Olympic Trials to Edmonton

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – It’s finally official. The Canadian Curling Association announced today that Edmonton will host the 2009 the Tim Hortons Canadian (Olympic) Curling Trials at Rexall Place, December 6-13, 2009 at the 15,000-seat arena.

The CCA also announced that the pre-trials qualifier – the last chance for those teams that haven’t earned a direct Trials berth – will be held in Prince George, British Columbia in November of 2009. The dates have only been tentatively set for this event.

The format for the Trials will be an eight-team round robin with only three teams making the playoff round, unlike the usual four-team page-playoff that you see at all of our national championships. Moreover, the Trials used to feature 10 men’s and women’s teams, but that’s been chopped down to eight.

And for the pre-trials qualifier, it will be a triple-knockout: the A and B winners and C finalists will all qualify for the Trials in Edmonton.

Back to the Brier and the on-ice action!

British Columbia’s Bob Ursel defeated Olympic Gold Medallist and 2007 Brier finalist Brad Gushue of Newfoundland this morning in a tiebreaker. So that sets up our first round of playoffs... they’re in the first end right now, with B.C. taking on Ontario’s Glenn Howard in the 3 vs 4 playoff game. This is also a sudden-death match that could eliminate the defending champs if the Lotuslanders – who are now 8-1 after a poor start to the Brier – have anything to say about it.

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!

Curling Ring Man

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – No, not the house rings on a sheet of curling ice. We’re talking about the bling on your finger.

I’ll have just a bit to say about Northern Ontario and skip Eric Harnden in the following blogpost, but did you know that Harnden has an official license with the Canadian Curling Association to sell championship competitor rings?

It’s a great concept, which reaches out to any curler who wants a ring to celebrate his or her participation in a Canadian championship. It’s great for curlers who won a lower-profile championship – like the Mixed, Juniors or Seniors – which doesn’t provide rings to the winners, but it’s also great to have something for everyone who has experienced the joy of representing their province, regardless of how they finished in the standings.

This is also cool for curlers from past eras when there were no rings given out to the champions... not to forget anyone from recent ring eras who happened to lose theirs along the cold cashspiel or playdown road. Anyone going to fess up to that?

I didn’t think so!

The official Season of Champions Participant Ring programme offers a couple of varieties and also different gemstones inlaid to the ring, signifying the event (Brier, Scotties etc.).

In addition to the CCA webpage above, you can contact Eric Harnden directly through his website, located here.

Hopefully Eric will have a few emails and phone calls to plow through upon his return to Sault Ste. Marie!

Brier playoff picture

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – It’s been the best draw to watch so far this week at the Brier with four curling teams – one on each sheet this afternoon – fighting for their lives.

• B.C. fighting for their life against N.B...
• NFLD/LAB fighting against P.E.I;
• Saskatchewan fighting (er, OK, not quite for their lives) against Northern Ontario;
• Manitoba fighting against Quebec!

Each game was a one-point match heading into the 10th end with the exception of the Manitoba game, where Quebec conceded after nine.

And so…

• B.C. won, meaning they are guaranteed a tiebreaker;
• Newfoundland won, meaning they are in the same position as B.C...
• Saskatchewan lost, meaning Pat Simmons (photo above) and co. have to win tonight if they really want to be in that all-important Page playoff 1 vs 2 game… it means you get two legs in the playoffs, you know!

So here’s the deal for tonight’s games:

If Manitoba wins, they will be in a three-way tie with the Newfies and B.C. But with Manitoba playing against Saskatchewan, it could mean the difference between the 1 vs 2 game or the 3 vs 4 game for the Green Machine.

And this is what we know:

• Alberta is in the 1 vs 2 game.
• Saskatchewan and Ontario are into the playoffs.
• B.C. and Newfoundland will battle each other in a tiebreaker, and you could add Manitoba to that mix if the Kerry Burtnyk squad can win tonight.

Got your head around this yet? I’m not sure I do... but it’s gonna be a whale of a curling show tonight on Brier Thursday Night!

Junior honourees part deux

by Jill Officer

Et voila! It’s the newest pride of Quebec, the full squad of Canadian junior men’s curling champions, who also scored bronze at the Worlds in Sweden. Skipper William Dion is at the far left.

The boys were home from Europe for only a day and a half... they say they did laundry and then hopped in the car for the 28-hour drive to the Brier!

One of the guys was coming anyway, and the rest were convinced by Team Lawes during their layover in Frankfurt on the way home.

Magnifique!

Oh, and the third honouree tonight? Yup, it’s Team Jennifer Jones. I’ll have to get away from this keyboard soon!

Junior honourees part one

by Jill Officer

Here’s two members of Canada’s – and Winnipeg’s – world bronze-medal junior women’s curling team: Jenna Loder (second from left) and the skip, Kaitlyn Lawes (right). Jenna’s older sister Cherie-Ann is in there, and the red jacket belongs to a Newfoundland fan, but of course... and this is none other than Mark Nichols’ partner, Colette.

