is located here ...
• Nova Scotia curling legend Colleen Jones is one of the sport celebs appearing this coming Tuesday, September 23 in Toronto for an “off the record” interactive discussion. Tickets are $25, which includes a beverage and food appetizer, and things get underway around 6:30pm ...
• The second stop on the Ontario Junior Curling Tour is this weekend: the 2008 Derek Whitehill Memorial Cashspiel, named for the young curler who died tragically in 2006. Story here and event webportal here ...
• Hey, what’s going on in the Yukon? The Skookum WCT Cashspiel in Whitehorse now has a $50,000 prize purse ...
• Brantford, Ontario has even bigger bucks going into (and coming out of) the SunLife Classic tour stop ...
• Saskatchewan curling hero Pat Simmons wants his fifth-straight Brier berth, while provincial rival Joel Jordison has brought in a banger as his new second stone ...
• Ottawa Sun curling scribe Joe Pavia is back on the beat ...
• Chris Allen is back on the ice in North Carolina, and he’s off to a good start ...
• And finally, we’ve mentioned the Canadian Curling Association’s symposium series – The Business of Curling – many times before, both online (they’ve got a blog here) and in our print editions (coming next in late October). Well, here is an independent blogview of one such symposium hosted in Northern Ontario earlier this summer.
Every curling club should sign up for this program. It is an essential business tool for your club’s future success and prosperity.
He’ll miss the first few weeks of the curling season, too.
Howard has a hernia, and will undergo immediate surgery. He is scheduled to depart Shouldice, which is located in Thornhill, a northern suburb of Toronto, on Sunday.
“It’s a pretty simple procedure, apparently, and I’m optimistic I’ll be back competing within three weeks,” said Howard.
“I could curl right now – it’s pretty sore – but my doctor said it’s not going to get any better (without surgery).”
The 2007 world champion skip (CCA photo above by Michael Burns) first noticed the problem two weeks ago.
“It was something I did at work,” said Howard, who manages two Beer Store operations in Midland, Ontario. “I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but all of a sudden I sat down because I had felt something move down there.
“Gradually this egg starts popping out of my groin.”
Team Howard third Richard Hart will skip the squad as they start their 2008-09 season tonight against Quebec’s Martin Ferland.
“We tried to find a skip, but guys are either already playing this weekend or the weekend is not in their schedule,” said Hart. “So the boys are stuck with me.”
His boys – front enders Brent Laing and Craig Savill – have recruited former world junior champion teammate Andy Ormsby to replace Howard.
Howard’s eye will definitely be on the first three “big” events of the season, as he works on his post-op recovery: The Masters (Nov. 12-16) and National (Dec. 3-7) Grand Slams followed by the later-than-normal Casino Rama Skins Curling Classic (Jan. 10-11).
This is the second injury to hit some of the high(est)-performance competitors this year. As we reported in July, Team Randy Ferbey second stone Scott Pfeifer fractured the fifth metatarsal in his sliding foot, and is recovering from a cast and crutches.
Pfeif, incidentally, has promised to send pictures of said cast – and even an x-ray of his injury – but he is holding out on us. Come now, Pfeif... resistance is futile.
Edmonton skip Brent MacDonald – the older brother of Kevin Koe’s last rocker Blake MacDonald – will spare for Pfeifer tomorrow at western Canada’s WCT opener, the Boston Pizza Shootout.
On another serious note, we hope to see Shorty Jenkins himself make an appearance in Brockville at his namesake tournament. As TCN readers well know, Shorty’s health has taken a turn for the worse in recent months.
Elsewhere:
• Our friends at CurlTV starts their new season of coverage today, live from Edmonton ...
• There’s more curling this weekend out east, with Sandy Comeau versus Russ Howard at Moncton’s Early Bird Challenge, kicking off today ...
• Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott is on an intensive three-week tour of Canada, training in Edmonton before leading up to today’s Shootout, followed by Regina (CUETS Schmirler Curling Classic) and then Vernon, BC (Twin Anchors Houseboat Cashspiel). So is Team China, led by Bingyu Wang, who together with the men’s team skipped by Fengchun Wang basically live in Canada for three or four months each curling season ...
