Olympic curling season

And just like that, the 2010 Olympic curling season has begun.

After a busy summer, which saw various camps held in Ontario, Atlantic Canada, British Columbia, and Prague and Fuessen in Europe – plus the requisite summer bonspiel circuit – the ice is in and we’re underway.

The first event on the rebranded Curling Champions Tour – the former World Curling Tour Europe – is underway in Baden, Switzerland. And we can see by the Urs Raeber photo, above, that Olympic-bound Thomas Ulsrud of Norway (in white and red) has some spiffy new uniforms, while opponent Claudio Pescia of Switzerland is still wearing his four-year old green kit. Click to zoom in!

Actually, we love green, and we assume Team Pescia does too. However, the Norwegians pummelled the Swiss 10-3 to start the new Euroseason.

In other matches of note, Canada’s Brad Gushue defeated Switzerland’s Ralph Stoeckli 3-2, while Canada’s Mark Dacey was dumped 6-2 by the defending world champions from Scotland, skipped by David Murdoch.

Canada’s Randy Ferbey takes to the ice in a few minutes, against Switzerland’s Manuel Ruch.

Follow the Baden Masters 2009 results here, and be sure to check out The Curling News Facebook group for more action photos!

Why not join the group? It’s free, with a Facebook account.

In Canada, the Ontario Curling Tour Championships are also underway in Oakville, featuring both men’s and women’s draws, the latter including the Great Britain Olympic team. Eve Muirhead’s troops took out local Lynne Middaugh by an 8-3 score last night.

Another early result of interest saw Alison Goring’s brand new squad upend last year’s provincial finalists – ie. her ex-teammates, now led by Cathy Auld – by a 5-4 count. A fun bit of drawmastering from OCT chief Gerry Geurts, we surmise.

On the men’s side, four teams are 2-0 – including Joe Frans and the Lobel brothers – with Wayne Middaugh set to begin play this morning.

Game on, folks!

NZ Games Playoffs

The curling competition of the first NZ Winter Games now heads into the playoffs.

China’s Olympic men’s team continues to struggle, just as they did at the Ford Worlds in Moncton. Their 4-3 record sees them limping into a tiebreaker for the fourth and final playoff spot. They will meet youthful Jerod Roland of the USA, also 4-3, on Friday morning [Adam Nathan photo above by ODT/Getty Images].

Earlier in the week, the Chinese had lost to Canada by an 7-6 count. The Canadians finished in last place with a 1-6 record, in their first international competition... but they hadn’t really played a national, either.

According to Snow, the Canadians are an invitation team made up of four petroleum engineers from the Calgary area, three of whom have played together for some 25 years and have strong connections with New Zealand curlers.

The squad will no doubt remain jazzed over their experience, and particularly the win over China. “Finally our team started curling like we did back home,” said skip Cliff Butchko, “And if you are going to beat a team then (China) was the one to beat. It’s extremely special.”

Japan (6-1) awaits the tiebreaker winner in one semifinal, while second-ranked Korea (5-2) will lock horns with the Aussies (also 5-2) in the other semi. You can follow the Australian curling blog for extra tidbits.

On the women’s side, things appear more ordinary within the small field. The Aussie women threw a scare into the top-ranked Chinese before falling 10-8, which now pits Bingyu Wang’s crew against New Zealand in one semi, while Japan battles Korea in the other.

Manitoba, Mississauga Masters and more

This photo (above) comes from a Breakfast Television appearance – Winnipeg version – back in January, to promote the then-imminent BDO Canadian Open Grand Slam.

The pic shows youthful Manitoba curling skips Reid Carruthers (standing left) and Mike McEwen (right) and the BT hosts messing about with the same kind of indoor school stones that are featured in the Capital One Rocks and Rings program.

Why do we show you this now?

First of all, we only received these pics fairly recently, so... :-p !

And secondly, these two hopefuls are in action today in Selkirk, as the Manitoba provincial men’s championship, the Safeway Select, finally gets underway.