The girls are being honoured before tonight’s final Brier round-robin draw, which some people – like editor gk – believe to be the single best night to be there, live at curling’s big show: the Brier.

There’s another two teams being honoured at centre ice tonight, too. Wonder who they could be...?

Brier, Blogs and Tiger Woods... again

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – The biggest game of the week is over. Ontario’s Glenn Howard and Alberta’s Kevin Martin had a breakfast meeting (above) complete with live television coverage on Sheet B at the MTS Centre here in Winnipeg.

Martin and company didn’t look that hungry. They weren’t sharp early on, putting draws behind the T-line and missing other routine shots.

Martin’s thoughts prior to the matchup:

“They play a different style. They don’t have a Marc Kennedy that can throw it that hard, but Brent (Laing) has a brilliant short game. So there are two different way of going about the game, but both work.”

Lainger, you may remember, played for the Old Bear at the Grand Slam in Port Hawkesbury in December, the fifth and final Slam Martin won in a row on his well-publicized streak.

What many touted would be a preview of the Brier final was only slightly less exciting, however, as Martin was up three points playing the 10th end.

The game featured some spectacular shots by all players on the ice, but as much as Howard showed up to play, third man Richard Hart was less than stellar as he clocked in with an uncharacteristic 70-ish shooting percentage.

It won't be much surprise to see these two teams meet again in the next couple of days, but a better performance from Olympian Hart is required.

British Columbia has kept their playoff hopes up with a win over the islanders of P.E.I. And Olympic golden boy Brad Gushue from Newfoundland and Labrador is also still in contention with a win over New Brunswick this morning.

And so… we could have an even clearer playoff picture by the end of the draw this afternoon. If Manitoba wins today over Saskatchewan and Quebec, and the Newfies and B.C. both win their last games, there will be a couple of tiebreakers.

As much as I’d like to see Manitoba make the playoffs, I’m hoping they can do it without tiebreakers. You see, I really would like to sleep in tomorrow, so if any of you Brier Boys are reading this, could you work on that for me?

What else?


• After a few days of competition I caught up with Alberta’s John Morris to see how his finger is holding up.

He reported that it’s doing pretty well. He ices it after each game and receives wax therapy before each match, too. That treatment requires him to dip his finger in hot wax, allowing it to harden, and he leaves it on for a few minutes to loosen up the joints and muscles in his digit.

I also received a tip from my very perceptive friend – and teammate – Cathy O, who said that Johnny Mo has been shaking hands with his opposite hand before and after the games... here’s what he had to say about that:

“I’m supposed to have a cast on it for six weeks and I only had it on for one week, so it’s not healed yet. What I’m trying to do is not put it out of line at all. So if I shook someone’s hand and they shook it too hard it could re-break it.”


• The Canadian Curling Association will hold a press conference on Friday at Noon CST. They have “several” major announcements to make, one of which has been highly speculated – the confirmation that the 2009 Canadian Olympic Trials will be awarded to Edmonton. Come back Friday afternoon for all the details!


• Reading enough curling blogs lately? No? Okay, here’s some more: Ted Wyman, another colleague of mine at the Winnipeg Sun; these guys (who are always mad at CBC); the Jeff Stoughton spinerama over at CBC.ca (check out the 51 comments from Wednesday!); and finally, Team New Brunswick ...

• I said Ted Wyman was a colleague: that’s right, in addition to this TCN Blog I’ve been doing some writing for the Sun. You can see today’s column here, and another one of my submissions here.

• A few funnies from today’s Tankard Times.

In the “Getting to Know…” section, we have more on the Tiger Woods thing I wrote about earlier in the week:

Tiger Woods is still the most popular answer to the “If you could be any athlete in the world…” question. Some others that have been mentioned are Derek Jeter, Roger Federer, Steve Nash, and of course Wayne Gretzky. Turns out Tiger would also be a popular person to put on the invite list for a party. Many curlers this week have also listed him as someone they would invite to a party in answer to “Three people (dead or alive) you’d invite to a party.”

Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue sold out teammate Chris Shille on the question “Something about a teammate we don’t already know.” Gushue said that “Chris likes ballet.” I wonder if Brad ran that by Chris before that was printed? NOT!

In answer to the same question, Steve Laycock, Saskatchewan’s Hot Shot lead, suggested that the team’s second, Gerry Adam, “was born with a mustache.”

It also seems that a number of players are happiest when they are with family and friends. The question was “You are happiest when?” Geez, you’d think that with all the curling we people do, that we’d be happiest when we’re curling... right?

Finland: enroute to playoffs!

by Paul Webster
CCA National Development Coach
Coach, Canada 2008 World Mixed Doubles

VIERUMAKI – In what some observers described as the best game of the event so far, Canada defeated Hungary in a one game tiebreaker to advance into tomorrow’s playoffs.

