What's the difference?

Q: What’s the difference between an Olympic curling year and any other curling year?

A: Media. media. media.

Curlers in San Jose, California managed to get NFL football player Vernon Davis out onto the curling ice earlier this month, and in any other year, the story would have run in local media only. Perhaps with a photo.

We know this because various celebs have tried curling in the past couple of years... and we’ve promoted their experience, right here at The Curling News. Us, and local media where the experience took place.

However, with Vancouver 2010 less than three months away this story has exploded in this viral media universe, complete with video and multiple still pics.

Example: between 9:00am and 9:30am eastern time this morning, no less than 45 media outlets had posted the story online, and the counter was still running.

May we suggest more of these kinds of promotional efforts, from now until Games time. The recipe is simple: grab celeb; apply to ice; write and film.

Rinse and repeat.

Did you miss The Curling News Blog? This may be our first post since last Thursday, but there’s been lots to follow on our Twitter feed. Such as:


• Rizzo beats Kleibrink for 11K; McEwen wins on a measure
• Glenn Howard, Mike Harris and “Buttons” open The Dominion Curling Club Championship tonight
• When will they curl on Vancouver's super-cool new/old city rink?
• Wayne Middaugh would like to set the record straight:
• Canada loses to Japan at Vancouver wheelchair curling exhibition
• You can follow the Olympic Torch journey online
• No tolls on Team Gushue highway
• 30K raised in little Carmen
• Kevin Martin moves into top spot on Tour money list
• The Daceys are off to Chelyabinsk, Russia
• Vernon, BC gets a Grand Slam
• TSN HD channel available free during Olympic Trials

And so very much more. Click on "Follow" at the top left of this page...

[Photo by Associated Press]

Olympic pre-Trials underway

And they’re off!

The practice rounds are finished, the new uniforms are in play (Team Brad Gushue photo by CCA’s Michael Burns, click to zoom in) and now, finally, the first stones are underway at the Road to the Roar, the official Canadian Olympic pre-Trials curling qualifier at the CN Centre in Prince George, B.C.

There is live scoring action on two fronts: at CurlingZone’s Gameday Scoreboard and also at the Canadian Curling Association’s CurlCast.

CurlTV.com is in the house, with their first match webstreamed live to subscribers (or pay-per-viewers) at 3:30pm ET today: Pat Simmons (SK) versus Jean-Michel Menard (QUE).

TSN roars into town on Thursday, with live action scheduled right through to Saturday’s C-finals.

For these and other curling TV coverage listings, we sincerely hope you are checking out The Curling News TV Guide in the November issue of The Curling News, which has been out for over two weeks now.

You are a subscriber, right?

The Curling News Blog and Twitter pages will be humming with action throughout the week: in fact, today’s Twitterfeed links to no less than eight preview stories, in addition to even more curling stuff.

You do follow us on Twitter, right?

Just checking.

The Road to the Roar: game on!

Swiss curling update

It’s all things Swiss in today’s The Curling News Blogpost.

Why?

Well... why not?

1. Team Mirjam Ott made some waves at the end of the 2008-09 season by replacing second Valeria Spaelty with team alternate Carmen Kueng. Spaelty was the last remaining member of Ott’s 2006 Olympic silver medallist foursome, and Kung had been the squad’s dedicated alternate the last couple of seasons.

A photo of the new Team Ott, who are pretty much confirmed to represent Switzerland at Vancouver 2010, is located here. The accompanying update states the squad will be taking a full six-month leave of absence from work to focus on the drive to Vancouver, which will include six weeks of training/touring in Canada.

2. Team Ralph Stoeckli, fourth-place finishers at the Ford Worlds in Moncton, need to win a special best-of-seven playoff against 2008 European rep Stefan Karnusian to book their tickets to Vancouver. But should they win, they will not be heading to the Games with team coach Russ Howard.

Russ has confirmed his gig with the CTV Olympic broadcast consortium – which of course features the TSN curling crew – and will be doing the suit and tie thing in Vancouver. Howard might still be jetting to Switzerland in September to do some work with the squad – this is still TBD – but he definitely won’t be wearing the white cross in February.

Here’s a photo of Howard in his Swiss duds, consulting with Stoeckli and lead Simon Struebin, who just happens to be Europe’s representative on the board of the new World Curling Players’ Association (as we revealed last month).

Back in November, you may recall that TCN scored the first photo of Russ in his new coaching career.

Speaking of photos, the CCA image above (shot by Michael Burns) shows Stoeckli in a huge fist pump just as his final throw settles into the button for a big win in Moncton.

3. But there’s another Canadian coaching saga in Switzerland... two, in fact. The husband and wife team of Lorne and Chris Hamblin have been hired as Swiss Curling’s new national team coaches.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press story, Hamblin said he and his wife only wanted a chance to coach at a high level and the Swiss opportunity came along before any other. “If there had been similar opportunities in Canada," said Hamblin, “we would have pursued that. But there weren’t.”

4. Andreas “Andi” Schwaller has hung up his boots... for now. The man who rivalled Stoeckli for Swiss skipping honours throughout this decade – winning world silver in 2001 and Olympic bronze in 2002 – has retired from competition... but perhaps only for a year, as this story would indicate.