As such, there is some media to examine, including this piece in which Edmonton import Kevin Park admits that he’s “getting a bit of a hazing... dual citizenship and all.” Meanwhile, in this other Freep story, we find that someone has abducted and replaced Jeff Stoughton – well yeah, did you see this photo? – and that Allan Lyburn has the early start on quote of the week honours:

“We’re here to drink a lot of beer and have a good time. Because, let’s face it, I don’t generally play very well at this thing.”

Meanwhile, the rival Sun is picking Kerry Burtnyk to win it all, and former Manitoba competitor (ooooh!) Jon Mead is on the air with this week’s Shaw TV coverage ...


Meanwhile ...

• It seems the Masters of Curling Grand Slam scheduled for Toronto’s Air Canada Centre in October is moving to nearby Mississauga and the Hershey Centre. Brian McAndrew of the Toronto Star has this story posted, while Donald Duench of the Toronto Sun has a piece here and the local Mississauga News is understandably pumped.

Our opinion? Well, while it would have been cool to see the Roaring Game at the ACC, the current economic climate makes the move unsurprising... and perhaps GTA curling fans should be pleased that a) the event is still running; b) it’s still in the GTA and c) it’s still got the same dates and amazing international field.

For more on this, check out the upcoming March issue of The Curling News for some quotes from Mr. Insight Sports himself, Kevin Albrecht ...

• The Edmonton Journal asks: should Canada select a team for the Olympic Games, as opposed to hosting a Trials shootout?

• Cheryl Bernard can be heard on The Curling Show, and we hear that Mr. Blunt himself, Ben Hebert, will be on the air shortly ...

• There be a roaring argument going on in Scotland ...

• More Brazilians are on the curling ice – er, glass – this time in High River, Alberta ...

• And finally, the fun folks at the Blind River CC have a quick story on the Emo Curling Club, which was built out of a 100-year-old schoolhouse. Very cool!

Skate with Stoughton

Tons of stuff today on John Morris vs Northern Ontario, cheap airline tickets to SoC events, one year out to 2010, the Alberta men’s preview, cuties in helmets and much more, but first...

Attention Winnipeggers: you and Jeff Stoughton (above) can skate together at the MTS Centre tonight, along with a pile of Olympians from other sports. It’s all part of Canada’s “Countdown Celebration Week” to the one-year-out celebrations of Vancouver 2010... which is, technically, tomorrow!

You can also wine and cheese with Stoughton, Jennifer Jones and others on Thursday night at McPhillips Street Station.


And here’s that much more we were talking about...

• Going to the major Canadian championship events this year? There’s nothing like live curling to boost your spirits in these economic times. You deserve it, and there are some cool airline seat sales on now to ease your pocketbook.

The info below assumes, of course, that the reader is based in Canada. There’s nothing to stop international visitors from going to a Brier or Worlds... in fact, we hear rumours of some high-profile women’s teams possibly making a jaunt through western Canada, should things go their way in national playdowns.

Anyway, we surfed the major Canadian air carrier websites and punched in a Toronto-Moncton flight for the opening weekend of the 50th anniversary (Ford) world men’s championship in April... cost each way: only 109 bucks in Canadian dollars.

Then we tried Ottawa-Calgary for the final weekend of the Tim Hortons Brier in March... $154 each way.

Then, just for fun, we checked out an event coming up way fast – the Scotties in Victoria, starting in a couple of weeks – and chose a quick, tricky, mid-week, three-day trip from Edmonton. True, the only direct flight offered was tagged at $460 each way. But, if one is willing to stop over in Vancouver along the way, the price plummets to a stunning $94 for each flight!

So here you go, people: go to the Season of Champions website to get your event tickets, and then visit either these guys or these guys to grab some cheap airfare.

Live curling (and partying) rocks!

• Al Cameron has the best preview available on the Alberta men’s provincial, which starts today in Wainwright – a triple-knockout format. Oh, and here’s the link to his Calgary Herald print story, in which John Morris puts his head in the lion’s jaws and suggests that it’s time for a Team Canada at the Brier, at the expense of Northern Ontario.

Hoo boy. Here we go again ...

• According to Lyndon Little there’s a bit of a youth movement underway at the B.C. provincial. However, Kent Gilchrist points out that 58-year-old legend Rick Folk is currently leading the field, with fellow ancient mariner Dennis Graber close behind. Er, which is it, boys?