We won in an extra-end game that had everyone on their feet. If you look at the scoreboard you'll see a lot of one-point ends scored, in total contrast with everybody’s games throughout the week... and this seriously didn’t reflect the level of play.

First, a bit of background on how we got here. Two days ago we lost a tough morning game against Hungary. It was a tough one to lose as prior to the game we were alone in top spot. Both Dean Ross and Susan O’Connor were struggling with their percentages, but we hung in and played a great eighth and final end, and just missed our final stone that would have put a lot of pressure on Hungary. Having realized they beat Canada, they yelled in celebration.

You’ll notice that the celebrations here in Europe are much different than in North America. The Europeans have a lot of emotion and for a lot of these countries beating Canada is like winning the event. When Italy beat us, the guy on the team hoisted his female teammate in the air like they had just won the Super Bowl. It’s different, and something that Canadian curlers would not do and something we have to adjust to – it’s just tough to watch!

The loss created a must-win situation against Japan in our evening game. After taking one point in the first end we dropped a five in the second, a steal of one in the third, and we were then forced to one in the fourth. Down 6-2 after four ends. Change!

For the first time in the Worlds we made the decision to change up our rotation. Susan started throwing first and fifth and Dean threw the middle three rocks... and was it ever a great decision. A bunch of steals in five, six and seven, a force of one in the eighth to force the extra end, and we simply dominated the extra-end. Five points to finish up... and we win 12-7 after being down 6-2 Phew! That was quite the roller coaster and that, my friends, is the World Mixed Doubles.

So today, in a rematch with the Hungarians, we continued with our change of having Susan throw first and last (watch out Cheryl!) and Dean throw the middle three... and it continued to work beautifully.

Hungary was also playing very well, especially in the opening half of the game. They had a chance to set up a big end in the sixth, however they elected to peel a guard which allowed us some easy shots to ensure our score of one... it could have easily been a steal of one or two had they elected to corner freeze. Canada into the playoffs!

So our path tomorrow is clear: play the Czech Republic and if we beat them, play Finland... that would put us into a traditional four-team semifinal playoff with Sweden, Switzerland and Norway... so cross your fingers!

Weather update: it’s back to cold and snowy here. Only one day so far with a glimmer of sunshine. Depressing, but winning some big games has certainly lifted the spirits of the Canadian team members.

Senior Women have a big game tomorrow morning, as well, against Sweden. Win and they guarantee themselves at least second place. Senior Men are rolling along nicely.

Curling column by Ben Hebert

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – Ben Hebert (right, beside teammate Marc Kennedy) is making a name for himself. For winning piles of games with Team Alberta, for setting records, for giving pretty good quote (like it’s obvious who the weak [leads] are, let’s leave it at that)... and for a budding videography career, too.

Actually, that camcorder bit was pretty lame. I know Ben can do better, because I’ve read another piece of work from him recently, and it’s good. Quite good.

That’s right... Benny Heebz wrote a curling column.

It was in the February Scotties preview issue of The Curling News, which came out over a month ago. Until today, it was only available in that print edition.

Now, however, it is available online at the TCN website, front and centre (for a limited time only) on the homepage amongst the listing of great stories you can find in the current March “Brier” issue. And here’s a direct link to the story page itself.

Nice job Benny. Let’s just see if the people agree with you, that some should “be careful what you wish for.”

As a bonus, there’s another Web Special column from another TCN colleague, Halifax’s Teri Lake. You can find that one located here.

Here’s Russ

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – If you’ve been able to catch TSN’s afternoon broadcasts, you've heard a new voice... but it’s a low, raspy one that you likely recognize. Two time world champ, Olympic champion rather vocal skip Russ Howard has been providing his commentary in the p.m.

Looks like he’s also been taking notes from one of the best. Howard is pictured above hanging out in the TSN booth with Vic Rauter during last night’s broadcast. Russ says he must be doing okay because they haven’t sent him home yet.

Big game tonight

A letter on behalf of all current and future Mixed Doubles players...

Dear Marcel/Scott, Jill/Dawn, Bronwen/Chelsey, Mark/Ben and so on:

Your sweeping makes us better players... and it wasn’t until we started playing this new format of curling, and thought we could shoot and sweep ourselves, that the true impact of your brushes were really noticed. Please accept our apologies for the many years in which we might have taken you for granted...

I tell you, what I wouldn’t do to jump out on the ice and sweep a few of our Canadian rocks recently! If you check out our linescore you’ll notice that we won that game against Slovakia by a score of 12-11... which is great. It currently is the highest combined scored ever in Mixed Doubles, although the Swiss team is racking up a lot of points (15-2 against Wales the other day!).

