Great Canadian Curling Moments

A new book is out, titled 100 Greatest Canadian Sports Moments.

Canadian Press sportswriter James Bisson – who covered his first curling event last March, the Ford World Women’s – assembled a panel of 18 sports experts and has now ranked the top sporting moments in the nation’s history.

The Curling News is pleased to report that four curling occasions made it into the rankings. So how about a little contest amongst keen TCN Blogreaders? Whoever guesses all four curling entries – or closest to all four – wins a copy of this book, courtesy of TCN and Wiley Publishing.

Respond to this contest challenge via the “Comments” feed at the end of the posting, or via a wallpost at the TCN Facebook Group page. Hurry hard!

We caught up with Bisson (in above photo by Erin Kelly) at the official book launch the other night at Wayne Gretzky’s, a fun affair that happened to coincide with 1) the star-studded Toronto International Film Festival and 2) Bisson’s seventh anniversary of employment at Canadian Press.

No sign of Clooney or Pitt, for it was all about James... although ski legend Nancy Greene was on hand, and even made a little speech in support of the book.


TCN: Was Vernon your first job covering curling?

JB (James Bisson): It was definitely the baptism by fire. I had covered curling as part of the Canada Winter Games, but I was covering all the sports too.

TCN: Have you any history with the sport as a participant or a fan?

JB: I played and watched a lot in high school.

TCN: How did you settle on Wiley as your publisher?

JB: I was going over their heap of sports books (Wiley also published last year’s Curling For Dummies reprint and Russ Howard’s Hurry Hard, and they have also launched the newest Weeks effort) and they are sports mad. They’ve been fantastic.

TCN: Did your panel get all four curling events into the book, as we see it? Or did you have to massage the results, or add any yourself?

JB: What you see is how the voting went. I think what you have are voters who are not only curling fans but they understand and appreciate the status of curling within the Canadian sports landscape.


100 Greatest Canadian Sports Moments is available at bookstores, the online gargantuans (here and here), and also directly through the publisher.

You can also read a preview here and another Q&A with the author here.

Watch for James Bisson live on Canada AM tomorrow (Sept. 16) and on Toronto’s CityTV Breakfast Television on Wednesday, the 17th. There’s a full-fledged press tour too, which sees him in Montreal on the 22nd, Calgary on the 23rd and Vancouver (whew!) on the 24th.

And now for your usual TCN Linkfest ...


• Here’s a preview on Team Sherry Middaugh ...

• Team Glenn Howard received another banner over the weekend, and the skipper also says his team is “at the top of our game and there’s no reason it can’t continue,” ...

• Comgratulations to our Italian friends on the launch of the new web portal, Curling Italia ...

• Port Moody is pumped ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that new curling events and formats are afoot in Northern Ontario? Here’s the scoop, plus this follow-up story out of Thunder Bay ...

• Here’s a story on Tejas curling via Galveston, the town which of course just got kicked by Hurricane Ike ...

• Team Jennifer Jones has extended their partnership with sponsor Monsanto ...

• CKDU FM, the campus radio station at Dalhousie University in Halifax, is hosting a Rock n’ Curl fundraiser on September 20 ...

• DID YOU KNOW II: that there is another “Shorty” spiel? Meanwhile the somewhat more popular Shorty (Ontario edition) gets underway Thursday evening ...

• Scotland’s Ewan MacDonald is back in action this year... but Curling Today already showed us this, remember?

• Speaking of Scotland, did you hear about the lightning strike on the Aberdeen facility? Yikes ...

• Newfoundland curling hero Toby McDonald has been invited to join the prestigious but mysterious Governor General’s Curling Club ...

• Fatty Pants went curling in La La Land ...

• ... And so did this LA Kings hockey writer ...

• The rather infamous Swiss “kiggle-caggle” we first promoted over a year ago is mentioned at the end of this great posting at Curling History ...

• Ah, the Olympic Dream. So many have it, and now The Patrick dreams big as well ...

• And finally, Steve Talley of the Evergreen CC has drafted this wee spreadsheet comparing the sports of curling, bocce and lawn bowling ...