You can also listen to a radio interview with Schwaller – in German, of course – on this page.


So, there you go. Anything else for the rest of this North American holiday week?

• CTV’s retrospective Olympic features titled “Where Are They Now?” includes Joan McCusker, and that famed 1998 Olympic championship squad ...

• Sudbury, Ontario is currently hosting its annual Dominion Amethyst Curling Camp, which is previewed here and also featured here ...

• Three-quarters of Team Jennifer Jones made an appearance last weekend in Blackfalds, Alberta ...

• Kansas City, USA curling action takes place on Monday nights through August 31 ...

• And finally, the New Zealand curling championships started today, with the finals set to wrap up on Sunday ...

A $25,000 Curling Refresh

TSN’s Kraft Celebration Tour will give no less than 10 lucky Canadian communities a $25,000 grant, aka “community refresh”, plus an onsite hosting of TSN’s live SportsCentre broadcast.

This is all in celebration of TSN’s 25th anniversary.

Nominations come from the public via this special website, and nominations close at 5:00pm eastern time this coming Friday, June 12.

We’ve noticed that one community has made an all-curling application.

The East Hants Curling Association in Lantz, Nova Scotia has been looking to build a four-sheet curling facility since 1988 (!) and geez, for pure stubborness alone, we think Lantz should make it into the top 10!

Don’t you?

Brier competitor (with Team Shawn Adams) and EHCA Director Kelly Mittelstadt is heavily involved in the drive for a curling club.

“We’ve secured government funding sufficient to allow conceptual drawings to be completed,” Mittelstadt told The Curling News.

“Once these drawings are finalized our next, and largest, hurdle will be getting funding from all three levels of government to build this facility.”

Here’s the EHCA nomination under which TCN readers are invited to comment – positively, of course!


What else for a Tuesday?

• There’s not much to say about the the appearance of curling on last night’s TV episode of The Bachelorette. The skill level was, of course, abysmal. One of the bachelors – who had clearly never stepped on ice before – declared the sport “terrifying.”

And to some surprise, the Canadian Curling Association sent out an email urging people to tune in to watch, prompting this blogger to wonder how the organization got her email address ...

• Marie-France Larouche: skip et professeure?

• Yeah, yeah, yeah... everyone knows about the spoof story re. an IBM Supercomputer competing at the 2010 Worlds... but here’s the link in case you missed it ...

• And finally, Eric Deckers is the latest newbie to utter the obvious: Curling is Harder Than It Looks ...

Ford World Curling: Near-final thoughts

MONCTON – Some thoughts on the 50th anniversary Ford Worlds in Moncton, before we hand the last word(s) over to ace blogstress Katja Kiiskinen:

• We (The Curling News) printed a loud warning to Canadian curling fans on the front cover of the January 2009 issue, when we described David Murdoch as the “Neo” of curling and explained that his full-time curling duties are now focussed specifically on beating Canada for Olympic gold next year in Vancouver.

Three wins in a row over the hosts in Moncton, for his second trophy in four years, is a good start to his ultimate goal.

• Having said that, we note that the young Scots’ two major wins this season came on steals in the championship final: a heavy draw from Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud at the Europeans and Kevin Martin’s shanked raise takeout last night.

What does this mean? Like all the curling greats, these Scots can find a number of ways to win.

• Speaking of Martin, the questions will continue to come all this week as the Grey Power Players’ Championship gets underway tomorrow – yes, tomorrow – in Grande Prairie. Martin is in the hunt for big bucks, but will his head be in the hunt?

You can find many of these questions online, such as the 62 comments posted (at this time of writing) listed below this CBC Sports Online story.

Other queries come from Terry Jones, who is a big fan of John Morris’ “Gong Show” quote, and who gathered quotes from rival Randy Ferbey and even The Old Bear Cubs from the on-ice microphones for this interesting story.

Here’s another from Dan Barnes, another Edmonton writer who is joining in on the pile-on atop one of his town’s favourite sons.

There’s also this one here from Al Cameron, although we beg to differ that “not a soul” in the Coliseum could see Martin’s non-throw coming.

We did. And we told our media bench neighbours about it, and we were vindicated when it happened.

KMart is known for this kind of thing. Skins Games, in which he throws tens of thousands of dollars away just to keep the hammer coming home. Extreme corner guards, just off the carpet, when trying to steal... just to make the other skip pause and think a little.

We saw it coming. And we called it.

• This Cameron finale points a finger at Scottish second Peter Smith, who also had some struggles in earlier matches in Moncton ...

• Yet another Al Cam piece – this one from his blog – also points out the cringe-worthy anthem that was played at ice level during the closing ceremony. Ye Gods.

Scottish people do NOT like hearing Ingerlund’s national anthem in place of their own.

Ye Gods!

• As for the Scots, what do they think? Mike Haggerty’s words - which include the classic “mayhem” – are located here, while Bob Cowan wondered if it was all a dream ...