Meanwhile, here’s a story from yesterday on father beating son ...

• The Nova Scotia Tankard – er, rather, the new Molson Scotia Cup – is underway today. And in these two preview stories from the Chronicle-Herald and Metro News, it’s all about the 2007 and 2008 runner-up, Shawn Adams ...

• Martin Ferland is another big name gunning for the Quebec title ...

• Some Swiss stories for you today; this one talks about a journalist’s first go at the sport, and this one summarizes the anniversary bonspiel at Wildhaus ...

• Last week we told you about Rocks and Rings. This week, two very curling-committed people at Scarboro Golf Club – Judy Conquer and all-star seniors thrower Roy Weigand – arranged the first of five on-ice programs for local kids, and we’ve got the video, here and here... man, we love cuties in helmets!

• Speaking of cuties, a news story on Little Rockers winning a tournament? Doesn’t happen very often, but we like it ...

• Japan’s big Karuizawa International bonspiel – summary here – was won by BC’s Bob Ursel, while Quebec’s Eve Belisle finished fourth. There was tons of media there, but of course, they focussed solely on their beloved Japanese national women’s team ...

• Whad’Ya Know? This Wisconsin Public Radio show went curling in Stevens Point, the hometown club of USA Curling (curling segment starts at 18:15) ...

• Organizers of the 2010 Scotties are pushing various levels of government for event support, but local city council has rejected a planned expansion to the venue in time for next year’s shootout ...

• And finally, they want your ice plant! Yes, it’s true, the Dallas/Fort Worth Curling Club is looking for a used “ice plant chiller thing”... so can anyone help these folks out?

Rock Solid Curling Outings

The Chad is back.

We’re talking about Chad McMullan, the former honcho of the World Curling Tour and World Curling Players’ Association, back when the Grand Slam was an IMG property.

The former Winnipegger has lived in Toronto since the early part of the decade, and has now resurfaced as proprieter of Rock Solid Productions Inc., a new company unveiling some rather cool corporate and educational curling applications within The Big Smoke.

His first property, Rock Solid Outings, seeks out and delivers corporate curling days from the boardrooms to the curling clubs... and not the more traditional other way ’round.

“Most clubs have dedicated rental rates but they don’t have the manpower to go out and sell the club outside of the membership,” explains McMullan.

“We go out to the corporate community and pitch the concept of a corporate day to them directly, then we find the club that suits them best, in terms of location, logitics and cost. Then we execute the event, so it’s a full turnkey for the client. Everything is done for them from start to finish.”

McMullan provides various options for the client, including access to curling champions... of which there is no shortage of in the Greater Toronto Area. Instruction is handled by a Rock Solid representative or, in some cases, the club pro or manager, or someone assigned by the club.

“We work case-by-case with clubs, however they like to work,” says McMullan. “Some managers have their set way of doing things, others are open to new models. The point is to get their open ice filled and some new revenues, and potential new members, in the door.”

With next year’s Masters of Curling taking place at the Air Canada Centre, plus the big promo bump of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, we’re betting that McMullan will be a very busy fellow.

Russ Howard: Swiss curling coach

After reading this here chat thread about Canadian curling coaches, Russ Howard flew his star pupils – Switzerland’s Team Ralph Stöckli – over to Moncton and then into Toronto yesterday.

OK, we’re kidding, this Canadian Tour has been planned for a while.

Following a week of training in Moncton, with the Stöcklis bunking in at Russ’ house, the squad made a pinch-hit appearance for Team Steski in the Toronto Major League last night at St. George’s. They lost a close one to defending provincial Silver Tankard champ Bill Duck, the club manager.

In the TCN photo taken by Anil Mungal, that’s skip Stöckli at left, followed by third Jan Hauser, The Olympic Champion Yelling Guy, second Markus Eggler (who himself skipped Switzrland to the 1992 world championship) and lead Simon Strübin.

Today the Swiss hit the 401 for the short drive to Waterloo for the first Capital One Grand Slam of the year, the Masters of Curling.

More on Russ and his charges in the December issue of The Curling News, which goes to press next week. Are you a subscriber?