We had a few shots in that one in which I am convinced that if we had two brushers we may have won the game in six ends... instead we went the full eight ends (including dropping a five-ender in the seventh) and pulled out a single point in the eighth to win.

In the same draw Sweden and Japan also lost giving them both two losses, putting us into sole possession of first place in our pool. It was to be temporary, as we just lost to Hungary 6-4.

The Hungarian gal is Ildiko Szekeres, a former fitness competitor, and here she is in this photo, along with our guy, Dean Ross (and me over Dean’s shoulder, BTW).

First place is big in this event. There are three pools and the three first-place finishers are basically put through to a first, second or third-place finish and all three second-place finishers battle it out for the fourth playoff spot. Positioning is all based on the draw shot challenge at the beginning of the week. I won’t tell you where we stand quite yet.

Susan O’Connor and Dean looked way better today than our game against Italy, but Hungary was a step back. It’s a different game for these two competitive curlers who are used to having two other teammates on the ice to help them through their frustrations. In Mixed Doubles you spend a lot of time thinking to yourself, talking to yourself and generally being by yourself. We’ve tried to work in some team systems that will ensure we mimic a normal four person team speaking pattern... and yes, they are now speaking to themselves a little more!

I got up early the other day for an 8:00am senior women’s draw; my second coaching stint with Diane Foster’s ladies. They lost a tight one, 6-5, after coming back from a 4-0 three-end deficit to almost win... followed by a win... followed by loss to their fellow first-place runner, hosts Finland.

It was only after the other day’s AM game that I discovered there are no timeouts in our senior play. I find it interesting that the WCF has a policy that if there are no time clocks there are no timeouts. There are a number of teams that have coaches available, however, with this WCF policy they are relegated to only seeing their teams before the games and during the fifth-end breaks.

I can totally understand where the WCF is coming from in this regard, as teams in the past have taken advantage of it and in my opinion it has simply hurt the game. I’m hoping in the future that coaches and teams can work this out with the WCF. I spoke with WCF Director of Competitions Keith Wendorf after the game, hoping that timeouts could be inserted for the playoff games... Keith agreed this was a flaw that needs to be worked out, however, in this particularly busy championship the two on-ice officials would not have enough time to help officiate the timeouts in addition to their current duties.

Interesting to note the differences in the two competitions: Mixed Doubles has the hogline rocks, timeclocks, timeouts, a full slate of officials and the Seniors have no hogline rocks nor officials, no timeclocks, and only two on-ice officials. One of the coaches from Europe compared it to a European championship, whereby the ‘A’ Pool have all the bells and whistles and the ‘B’ Pool is comparable to the Seniors. Tough to outfit both sheets with clocks and hogline handles but it would be great if it were possible! Naturally, it all comes down to $$$.

That said, this event is amazing given the tiny number of volunteers on hand. The organizing committe and WCF should be extremely proud of what they have accomplished here in Finland. Everything has gone off without a hitch so far.

A funny moment the other day came from Susan and... a person to be named later. Susan was musing about what she was required to wear for her massage tonight, and being a North American, she asked the other lady in our group if she was going to wear underwear for the massage, She-Who-Shall-Remain-Nameless responded, “... To the massage or during the massage?” We all had a laugh, but poor Susan is still stumped! I will update you on her Finnish massage shortly!

Huge, huge game tonight following the Hungary disappointment... the final round-robin match, against Japan... and in only a few minutes.

GO CANADA!

TSN to show ALTA-ONT morning clash

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – After much discussion about how the two tops teams here this week are scheduled to play a morning draw, TSN has decided to add a broadcast to their line-up tomorrow by broadcasting the biggest match-up of the round robin.

The broadcaster will feature Ontario’s Glenn Howard against Alberta’s Kevin Martin – a match-up that many think will also be the Brier final on Sunday. Good move on TSN’s part for TV numbers, but many businesses and companies across the country could be short-staffed tomorrow morning as people may choose to stay home and watch the big game.

Know what else this means (we hope)? New TSN commentator Russ Howard will finally get to criticize his little brother before some 300,000 viewers (including the CBC webcast). Or exhort him to victory.

Or, more likely, something in between.

Asham Stompers

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – Tuesday night’s draw featured the best matchups so far with five of the top teams playing... and playing against each other.

Hometown boys Manitoba met Alberta, while Saskatchewan was trying to put a stop to Ontario’s undefeated record.

Kevin Martin was booed in the second end of his game against the ’Tobans. The Albertans were sitting a couple buried behind cover and decided not to give Manitoba’s Kerry Burtnyk anything to play with and chose to throw his first rock through the house.

The packed house booed Martin’s choice but Martin just shrugged it off.

Unfortunately the crowd then cheered when Martin missed his last shot, picking one of his own to give Burtnyk a shot for two. Okay people, this isn’t a basketball or hockey game… we don't cheer for misses in curling!