• Yes, the opening ceremony dragged on far too long but it was quite a thrill to see something so “big” and glitzy to start the week. The legends who were there – all four Richardsons, The Owl, Eigil Ramsfjell, The Ferb and more – were a fantastic addition. The ancient trophies – from the Scotch Cup to both Silver Brooms – were amazing to see.

• Funny stuff you TV viewers never get to see: veteran curling arena announcer Stuart Brown screaming KMart’s pre-game (semifinal) intro before a crazed crowd: “Kevin HOWARD!”

This on live television, beamed around the world.

Martin’s teammates collapse in gales of laughter.

Martin himself looks befuddled, then smiles, shaking his head.

Stu drops to his knees in disbelief.

Russ Howard is, of course, loving it.

“That was hilarious,” said Martin afterwards.

“You know what? The problem is I don’t hear very well. I actually didn’t hear it. Had to ask the boys what happened and they were killing themselves.

“That’s a good blooper. But I don’t think he (Brown) mixed me up with Russ (Howard). I’ll bet he mixed me up with Glenn (Howard).

“Glenn and I have the similar hairline.”

• What does Moncton think? Here’s not one but two pieces in today’s local blat. And we agree: great show, folks.

• A reminder that you can watch highlights and full-game rebroadcasts through TSN’s Video On Demand player, via this page.

CCA photo by Michael Burns

Brier: The Mexican, McLovin and Babyface

CALGARY – We couldn’t say it any better than YouTube’s jujames, who asks: “What the heck is the deal with this? The TSN announcers said nothing.”

Click here to view.

Brier: is this the best ever?

Question: could this Brier be on its way to becoming, possibly, the greatest ever?

Some guys named Stoughton and Gushue just crashed the Martin-Howard VIP access-only lounge with a scintillating display of playoff curling (CCA photo by Michael Burns).

High drama came down to a stunning conclusion when Jeff Stoughton, staring down a determined Newfoundland comeback attempt (a deuce in the seventh and then double steals in eight and nine) called and made a wild angle-raise double for two and stuck it for the win... which went to a measurement.

In a reversal of the 2005 Olympic Trials final, in which the Stoughton squad started shaking hands with the Gushues while awaiting for the golden measurement – which confirmed Gushue’s Olympic history-to-be at Turin 2006 – this time it was the Newfoundlanders who offered their hands to the Bisons, while awaiting the results of the measurement.

The Manitobans fired 86 per cent as a team compared to Newfoundland’s 83. Stoughton sizzled at 91 per cent – no doubt earning the famous five-out-of-four bonus on his last throw – while Gushue sizzled only slightly less, at 88 per cent.

The ’Tobans went completely crazy after The Shot (II) was made.

Manitoba now moves on to battle Ontario in tonight’s semifinal.

Hoo-boy! Wotta Brier!

Here’s how the live CurlingZone chat module described the action. Can anyone guess which chatter:

a) entered the chatroom just seconds after The Shot (II)?
b) is not in Calgary?
and
b) is also missing the TV coverage?

[CurlingZone Chat]: Posada has entered at 1:28 pm
[t42] 1:29 pm: They don’t believe it
[t42] 1:29 pm: they are stunned
[Donr] 1:29 pm: measure for win???
[t42] 1:29 pm: Jeff’s face
[Jetboots] 1:29 pm: woo
[t42] 1:29 pm: omg
[Posada] 1:29 pm: What's happening!!!!! Just got here Aiighhh
[t42] 1:29 pm: its mb
[t42] 1:29 pm: but NL would be stupid not to measure
[Donr] 1:29 pm: we hope lol
[Jetboots] 1:29 pm: nice shot
[Posada] 1:29 pm: WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT
[CurlingZone Chat]: hack scruber has entered at 1:29 pm
[Jetboots] 1:30 pm: not over yet
[t42] 1:30 pm: oh my -
[Posada] 1:30 pm: JB - TALK TO ME!!!
[t42] 1:30 pm: shaking hands before measure
[Jetboots] 1:30 pm: yellow
[Donr] 1:30 pm: newfies know
[t42] 1:30 pm: MB take 2 and the game with a long angle double raise take out stick
[Donr] 1:30 pm: wow
[t42] 1:30 pm: yess
[t42] 1:30 pm: That is drama
[Donr] 1:31 pm: was worth the prcie of tsn lol
[sandym] 1:31 pm: helluva shot
[t42] 1:31 pm: Jeff was sick to stomach there from the look on his face - not sure he believed he had done it
[Posada] 1:32 pm: Holy crap
[t42] 1:31 pm: they didn’t sweep it all the way down did they
[t42] 1:31 pm: had to do it on its own
[Donr] 1:31 pm: mb in tough tonight
[Donr] 1:32 pm: might require some more praying to the curling gods
[Posada] 1:33 pm: WHY AM I NOT THERE AIIGGHHARRGH *smash* *bang* *crash* YEEARRGHHHH

Brier: Day Five Update

by Margo Weber

CALGARY – Here are my thoughts – ’cause I do have thoughts – about where we are after Draw 11:

• Alberta (7-0) – These guys are good. In fact, second Marc Kennedy is so good that John Morris and Ben Hebert don’t even bother cleaning his standard peels. They feign interest until about halfway down the sheet, then save their energy. They still have a couple of tough games left, but we may see them go undefeated in the round robin once again.

