Ford World Curling: Hotties part II

by Katja Kiiskinen

MONCTON – The editor apologizes for the delay, but apparently the Canadian Prime Minister arrives this morning – big curling fan that he is – and that seems to have quite a few people scurrying about.

And here we are, finally, with the rest of our hotties who are easy on the ice... or should that read eyes?

7. NORWAY

The entire curling world knows he is gorgeous, so maybe it would have been time to go with someone else... but then all of you Thomas Ulsrud fans out there would have been raising a riot. With the addition of the young and talented Petterson and Svae on the front end, Ulsrud’s impressive curling career seems to be picking up the pace with every year that passes by.

8. UNITED STATES

We were very tempted to go with the sweetheart skip of the team, John Shuster, but ultimately decided we would let you vote on third Jason Smith, who spends half the year charming the Floridians.

9. SWITZERLAND

Our Swiss playa has got an inexplicable way with the ladies. Any members of the cuter sex who have been in his vicinity will know this. If there’s a girlfriend reading, you should not be alarmed – despite his amazing charisma, Jan Hauser always behaves.

10. SCOTLAND

This hot piece of crumpet and his team are responsible for offering us some of the most enduring moments of curling. That’s right, we’re talking about Scotland’s very own David Murdoch. He is known for his incredible versatility as a player and an intense focus on the game, which make him oh-so-captivating to watch.

11. JAPAN

Look at this cutie! Say hello to Kosuke Morozumi, the brother of Japan skip Yusuke Morozumi. He’s only 20 – the average age of this young team is only 22 – and they were targeting the 2014 Olympics when they surprised the field at the Japanese final.

12. GERMANY

We were tempted to go with alternate Daniel Herberg, but we simply cannot resist the lure of Andreas Lang. He first arrived with the veteran Team Kapp to install some youthful vitality to the squad, and just like that, the squad is confirmed to represent Germany next year in Vancouver.

So, there they are! Your nominees for the hottie vote. Be sure to check out the first group, if you haven’t already, and leave a comment so you can make someone’s day!

A whole new curling world

VERNON – Quite a show, that Worlds was (CCA photo by Michael Burns – click to enlarge).

Once again, as we declared following Canada’s championship, the women of curling put on a fine show. Play was generally aggressive and miles ahead of what we saw even a year ago. And if China were half as aggressive in the final as they had been during the week, they just might have gone all the way.

But there is nothing to take away from the new world champions. Rarely has the curling world seen a display of gutsy, never-say-die performance... and not over just one nine-day tournament, but two.

But the real story was China and Japan, and what lies ahead for the future. As WCF President Les Harrison opined a couple of days ago:

“Regardless of how this championship develops, the world curling landscape has been redefined, possibly forever. What we have seen this week confirms the global growth of our sport, certainly at the high-performance level.

“China was the number one team all week. Japan is in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Canada lost twice, the U.S. is out and Scotland was knocked out very early.

“It’s a whole new world of curling out there.”

Here’s a few links to wrap up the Ford Worlds, starting with Jim Bender and moving to Paul Wiecek, and then not just one but two from Cookie Gilchrist... to this Canwest cleanup, which includes updates on the Scottish mayhem and the good-news ending to the bad-news theft ... plus, TV ratings in Canada were big, and now wonder... the Prime Minister was watching, too!

Oh, and ya just gotta love Bingyu ...


And more ...

• Here’s yet another anti-CBC, pro-TSN curling complainer – of course, TSN doesn’t run commercials, right?

• Upon reading this column’s mention of a gold-medal shootout between Jennifer Jones and Bingyu Wang, we are guessing Laurie Mustard is a humour writer ...

• This would seem to be a techno-geek gone wild for curling ...

• Did any Yanks watch WCSN’s debut curling coverage? Here’s a summary posted to YouTube ...

• They were watching in Portugal, of all places, and more than one ...

• Eugene beat Russ Howard and Pat beat Anne at the Canadian Seniors ...

• Paul Webster, who blogged for us during the World Mixed Doubles in Finland, has been whirling through New Zealand (here and here), which also hosts next November’s Pacific Curling Championships ...

• A great post here from Curling Today (hint: note the date) ...

• Benny Heebz might write a football column, eh? He already wrote a pretty good one on curling... and here he is spotlighted in a World Men’s preview from Miss Vicki Hall ...

• Bigfish is selling a curling video game here – or you can download to play for one hour for free ... wonder which game this is?

• Our weird foto of the day is located here. Far out ...

• And the runner-up photos are all located here ...

• We agree, Arctic Curling would’ve been a natural ...

• Here’s some curling Reactions from a design studio in Queens, New York City ...

• This is a VERY interesting thought, considering the inevitability of HDTV curling coverage ...

• Wonder what Paul and Yuki thought of Japan’s performance in Vernon?

• Some amazing curling wipeouts captured on this page ...

• Here was WCSN producer Pete, teching some curling last week ...

• Eurorsport Sweden commentator and WCF Records and Results statistician Paul Ahlgren explains why German curling teams get the bulk of the coverage on the Eurosport network ...

• Once again... and this time, we’ll speak slowly: You. Are. Not. Funny. At. All.

• SongMonk looked up some old curling patents ...

• Face it, folks, some of you are simply going to suck!

• And finally, it turns out the Prime Minister wasn’t the only Canadian politician to congratulate the Jones team. It’s no surprise that Stephane Dion’s release reads exactly like what it is: something thrown together by someone who has no clue about the sport, unlike Stephen Harper, who is a genuine fan.