Manitoba was a bit slow to start, made a few nice shots and then gave up a steal of four when Burtnyk came up short on a draw.

Ontario looked slow to start against Saskatchewan. The prairie boys came out firing, but were forced to draw against five in the fifth which they did! They want on to win 7-5... good on them!

Brier organizers were telling me that the rumours they have heard say the MTS Centre is sold out for the playoffs… they specifically asked me to tell all you folks out there that this is NOT TRUE. They said although most of the available seats are in the upper bowl, there are lots of seats available. Come on Winnipeg! It’s not everyday, or even every year that you can watch someone win a Canadian Championship live.

The Asham Stompers took the stage between draws at last night’s Keith’s Brier Patch. The Stompers feature none other than Arnold Asham, the founder of Asham Curling Supplies. The Stompers are a jigging group that have toured all over the place, performing versions of the Red River jig. They even performed at the halftime show of a Winnipeg Blue Bombers game in front of 30,000 spectators.

They were awesome, folks. And the youngest member is only six years old!

Arnold says they are even trying to get on the entertainment bill at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Then again, so are we!

More OTR mayhem

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – Breaking news: TSN’s afternoon talk show Off The Record features two curling guys on its four-person panel on Wednesday: Wayne Middaugh (above) and Peter Steski. And they’re talking Brier, of course.

Wayne, you will recall, got my goat prior to December’s Casino Rama Skins on OTR by declaring that “the Olympics have ruined curling” (I wrote about that in the January issue of The Curling News). Middaugh also went on to call Kevin Martin a cheater – to his face! – regarding Corn Broomgate at the 1991 Silver Broom World Curling Championships. What will Wayne come up with tomorrow?

As for Steski, I don’t know him very well but I am told that he was a multiple OTR guest a few years ago, and while his curling profile might be lower than Wayne’s he is pretty quick with the quips. He served as the Ontario/Quebec rep to the World Curling Players’ Association and he reportedly despises the Toronto Maple Leafs, so that could certainly be interesting.

Maybe I’ll tune in, too...

WMD in Vierumaki

Looky here. Paul Webster, coach of Canada’s first-ever Mixed Doubles team – and a subject of a wild story in the current March issue called Top Secret: curling moves into high-tech world – is blogging from Vierumaki, Finland. The Curling News sure gets around.


by Paul Webster

VIERUMAKI, FINLAND – Well, we are here. And to those of you hearing about the Mixed Doubles worlds for the first time... you’re not alone.

Mixed Doubles was conceived by the powers at the World Curling Federation to be the next discipline in the Olympics – and that in itself is great news. Now the chances of that happening are arguable but it seems as though all the right parameters are in place with this new game.

Basically it’s two-on-two curling. Two rocks are placed at the beginning of each end – one a centre guard for the team throwing first, and the other a rock just touching the T-line, back button, for the team throwing second. Each team then throws five rocks. The curler throwing first also throws fifth, and the other player throws second, third and fourth. A player’s position can change in each end if a team so desires.

There are no specific sweepers – just a thrower and a person inside the hogline. You have to hold a brush when someone is throwing and then one or both players can rush to sweep the rock. We have decided as a team that the athlete in the house will go out and sweep.

Eight-end games. Some big scores and very few blank ends. Oh... and no hitting until the third rock of the end is thrown – even if rocks are in the house. So you can see why there are very few blank ends!

Our team consists of Susan O’Connor and Dean Ross (in photo above) – and me, the assigned coach for the team. They won the right to represent Canada as part of the Canadian Mixed team. Their squad decided to send their back end to represent Canada – a tough decision made no easier when both Dean and Susan were all-stars at their respective positions!

Dean is a very good player from Calgary who has been at provicials numerous times and unfortunately is from Alberta! Too many Randys and Kevins playing there or you would have definitely heard from Dean before now. He is the consumate teammate, and he may also be the biggest curling fan I know. I am extremely pleased that he has won this opportunity; no one deserves it more and absolutely no one would appreciate it more.

Susan is a extremely competitive player on the women’s tour. She currently plays third on Cheryl Bernard’s highly successful squad and is in preparations already as part of our National Team Program. Susan’s team have already qualified for the 2010 Pre-Trials qualifier – her preparation through that program has set her up very well for this, her first World Championship. Susan brings all the skills to the game and it is fun to watch her produce!

Along with us for this trip are four supporters: Susan Wright, Dean’s wife and lead from the Canadian Mixed team; Tim and Evette Krassman (Tim was the second on the Canadian Mixed Team); and Lucille O’Connor, Susan’s mom and our resident GPS expert. Some people have GPS built into their vehicles, but not us... we have Lucille. If you need to know where to go, she has the answer. It’s like the lady has been here before, but she swears she never would go to Europe... I think she’s pulling our legs and secretly she’s a writer for the Lonely Planet series of travel guides!