• Ontario (7-0) – Still excited about The Shot... although I totally called it. I’m such a good curler from my couch! Glenn Howard and Richard Hart have the highest stat percentage and that will make them pretty tough to beat. Brent Laing and Craig Savill made our All-Star Hottie team, so their week is already made. (Big picture here: they are World Junior Champs, World Men’s Champs, Dalene and Margo’s hot list. All that is left is the Olympics.)

• Newfoundland/Labrador (5-2) – Looking good to make playoffs. Found myself cheering “Let’s Go Grey Slacks!” in the stands today.

• Manitoba (4-3) – Flying under the radar. Bad Howard Tuesday. Can definitely afford another loss if they need it, but will have to pick up the pace come playoff time. And hey. Is it just me, or does KPark in a ’Toba jacket (CCA photo by Michael Burns, above) still look weird?

• New Brunswick (4-3) – Loved the broom-bashing on Tuesday. Loved how Dalene scooped the entire media bench on it, and loved seeing Al Cameron, full of bitterness and clouded by vengeance, rush to produce a lengthy story. Not sure why we all think it’s hilarious when Russ Howard snaps a broom, but when Johnny Mo does it in Hamilton, it’s a crime. Either way – awesome. Will we see more emotion when Russ plays against his old Olympic teammies on Wednesday?

• British Columbia (3-4) – Need to win every game. Skipper Sean Geall has had to make some tough shots. Not bad for a first Brier.

• Quebec (3-4) – I’ve been taking some serious jabs from my girlfriends about my all star hottie skip Jean-Michel Ménard. He needs to kick it up a notch – and fast.

• NWT/Yukon (2-5) – Play like they did Tuesday night we might see a few more wins out of these guys. Either way they will enjoy the festivities in the Big Four (or the locker room before they hit the Big Four). Think it’s cold here? It’s -30° Celsius back in Yellowknife.

• Nova Scotia (2-5) – No fire has been lit under Mark Dacey. Seems kinda ho-hum. Perhaps he should have kept the grey slacks he wore at his provincial. Whatever, it’s just the Brier. Have a nice flight home.

• PEI (2-5) – Hope you enjoyed your two wins – and the two ends where you were the TSN telecast game on Tuesday morning.

• Saskatchewan (2-5) – Wow, was I ever wrong about you guys. You can drive home.

• Northern Ontario (1-6) – Enjoy the Patch.

Talking Curling Heads

We’ve always loved the term “talking head”, which is aimed – affectionately or not – at those who are paid big bucks to smile, look good, and tell us about the stuff we’re watching on TV.

And so, we introduce curling fans to Bryan Mudryk (photo), the new face of TSN morning draw curling action. The Alberta native comes to curling from the sports highlight show Sportscentre, but he has a real curling pedigree.

“I actually played in the Alberta provincial juniors against Marc Kennedy and Carter Rycroft,” says the 30-year-old. “I was 19 years old out of Lloydminster, during my first TV job, and we didn’t win a single game!

“And I won the first-ever club championship at the Saville Centre in Edmonton, the first year the club opened.”

Mudryk now lives in Toronto, and still finds time to curl once a week at Mississauga’s Dixie Curling Club. He’ll be working the Scotties Tournament of Hearts morning games alongside Old Yeller – Russ Howard.

“It’s such a treat,” says the new kid. “He’s so knowledgable about the game. He would laugh or kick me, but who did I watch growing up? Ed Werenich. Pat Ryan. And Russ Howard.”

“He’s awesome,” says Russ.

“We did a six-end run through last night, using a tape of last year’s Scotties – Quebec against Team Canada. It’s obvious he’s a player. He knows the sport.”

Of course, TSN has not yet announced how they’ll handle the issue of Howard competing at the Calgary Brier, when he’s supposed to be broadcasting the morning draws with Mudryk.

“We’re not really sure what’s going on in Calgary,” Mudryk confirmed. “But we know he’s playing!”

So don’t forget to curl up on Sunday morning with Bryan Mudryk, as he tries to tame the Wounded Bull Moose on The Sports Network.

This new tandem’s first game? Saskatchewan’s Stefanie Lawton versus Ontario’s Krista McCarville.

Insane curling week

There is so much going on, we almost don’t know where to begin. Prepare yourself for a dizzying ride... and you might want to bookmark this page!

We’ll start in British Columbia, host to two big events starting tomorrow.

First, the doors to the gigantic new 2010 Olympic and Paralympic curling venue – impressively labelled the Vancouver Olympic/Paralympic Centre – were thrown open to the public yesterday. Following the ceremonial first stone (photo by Metro) there was a full slate of activities running from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, such as curling demonstrations – featuring 2002 Olympian Georgina Wheatcroft (who seems to have been hanging around all week) and emcee Ray Turnbull of TSN – plus a multicultural assortment of performers, including dancers, bagpipers, a hip-hop crew, stilt-dancers (!) and a South Asian bhangra team.