• That Vernon spiel also has a strong lineup, and smart guy Dave “Merk” Merklinger has scheduled a marquee Jennifer Jones vs. Bingyu Wang encounter for the Friday night... and with no apologies! On the men’s side we happen to note the rather bizarro men’s lineup of John Morris, Dean Joanisse, Don Walchuk and Steve Petryk ...
• Congrats to Toronto’s Jason Thomas, who was first out of the blocks in Monday’ TCN Blogcontest... and he also got all four correct! The four curling moments in the new book 100 Greatest Canadian Sports Moments are:
#94: Team Randy Ferbey wins fourth World Championship (2005)
#87: Team Sandra Schmirler wins third World title (1997)
#76: Team Brad Gushue wins men’s Olympic gold in Turin (2006)
#37: Team Sandra Schmirler wins Olympic gold in Nagano (1998)
Jason wins a copy of the book, courtesy of Wiley Publishing and, of course, The Curling News.
Thanks to all who replied via this blog and/or our Facebook page... some other suggestions were Al Hackner’s miracle shot to eventually win the 1985 Brier, and even Boots Labonte’s infamous punt to blow the 1972 world title.
By the way, there’s also a website for the book, where you can read about author James Bisson’s media tour, feedback and you can even vote for your favourites and debate the final choices! Click here... and get your copy today!
• Congrats to Texas Dan on the birth of his first grandchild. Dan is burbling with excitement and to answer his request we hurriedly point him toward a pair of tiny Asham curling shoes (bottom of this page).
What Dan didn’t mention is that the birth went down as he was providing shelter to a bunch of Hurricane Ike refugees... about six or eight of them in his house at once!
Texas Dan: MVG – Most Valuable Grandpa – and an all-round gentleman to boot.
• Here’s a nice feature on the lure of family curling in Pittsburgh, PA ...
• And here’s another on the phenomenal Thunder Bay Major League, which signed a new sponsor for 2008-09. The league has seen only one forfeited match in 34 years of top-notch competition, according to veteran Rick Lang ...
• Corner Brook’s Recplex has finally been sold, meaning the new owners – Memorial University, or MUN – can get on with building a new curling facility ...
• Portage La Prairie’s unique hotel/curling club arrangement will take another step forward with a new year-round tavern replacing the club lounge ...
• Señor Guertez is the latest and greatest at The Curling Show ...
• A few Winnipeg women, including world champion and TCN columnist Jill Officer, have answered the call for extras in the filming of Throwing Stones, a new CBC-TV pilot ...
• U.S. curler Ann Swisshelm is supporting Chicago in the race for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Right on! More on the race for the 2018 Winter Games is located here ...
• Nova Scotia curling legend Colleen Jones is one of the sport celebs appearing this coming Tuesday, September 23 in Toronto for an “off the record” interactive discussion. Tickets are $25, which includes a beverage and food appetizer, and things get underway around 6:30pm ...
• The second stop on the Ontario Junior Curling Tour is this weekend: the 2008 Derek Whitehill Memorial Cashspiel, named for the young curler who died tragically in 2006. Story here and event webportal here ...
• Hey, what’s going on in the Yukon? The Skookum WCT Cashspiel in Whitehorse now has a $50,000 prize purse ...
• Brantford, Ontario has even bigger bucks going into (and coming out of) the SunLife Classic tour stop ...
• Saskatchewan curling hero Pat Simmons wants his fifth-straight Brier berth, while provincial rival Joel Jordison has brought in a banger as his new second stone ...
• Ottawa Sun curling scribe Joe Pavia is back on the beat ...
• Chris Allen is back on the ice in North Carolina, and he’s off to a good start ...
• And finally, we’ve mentioned the Canadian Curling Association’s symposium series – The Business of Curling – many times before, both online (they’ve got a blog here) and in our print editions (coming next in late October). Well, here is an independent blogview of one such symposium hosted in Northern Ontario earlier this summer.
Every curling club should sign up for this program. It is an essential business tool for your club’s future success and prosperity.
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