In conjunction with this championship is the World Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s Championships, where we are represented by Pat Ryan and Diane Foster respectively. Now if you have done the math, yes, this is an all-Alberta contingent... but who is counting?

The venues are beside each other in converted hockey rinks. I’m amazed at how good the ice was on the first day and while things have become a little squirrely thanks to high humidity – and tons of melting snow outside – it’s still pretty good.

Thanks to our friends at The Curling News for hosting these belated blogposts. Some funny things have been happening, such as the Foster team assuring us numerous times that they live in toom 1606 but in reality it is 6106... oh, and they swear they shouldn’t be in Seniors? Hmmm...

And now, on to the flu bug.

It always amazes me, the sicknesses that happen at an international athletic event. It is reasonable that a few people will get sick considering you are virtually creating an international petri dish of every countries’ best bugs.

I raise this issue as our male curler came down with some sort of bug – as in Italy – which we often refer to it as a explosive lower body injury (to the media, of course). Rumours from some of the other mixed and senior teams is that quite a few people are getting it. Always frustrating at a championship you have prepared for... and it always reminds us to prepare for the unexpected.

Dean and Susan played very well in our first three games and then we came up against Italy today; let’s just say it wasn’t our best outing. You could see that Dean was dragging a big and didn’t give us his usual Donovan Bailey impression as he raced out to sweep Susan’s rocks! Dean has been money all week with our first stone and this was his first game where it was shaky, and it was evident that the game was affected.

The Italian male shot very well making some key draws and runbacks, and the female also made a large number of her first shots. Lucky for us she was not as effective with her final rocks so we stayed in the game a bit. We did have a chance with our final stone to win and Dean just came a bit inside on a nose-hit triple which left them lying one.

This is a tough place to hang during a curling championship as there really is not a lot to do in between games. We are thankful for the two other Canadian teams as we can watch a few of their games as well. People at home have asked me what is like... and my best description is this:

Imagine yourself at a summer camp with a curling club in the middle of Stanley Park in Vancouver... and it’s winter/spring time... and they have fenced off the area so Vancouver is inaccessible... lots of beautiful trees, snow, cloud and... wet puddles! I would absolutely love to visit this place in the summertime; the grounds look amazing and the 18-hole golf course is no doubt something to see.

With 24 Mixed Doubles teams and four sheets of ice it is tough to concentrate games... we are used to one game days, and then a lot of time off.

We had some more Lethbridge people join us recently to cheer on the Senior teams! Their ice is a fair bit straighter then our 4.5-foot swing at our Mixed Doubles venue, right next door.

More later ...

Morning draws

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – There’s been some talk (example: here and here) about how some of the biggest match-ups of the week are scheduled in the morning draws here at the Tim Hortons Brier, the grandest curling event of them all.

The game between favourites Alberta and Ontario, which could very likely be your Brier final, is on Thursday morning! So not only is it during the day when people are working and can’t sneak out early, but it’s a draw time that is not even featured on television!

Ontario’s Glenn Howard told the Tankard Times:

“If you want to build this game up and promote the players and everybody thinks we are the favourites then put us on a night draw and get the crowds out,” said Howard.

The only question about this is: who’s going to watch everyone else during the day?

The Bluenosers kept pace here this afternoon with Kevin Martin’s Alberta squad, but the fab four from Edmonton were just too much for Nova Scotia’s veteran Brian Rafuse (CCA photo by Michael Burns). After blanking the ninth end to be tied up playing the 10th, Martin hit for the win.

You might wonder whether Martin’s team was less than stellar today, but in fact, it was the Nova Scotians who kept pace with Alberta.

“They played fantastic,” said Martin. “They were all over us in the first five ends.”

If it wasn’t for putting all their guards in one basket in the 10th and allowing Alberta second Marc Kennedy to make a triple-peel, the Scotia senior men’s champs (yeah, they won that, too) just might have had a chance to play giant killer. Instead, it’s back to the drawing board.

Out in the boonies

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – It’s that time of the week when the players are likely starting to feel a bit of Brier fatigue… and us media folks are beginning to feel it too. It’s hard work sitting up in the bench, trying to pay attention to four curling games (not just the one that the players have to focus on), write stories, take pictures and consume donuts and coffee.

Of course, I hear a rumour from the TCN editor that one of Canada’s two competitors at the World Mixed Doubles in Finland has just gone on the record as saying, and I quote:

“In one respect I enjoy watching (the Mixed Doubles) more than the Brier.”

Wow.

Calgary’s Dean Ross then goes on to talk about exactly what I just wrote previously: trying to watch four sheets at once.

That’s a bold statement! I can’t say I agree. I watched my teammates play in the Mixed Dubs at the Continental Cup last December. As exciting as it was because there was so many rocks in play, the arena was so quiet. Sure, players get up to sweep their own rocks, but there’s not the same intensity because there is so much less loud screaming and yelling at players to sweep!