Plus free munchies, free pins from Canadian Olympic broadcaster CTV, Olympian and Paralympian autograph sessions, inukshuk-building and of course the official Vancouver 2010 mascots – Quatchi, Miga, and Sumi.

You can see pics and stories via Canwest, and the Globe (with the bazillion-dollar cost breakdown) while this Canadian Press squib mentions disappointment in the seating, saying “Canada's love for curling could easily have filled more than 6,000 seats.” We agree.

Dubbed “The Centre of it All” for last night’s bash, the facility will also boast an impressive post-Games legacy – a brand-new, eight-sheet Vancouver Curling Club, an NHL-size ice rink, a 6,200-square-metre aquatic centre (with a 50-metre lap pool, leisure pool, outdoor pool and hot tub), a 9,300-square-metre community centre complete with full-size gym, multi-purpose rooms and fitness centre, a library, field house and offices.

The best link, however, is this one from the World Curling Federation, because it previews the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, which starts tomorrow.

Canada’s six-time Brier competitor Jim Armstrong – who hails from Vancouver – now skips the national team, and he leads the hometown heroes against mighty Norway (two-time defending champion), Korea (whose 2008 silver-winning skip actually yells at the rocks, believing they will listen), Germany (winners of the Challenge qualifier back in November), China (it’s their first appearance, and they have an average age of just 24), Scotland (their skipper won two worlds and Paralympic silver in 2006) and the United States (winners of 2008 bronze).

As the WCF story points out, no less than four websites will be dishing results, shot-by-shot graphics, news and photos, so be sure to stay plugged in over the next nine days.

The International Paralympic Committee also has a preview here.

But that’s not all, for B.C.

The Scotties Tournament of Hearts also starts up Saturday, from nearby Victoria, with wall-to-wall TV coverage on The Sports Network... and live scoring at the event website... lots of media and predictions... and maybe even some occasional blogging from The Curling News, who knows?

Also, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials start tomorrow in Colorado. This is a combined championship, which will send the winning teams to the women’s worlds in Gangneung and the Ford World Men’s in Moncton... and also to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games next year. So for the Yanks, this it... right here and right now, baby.

Even USA Today has taken notice, with this feature on the wide generation gap on Team Erika Brown also including a link to “Relive the curling action from the 2006 Games”. Nice.

There’s more U.S. Trials media here (Duluth-based story and video) and here (featuring Wisconsin’s Debbie McCormick)... and even from this guy, who wrote a decent piece except for the not-too-thinly-veiled opening shots.

And did you know you can the playoffs live online, via Universal Sports?

Wait, there’s more.

As you saw in our previous post, we have spies on the ground at the Winter Universiade in Harbin, China, and we’re looking forward to more bird’s-eye viewpoints coming from the other side of the globe.

And now back to Vancouver for a second. The aforementioned VCC is hosting a Mixed Doubles bonspiel tomorrow... and this reminds us that this year’s 2009 World Mixed Doubles
are in gorgeous Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, which of course will be hosting the 2010 World Men’s. So there you go.

And what about events that are ending this weekend? Geez, where do we start?

• Manitoba men’s provincial: live scoring located here, some Shaw TV game coverage via webstreaming here and some recent media here ...

• The Scottish men (scoring here) and women (scoring here) are almost into playoffs, with expert commentary located here ...

• The European Youth Olympic Festival (say what?) going on in Poland (say what again?) is into curling’s gold medal games... today! Scoring here!

• The Swiss men and women have their championship finals on Saturday... but to be perfectly honest, we can’t seem to find the link anymore.

And with that, our brains are fried. Pfffttt.

The Ferb is back

RAMA, Ontario – There are many reasons why Randy Ferbey’s huge win at the 2009 Casino Rama Curling Skins Game is so... well, cool.

• Team Ferbey (most of them) were road-weary after playing 10 straight weekends up to Xmas;
• they were 0-9 versus arch-rival Kevin Martin before yesterday’s Game 1 victory;
• Joe Average curling fan hadn’t seen or heard much from them for a while;
• they’re another Edmonton team everyone would love to see at the Trials;
• they’re still, obviously, a damned fine curling team.

Good for them, good for the sport.

Things got picky and icky and sticky yet again, with one player suggesting in the seventh end that they “should just flip a coin.”

And after his last effort of the sixth went bananas, Glenn Howard looked indeed to be working his magic.

The seventh came down to a measure – an excruciating double-measure, actually – which the Ferbs and the TSN TV crew thought would go their way (it didn’t). That skin would have clinched it for the Albertans. Carry-over.

The final frame was huge, with the teams tied at 7K apiece and a whopping $43,000 on the line. Howard missed his first runback, firing it through both intended target rocks but miraculously stuck on his own in the back-four for shot stone.

But after Ferb fourth-thrower David Nedohin made a delicious angle tap to freeze, lady luck had left the casino and Howard’s End arrived. His final runback missed, and the Ferbey Four were back in the winner’s circle.

We’ll have another report plus a variety of sidebars in the upcoming February issue of The Curling News.

This will include a fascinating history of curling’s eternal male versus female debate, with both long-forgotten info and fresh thinking thrown in. Trust us, you don’t want to miss it ...

Who is Howard Jones?