Lots to say about Slam number one:

• There’s a CBC Slam season preview located here;

• Glenn Howard, who has a new interview posted over at The Curling Show, comes in ranked number one, ahead of Kevin Martin (according to us, anyway);

• As Brian Belfry writes, this could be Ontario’s last chance to see the once-previously-retired Kerry Burtnyk throw a live stone;

•Dis you catch the announcement of the brand-new $170,000 Capital One Cup ...?

• And the one regarding world’s first Curling Rewards credit card – click on the ad banner atop this fine website (and this one, too) ...?

• How about the Million Dollar Button contest, now underway and which climaxes at the third men’s Slam at Winnipeg in January?

• What about the not-yet-publicized reveal that next fall’s mammoth Toronto 2009 event – hosted at the Air Canada Centre – has been rebranded as the Masters of Curling Toronto 2009?

That reveal also shows that a secret All-Star men’s team will round out the field – that’s the good news – and that a new $14.00 facility fee has been applied to ticket purchases. That is most certainly the bad news.

What of last fall’s club ticket drive? Those ducats didn’t have a facility fee applied to them at the time...

“TCA will pick up the cost of the facility fee for the package offered last year,” said Toronto Curling Association president Elizabeth Woolnough. “That cost will not be passed down to the clubs, nor to the ticket holders.”

Finally, don’t forget the webcast and television coverage: CBC Sports Online has live streaming of the weekend playoff round (action starts tonight) and both CBC-TV and BOLD will combine to cover those playoff games – three of them – on television.

Anything else, you ask?


• At the Canadian Mixed, the wheat chaffers were undefeated at 7-0 as of Tuesday night and Manitoba skip Sean Grassie even wrote this introductory column for the Winnipeg Sun.

Meanwhile our friend townie bastard is working behind the scenes as a member of the organizing committee... and despite his previous fretting, his photos are just fine!

• You heard about the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier heading to Halifax, right? if not, read this and this ...

• Guess what: Rainy River will survive ...

• It’s just a guess, but it looks like the Toronto Curling Association might be behind this Vaughan Today feature. The participation message is strong among three different sources ...

• Here’s a cool idea: check out Hamilton, Ontario’s “Club 64” league for juniors ...

• 2006 Olympic wheelchair curling champion Chris Daw is in a Newfoundland hospital recovering from a broken hip ...

• Stefanie Lawton is taking a year off work to chase her Vancouver Olympic dream ...

• Wisconsin curling hero Bob simply did a great job ...

• We’ve got just one more Midland, Michigan TV story for you ...

• Crash! They’ve had their first injury at the new club in Columbus, Ohio; and congratulations, by the way ...

• DID YOU KNOW: that the venerable Wall Street Journal gave us a call today? Nope, we don’t know why either. We’re playing voicemail tag right now ...

• Napanee, Ontario is gunning to host either the 2010 or 2011 Ontario Men’s TSC Tankard at their newish $9.8 million Strathcona Paper Centre ...

• More madness in Moose Jaw as local politicians are threatened over the proposed $61.3 million sportsplex, which would include a new home for the local Hillcrest Curling Club ...

• Finally, Bob Weeks has been dishing on an interesting webstrategy quoted by the Canadian Curling Association (follow-up located here) ...

Toronto 2009

Just to catch you up, here’s the Globe and Mail take on Tuesday’s Capital One announcement, followed by Sun Media and their outspoken columnist Bill Lankhof, plus this piece in the National Post and, finally, this from Murray M in Regina.

A common theme here was:

Capital-One-Is-Great-But-Holy-Smokes-They’re-Gonna-Curl-In-The-ACC!

Indeed, pencil October 21-25, 2009 into the calendar for a major curling event in Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, home to hockey’s Maple Leafs, basketball’s Raptors, lacrosse’s Rock (last we heard) and countless live concerts from major recording artists around the world.

The top four or so Canuck teams vying desperately for Canada’s berth into the 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be there, along with a batch of world teams already qualified for Vancouver. There will also be a pool of women’s teams doing battle, along with some “Legends”. Can anybody say Wrench?

This will be Toronto’s first major curling event since the 1986 Worlds, held at Exhibition Place, and the first really-big cashspiel since Doug Maxwell built the Tournament of Champions at Maple Leaf Gardens in the early 1960s.