But the Brier been exciting with lots of extra ends taking place in the last couple of draws… it took almost three and a half hours last night, but Newfoundland and Labrador’s Brad Gushue – CCA photo above courtesy of Michael Burns – managed to steal a win from Jean-Michel Ménard of Quebec in an extra.

Ménard appeared to have control of the first half of the game, up 5-2, until Gushue made a great draw from way out in the boonies. And when I say boonies, I mean it. Newfie third Mark Nichols was actually standing on the carpet to hold the broom for his skipper!

Menard then missed the pick, Gushue drew for two, and that seemed to be a bit of a turning point.

Gushue was back on the ice this morning… in another extra end! This time against Nova Scotia’s Brian Rafuse, the Olympians weren’t so lucky. Rafuse didn’t have to throw his last one in the extra.

Ménard was also back on the ice this morning… and also in another extra end!?! Quebec took on Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons, who took three in the 10th to tie up the match and then stole in the extra. So that’s two extra ends in row for Quebec and they gave up two steals! Ouch.

Kevin Martin was nice enough to tell his competitors in today’s Tankard Times that he’s struggling with his inturn. Who does that? Then again, if the Ol’ Bear is struggling with a turn, it probably means he’s missing by a micrometre instead of a millimetre.

In a story about his team being in control this week, he was asked about his thoughts on the ice that has been produced here by world-class ice tech and Manitoba resident, Hans Wuthrich. Martin told the Times:

“The draw weight I love. Perfect speed. It’s right in my wheelhouse. My inturn, I don't know, you'd have to ask the coach. The reaction when I throw is not quite right. I don’t know.”

Looks like Nova Scotia’s Rafuse has decided that four losses is enough this week. The Easterners have come to play today. After their extra end win over Gushue this morning, they’re staying neck and neck with Martin after five ends this afternoon… right now, they’re actually up two!

Would be nice for Manitoba if Alberta is coming off a loss tonight… then again, Alberta could be on a mission if they happen to lose here to the Bluenosers. The two prairie provinces clash tonight and Burtnyk will be trying to beat one of the bigwigs.

Connal kudos

Congratulations to Graeme Connal, who was given the Perth Guildry Sports Personality of the Year Award last night for winning December’s European Curling Championship as the third for David Murdoch. The photo by Urs Raeber shows Connal (second from right) with some of his mates on the podium in Fuessen.

Connal wasn’t even going to compete this season, but continued knee problems for Ewan MacDonald made Murdoch ring up Connal, who won the worlds eons ago – 1991 actually – with David Smith. In recent years Connal had played third for Tom Brewster, meaning lots of cash earned on many Grand Slam trips to Canada, but constant disappointment in the Scottish finals.

Hammy MacMillan now throws third for Brewster, and Connal had pretty much parked his competitive career... but suddenly, 16 long years after taking gold in Winnipeg over the Kevin combo – Canada’s Martin and Park – Connal has won a major title, is off to Grand Forks for the Worlds, and has now copped this local award.

Good on ya mate!

Broken Brier Trophy

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – To begin today’s third blogpost, there are a few hosting announcements to fill you in on. First up, the Canadian Curling Association announced today that the territory of Nunavut will host its first major curling championship – the 2009 Canadian Mixed, this November 9-16.

This is actually the first time any Canadian sport federation has hosted a national championship in Canada’s newest territory. Awesome.

Also, the big rumour around these parts is that the CCA will announce on Friday that Edmonton will host the 2009 Olympic Curling Trials.

It’s been speculated for quite a while now that Edmonton would host this huge event, but then Kamloops came along and put in one whale of an offer. Now after a few months of fierce lobbying the CCA is set to make the call in favour of Edmonton, and the Trials themselves would run at Rexall Place from December 6-13, 2009.

Media speculation can be found here and here.

And finally, word on the street is that Kamloops will host the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts. This would be logical compensation for the city coming second in the Trials hosting battle.

It was the first battle of the undefeated teams this morning. Saskatchewan’s Pat Simmons was up against Alberta powerhouse Kevin Martin. I was down on the carpet, taking photos of the action. After giving up a steal in the second end, Saskatchewan third Jeff Sharp said to me, “We can’t give the Ol’ Bear too many chances.” Apparently they did, however as Alberta went on to win 7-4.

Seems there are a lot of curlers out there who would love to be Tiger Woods. The “Getting to know…” section of the Brier’s daily Tankard Times is a Q & A that all the players answer. For the question, “If you could be any athlete in the world, you’d be...?” many players list Tiger Woods. Believe it or not, it was the same answer for that same question at the Scotties.

So does everyone just want to win as much as Tiger? Or is it the guy’s unbelievable drive, determination and tough mental game that is the core attraction? I’m thinking it’s a little of both.