RAMA, Ontario – We’ve got some skins media to show and tell y’all about, below, but first...

Following this blogpost from yesterday, we’ve been getting some queries about this Howard Jones fellow. As in, who is he, anyway?

Come ON people. You are supposedly members of the Google-slash-YouTube generation. I mean, the guy played at Live Aid, for gosh’s sake.

Here are two Howard hits... one from his hairy heyday, and another where he has a more normal do, plus an all-star band backing him up.

We’d say Howard did quite well back in the day. Just as the other Howard, Glenn, is doing this weekend at the skins. So far.

As for media today, TSN has some videos, interviews, stories and pics on their website, here and here... the Toronto Star was here... and Bob Weeks asks if the CCA is paying attention to all the athlete-oriented hoopla.

We’d say they are indeed. As Weeks notes, and as we previously noted online and in the December issue, the CCA is all over athletes like Kevin Martin, Jennifer Jones and tough-guy John Morris in an multi-media blitzkrieg to sell event tickets. And perhaps mindful of some previous criticism, these spots are bigger budget, high-gloss productions when compared to those of the past.

More evidence the CCA is wired in? CEO Greg Stremlaw was right here, in person, at Casino Rama yesterday.

Howard and Ferbey on Sunday

RAMA, Ontario – Howard versus Jones. Men versus women. East versus west. BalancePlus versus Asham.

No contest. No mas!

It was a good old-fashioned punting, and all that’s left for the reigning world women’s champions is a night of blackjack, poker, craps and whatnot.

Tomorrow it’s Glenn Howard versus Randy Ferbey for all the Casino Rama/TSN skins marbles.

See you then!

The Curling News photo by Anil Mungal

Ferb beats The Bear

RAMA, Ontario – Two days ago on Off The Record, the four skips were asked “who’s got the biggest temper?” Jennifer Jones, Randy Ferbey and Glenn Howard all said “Kevin Martin”, and The Old Bear himself smiled and agreed.

And today was a just plain bad day at the office for KMart and crew, as the defending Casino Rama skins champions were upended by their Edmonton arch-rivals, Team Ferbey.

A bad stone – which picked out of lead Ben Hebert’s hand not once, not twice but thrice – conspired against Martin throughout the game, but there were a lot of misses too.

Martin even lost his jacket (hopefully temporarily).

This was, overall, a rather subdued semifinal. TSN commentator Ray Turnbull called it “one of the weirdest skins games ever”.

Tonight it’s Jones versus the near-hometown fave, Howard.

The Curling News “Moment of Victory” photo by Anil Mungal

Final Casino Rama Skins curling preview

Ready for some skins curling?

Yes indeed, yesterday’s TV talk warmups – on both TSN and Rogers Sportsnet – were fun to watch. Never mind the sleepy Randy Ferbey, above (photo by TSN)... this was no snorefest.

You can check out the episode of TSN’s Off The Record right here (player is on the right-hand side of the page). But we also point out the Really Off The Record podcast located in the centre of the page (January 8). This audio-only show lasts 4:21 and features host Michael Landsberg asking the four skips (see yesterday’s blogposts) to play “CCA For A Day”, and declare how they would change the sport.

Fun stuff. Glenn Howard would force Kevin Martin and Ferbey to retire (much laughter) but in a frank and serious exchange, Martin and Howard clashed over the concept of Team Canada at the Brier.

Also, Howard declared – unequivocally – that eight-end curling games will be fully implemented across the spectrum of the sport following the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Hmm... does he know something we don’t?

You can also listen to the FAN 590/Rogers Sportsnet episode of Prime Time Sports featuring Martin and Jennifer Jones right here (click on PTS: 2009-01-08, segment two, starting at 18:20).

Today’s media roundup includes Bob Weeks on his blog and also in the Globe & Mail; Brian McAndrew of the Toronto Star; another pal, James Bisson at the Canadian Press and they guys at Canwest Media, too.

And don’t forget this here TCN Blog, whether you are watching from home or looking for the scoop from overseas.

2009 Casino Rama Curling Skins: ticket update and preview

It’s almost 4:00pm ET, the skips have had their say (photo above courtesy TSN) and the taping of Off The Record is over – see previous blogpost here – so be sure to tune at 6:00pm ET tonight.

Or tomorrow AM for the repeat, and also tomorrow online via the TSN Player.

We notice that Kevin Martin was kept pretty far away from Randy Ferbey. Drat! (Click on the pic to increase size.)

As for the Skins Game itself, you can find an event preview story here, another one here... and the main event page is located here.

And now, tickets.

This weekend’s skins showdown is almost sold out. The Ticketmaster portal is apparently reading “unavailable” for many people. If you have this problem, and you dearly want tickets, you have two options.

1. Visit the Casino Rama box office in person.

2. Or choose the official secret method, divulged just for you courtesy of The Curling News. Call the Casino Rama Customer Service line at 1-8800-832-PLAY (7529) and very specifically say: “I want to buy a three-game pass for the curling skins game”.

It is apparently important that you clearly state your intentions to buy a three-game pass. You need to be directed by Customer Service to the box office, and if you try to buy single-game tickets or any other package, you’re out of luck (as indicated by this recent Casino Rama posting). And if you don’t act quickly, you may be plain out of luck anyway!