We say really big because Toronto did have a great cashspiel for many years, hosted by downtown’s Royal Canadian CC, but that went belly-up a decade ago.

Then, last year, Weston’s popular September event collapsed due to lack of entries... although the sponsor now supports a thriving Seniors cashspiel.

Last summer, the Avonlea club died, killing 16 sheets of ice and throwing the local curling market into a tizzy. This marked the fifth or so metro club closure in the last decade.

Finally, Brampton celebrated last month’s 25th anniversary Bacardi Rumspiel with the announcement that the sponsor was bailing out... in fact, the sponsor even showed up to present the trophy and, er, say goodbye. Gee, thanks.

Critics would say Toronto curling is dying, folks, and Toronto 2009 could be a huge shot in the arm for the wonderfully stubborn city curlers who just keep on rockin’. Truth is, Toronto boasts a big curling family – some 13,000 strong, they say – and they’ve still got some 22-odd clubs, most of which are doing quite well. The Toronto Curling Association has partnered with Insight Sports – who also claim support from the city and provincial politicians – to bring this event into the hallowed hockey grounds, and there is no doubt the on-ice action will put the recent efforts of Toranna’s pro hockey millionaires to shame. The question is, will the curlers and curling fans buy tickets?

The latest from SWEEP! Magazine breaks down the ticket pricing – also comparing Grand Slam, Casino Rama Skins, Brier, Scotties and Olympic ducats – and given the big discount available to ticket buyers between now and January 2008 (saving $100) declares Toronto 2009 to be a good deal. The Ontario Curling Report is excited, as is the TCA, with president Beth Woolnough telling The Curling News:

We’re pleased to be part of Toronto 2009. This is a brilliant opportunity not only for our member clubs, who will receive a portion of the ticket sales, but to showcase the great sport of curling in the GTA.
It’s been too long since such a major curling event has come to Toronto. With the support of GTA area curlers, I believe that this event will be a success... and prove to everyone that Toronto can host a curling event.

Early reports say the clubs are raring to go, and ticket sales are just getting under way. Naturally, we hear that some members are skeptical while their curling managers are enthused, and some other managers are skeptical while their members are enthused.

Typical stuff, but there is a precedent for Hogtowners to band together and make a sacrifice for their sport. Remember Men With Brooms? The film production crew created poster sign-up sheets and asked each club to appoint a volunteer. The ask was to rally people to take a day off work – horrors! – to sit in the mock-stands, and mock-cheer as mock-spectators during the mock-action scenes.

What happened? Busloads of people showed up, and these volunteers agreed to eat a day’s pay for their sport. Now, the current ask – six years later – is to simply buy, and help sell, a whack of ticket packages.

Toronto is a money town... buying and selling shouldn’t be so hard, right?

Right?


Elsewhere:

• TCA is also running a fundraiser in conjunction with CurlTV: simply sign up for the dynamic paycurl channel and quote promo code TCAjunior (case sensitive) and you’ve just done two things: you’ve got yourself a discount, and you’ve supported Toronto curling. Booyah ...

• Speaking of The Wrench, head on over to The Curling News Facebook Group (you must have a FB user ID) and look for a cool foto of Eddie with his Avonlea championship banners. The Wrench roared down the 404/DVP to rescue them from his soon-to-close home club last summer, and this foto was snapped at Eddie’s home – by TCN’s Ryan Durham – just a couple of weeks later ...

• Here’s a couple of TV “curling” spots for you, from Service Canada and the Alberta town of Canmore, starring KMart ...

• Here’s a look at “copper country” curling ...

• They announced the host city for the 2009 Ontario men’s championship yesterday (the 2008 event goes in Kitchener-Waterloo) ...

• Darned right! Now that’s a more accurate calorie-count for curling, we say ...

• Congrats today go to Jenn Hanna, and best of luck ...

• Finally, The Canadian Mixed – remember that one? – gets underway in Cowtown this weekend. Here’s the CCA newser; here’s the CP pickup; and here’s some promo for Team Manitoba, and two stories on Team Nova Scotia, located here and here. And, of course, we expect Al Cameron to be an active blogger during this week-long event ...