Finally, our coverage. The Curling News Blog is still unsure of our coverage plans for the weekend, but if you are settling in at home to watch skins action – or cursing from outside Canada over the unavailability of the TV signal – be sure to check us out online when you take a washroom or fridge break. Like last year, you just might find us blogging live from the event.

Finally... don’t forget, the skins is televised in High Definition, and it looks utterly amazing. So if you aren’t yet set up with HD in your home, get on the horn and start arranging a viewing party at a friend’s place.

Game on!

Tonight: Off The Record with skins skips

Some big-name curling champs – Kevin Martin, Randy Ferbey, Glenn Howard and Jennifer Jones – are headed to the 2009 Casino Rama Skins Game this weekend.

All four skips are now in Toronto and en route to TSN studios at the Rogers Centre for a taping of Off The Record, the sometimes-incendiary sports talk show with host Michael Landsberg.

The all-curling show airs tonight at 6:00pm eastern time.

It might be repeated overnight or tomorrow morning/afternoon, and it is sure to be available online tomorrow, as well – Canada only, we think?

Practice ice goes tomorrow in the casino entertainment centre and play begins Saturday with Martin versus Ferbey (1:00pm ET) and then Howard versus Jones (8:00pm ET). The final goes Sunday, at 1:00pm ET.

Many of you will remember our extensive 2007 event blog coverage, which told you about the ice, the ice temperature, the rock-star intros, the special-guest piper, the picks, the team from Newfoundland which perhaps woulda-coulda-shoulda been in the final, and much, much more.

(Search back to December 2007 in our blog archives for that much, much more)

Last year Off The Record – OTR – also hosted an all-curling Skins preview episode, and things got very interesting. Wayne Middaugh was on fire, first reminding Martin of his corn-broom incident at the 1991 Worlds and then stating, unequivocally, that “the Olympics have ruined curling.”

Wayner is always sure to be a hoot on that show.

Jill Officer, who plays second for Jones and who writes for The Curling News, was unimpressed enough to write a column in last year’s January issue asking Wayne just what the hell he meant by that.

Of course, if you subscribed to The Curling News, you will have read that story already. Hint, hint.

So what will tonight’s OTR reveal?

It should be fun with Martin and Ferbey in the same room. Maybe TSN will seat them side by side. Giggle.

Jones will get asked about competing against men, and Glenn will joke that while he’s a really nice guy he’s just going to have to kick Jen’s butt, because the skins format is too volatile to do anything but try and squash your opponent. No Mr. Nice Guy here.

Jones, as some have suggested, is like a lawyer in her interviews. Guarded, formulaic and cliched. Well, she is a lawyer, in fact. Host Landsberg, meanwhile, has been know to get under the skin of some guests, and he may feel he has to roll up his sleeves and do just that today. Anyone want to take that bet, Jones versus Landsberg? Who wins?

Finally, a word about tickets. Southern Ontarians are complaining that Ticketmaster won’t give them any options to buy, with the site listing the event tickets as “unavailable”. There are whispers that the event is “Sold Out”.

We have the scoop. And we’ll reveal it – along with the exclusive way to go and get what few tickets remain - later this afternoon. Stay tuned ...

PS: Landsberg will be going back to his roots, at Vancouver in 2010. He is part of the massive consortium lineup of TV anchors, hosts and reporters who will be very busy at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. This story also reveals the names of the curling TV talent: Vic Rauter, Bryan Mudryk, Linda Moore, Ray Turnbull, Russ Howard, Cathy Gauthier, Dan Murphy, Michel Y. Lacroix and Guy Hemmings ...

Stampeder Curling

What a ripoff.

The scene: Canadian Football League action on holiday Monday. The Calgary Stampeders are thumping the Saskatchewan Roughriders and TSN’s live feed inexplicably crashes early in the fourth quarter. The usual gang of suit-clad mouthpieces cut in, of course, to discuss various statistical whatnots around the table as attempts are made to reconnect to the live action.

When they do, another Calgary touchdown has occurred and scorer Nik Lewis seems to have tossed something (above). The camera stays close on him as he watches and then starts celebrating. The slo-mo replay doesn’t include any of the previous.

The previous was in fact Lewis throwing the football like a curling stone, which his teammates then started “sweeping”.

Ace TCN and Calgary Herald scribe Al Cameron was there, as were his rivals at the Calgary Sun and Cameron, for one, has declared this end-zone celebration to be simply the best ever.

We agree: it sends quite a message to Winnipeg that “Duck-Duck-Goose” just ain’t gonna cut it.

So, apart from a screen capture from TSN’s belated, missed-the-boat coverage (available here, at 13:12 of the fourth quarter) we have ZERO photo and video evidence of the greatest CFL scoring celebration of all time. We even have the CFL’s media department hunting for some images, but they’ve drawn a blank so far.

Our last hope is for some intrepid CFL fans, on site at the game, who might have captured this on video, on film, via a mobile phone pic, whatever. Please drop us a line via Comments below, or via our website, if you have the evidence.

Meanwhile, CFL legend Milt Stegall – a Blue Bomber, wouldn’t you know – has gone completely loco. For no apparent reason, he spoke major league heresy against both hockey and curling, two fo the most Canadian sporting ways of life. What the...?

Curling.ca Revamped

The Canadian Curling Association has a revamped website.

As first glance will tell you, it is now very, very busy... some may even complain it almost overwhelms the senses. But if the mission is to bombard the viewer with as much curling content as possible, they have succeeded, and all that remains is to see if they can maintain the intensity throughout this critical pre-Olympic curling season.

Speaking of the critical pre-Olympic curling season, the oft-maligned CTRS Trials process has its own button, with no less than five descriptive sub-pages. Will this effort finally halt the quizzical stares shared coast to coast... or will they actually increase?

Of interest is the current top news story, scalped from yesterday’s St. John’s Telegram – with full credit, of course. There was a day when the only “news” fit to appear on curling.ca was that of the org’s own news releases. Could this story, which highlights a Canadian team’s upcoming appearance in a clearly non-CCA event halfway around the world, signal a new era of news dissemination?

Of great interest is the new commitment, by staff, to the blogosphere. Warren Hansen’s The Last End, a fixture in CCA publications since the days of black-and-white printing presses, is now online, as are blogs from National Development Coach Paul Webster, located here, and Event and Curling Club Development man Danny Lamoureux, located here.

Will The Boss eventually have a blog?

And we guess we won’t be, er, borrowing any CCA talent for blogposts here at The Curling News, eh?

We also note a tighter relationship between this relaunched site and that of the Season of Champions event site, which leads off with a much bigger splash for their Canadian-hosted events.

All in all, a solid revamp of what is still, after all these years, an important site for the promotion of the sport. After all, the CCA website still comes up No. 1 on a Google search of “curling”, ahead of – in order – Wikipedia, the TSN curling page, the horrible, awful dog’s breakfast which is, sadly, curling.com (no link provided) and even the World Curling Federation.


Elsewhere:

• revRecluse continues to unearth – and play with – great curling board games from days gone by. His latest is a glorious Hubley from the 1960s, featuring a delicious concave playing surface ...

• The Bismark Summer Spiel featured a wheelchair curling team for the first time, and there’s video here ...

• Finally, this doesn’t read merely “irreverent” to us. In fact, this sure reads like a rip. Curling compared to... competitive eating? If you agree with our sourness and wish to direct some venom, do so to Flairview Travel Pty Ltd., 680 George Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000. Telephone is either (02) 8263 5100 or +612.82635151, we can’t tell which. Perhaps SuperBacon can find us an email address? ...

Heading into Brier Friday

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – There must be something about Thursday at the Brier. It’s the last day of the round-robin and everyone seems to come out to play their best… including the teams already out of contention.

Northern Ontario’s Eric Harnden, who has allowed fifth man Brad Jacobs to step in at skip position for the latter half of this week, defeated Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons in the afternoon, and it’s a good thing Simmons had two chances to clinch a spot in the 1 vs 2 playoff game... for he did just that with a 8-2 drubbing of Manitoba. That killed any home team hopes of making a tiebreaker.

It was a tough week for former world champion Kerry Burtnyk and his young curling team, but the hometown crowd gave the boys a terrific cheer as they left the ice Thursday evening.

In the photo above, you can see that the victorious cornhuskers waited further up the sheet so the Manitobans could take their farewell walk alone. Simmons himself, a little further back from his team, is also applauding.

Nova Scotia stayed tough against the defending champs from Ontario and the Territories kept it close against Kevin Martin and his Alberta squad until the seventh end.

But in the end, things played out as expected, so here’s the confirmed playoff picture:

Newfoundland and B.C. will play in a tiebreaker at 9:00am local time today. You read it right here first, yesterday afternoon, ahead of anybody else (except perhaps the TSN guys).

The winner of that game will play against Ontario in the 3 vs 4 Page playoff game at 2:00pm local time.

And… your feature matchup will be Alberta and Saskatchewan in the 1 vs 2 game on Friday evening, starting at 7:00pm local time.

As I mentioned, Brad Jacobs has stepped in to play for Harnden, but there have been a number of fifth players thrown into the lineups this week…whether for an entire game, a few games, or just a few shots.

Ontario fifth Steve Bice also threw a few bricks, and Alberta alternate Adam Enright did same. So did Mark Butler of Prince Edward Island, Doug Gee of the Territories, Dave Slauenwhite from Nova Scotia and Philippe Menard of Quebec.

Most notably though, after Quebec was out of contention, skip Jean-Michel Ménard switched positions with third man Martin Crete. The former skip – Crete set a record for consecutive appearances as a skip at the Canadian Juniors two years ago – returned to his former haunts and Ménard proceeded to sweep his team’s front-end stones!

Also, in a game that had no bearing on the playoffs, Quebec and Northern Ontario played not one, but two extra ends in the final round-robin draw!

Quebec had last rock in the 11th, but hit and rolled out to go to the 12th. Crete drew to the four foot in the 12th for the win... and perhaps it was better this time that he threw a a draw!