Another question in that section is “Something about a teammate that we don’t already know is...” You could imagine there are a few funny answers to this one.

Here’s one from New Brunswick Skip James Grattan: “Every morning (roommate) Jason blows his nose and a moose knocks at the door saying, ‘You called?’”

And from British Columbia third (and fourth thrower) Jim Cotter about his RCMP cfficer skip Bob Ursel: “Bob got a speeding ticket from a new/young member of the force about two months ago.”

What else is going on?

• Alberta second Marc Kennedy is leading the seconds in percentages so far this week. Kennedy has managed to post not one, but two 99 per cent games!

• Did you know that Newfoundland and Labrador’s coach and fifth are the husbands of Cathy Cunningham (Geoff) and Peg Goss (Glen) – two members of the Newfoundland women’s team at this year’s Scotties?

• When Quebec’s Jean-Michel Ménard stole a whopping five points off of Nova Scotia’s Brian Rafuse the other day – Quebec then stole another three in the second and took a four in the fourth en route to a 13-2 win – it didn’t beat or even tie the current Brier steal record.

At the 2000 Brier, PEI’s Andrew Robinson stole seven points in one end in a game against Nova Scotia’s Shawn Adams.

• Alberta third John Morris seems to be dealing well with his broken finger. Skip Kevin Martin has had no issues with Johnny Mo’s shotmaking or sweeping performances. As a matter of fact, he was relieved, telling Tankard Times Editor Larry Wood, “I was happy with the way he threw and happier with the way he swept because there’s no danger now of me having to sweep.”

• There’s a Winnipeg Free Press promo piece that features a picture of Freep writer Paul Wiecek kissing the Brier Tankard trophy (photo above). I promptly went over to Wiecek on the media bench to ask him for his autograph. He proceeded to tell me that he’s never been so scared in his life when that picture was taken.

As he picked up the hardware, the top part of the trophy actually fell off. Paul thought he had broken the hallowed trophy, and proceeded to freak out.

Turns out they hadn’t put the bolts on the thing properly and it was just a matter of bolting it back together to make it right. Whew.

• Finally, Canadian women’s champ Jennifer Jones – my skipper! – received a nice round of applause from last night’s crowd when TSN featured a shot of her on the arena jumbotron.

Now here I am publicizing it... and making her look good yet again! Hey, I like how this blog thing can work...

Weird look

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – I don’t know what’s going on here between Saskatchewan’s Gerry Adam and Alberta’s Kevin Martin, but Martin (left) is giving Adam one really weird-looking... er, look.

Click on the pic to zoom in and you’ll see what I mean...

Put that away, Cliffy

by Jill Officer

WINNIPEG – That’s great.

Here I am, serious photojournalist and all, trying to hone my craft and capture the glory of the Brier, one of Canada’s greatest events... and Glenn Howard has to go and ruin the photo I was planning to take of Richard Hart’s oddly shapeless hair.

Canada kicks a field goal

OSTERSUND – William Dion’s Quebec squad made it double bronze for Canada at the World Juniors today.

Dion and company were absolutely devastated following yesterday’s semifinal loss to the eventual champs, the United States. It took a long time for the skip to drag himself out of the locker room to face the music (ie, the media).

Dion was great with the quotes all week. His closing zinger came today, after clinching the bronze: “We’ve got to come home with something around our necks... either a medal, or a rope.”

Dion will move into men’s play next year, but for now, it’s time to focus on football. He’s a kicker for the University of Sherbrooke, both placekicking and punting. Clearly, his last name isn’t nearly long enough – or strange enough – for him to make the pro leagues, but what can you do?

Dude

OSTERSUND – Chris Plys is a pretty interesting guy.

He is into headgear; he started the World Juniors wearing a bandanna and late in the week he switched to a rather tall toque.

He’s got some bling going in the earlobes.

He plays guitar, saying he’s “got a lot going on” and “it’s only curling.”

He finished ninth at the WJCCs in 2006, followed that up with a fifth-place finish last year, and now he’s the 2008 world junior men’s champion.

He also won the World University Games in 2007 with Pete Fenson’s 2006 Olympic lead John Shuster.

He’s from Duluth, which means he really should be a celebrity skip at the infamous House of Hearts Bonspiel next week. If he isn’t playing, and he drops in to visit, he should certainly get some free drinks.

As the WCF story goes, it’s only the third-ever U.S. world junior men’s victory, and first since the bearded Al Edwards in 1984.

Now the youthful Yanks are eschewing facial foliage and choosing hats to ward off the cold. Good call. Hats certainly look more fashionable.

Incidentally, lead Matthew Hamilton won the Sportsmanship Award. That’s two cool trophies for this team.

Nice job, boys.

Well done Canada

OSTERSUND – It must be said that Canada’s Kaitlyn Lawes struggled this week at the World Juniors.

The Canadians have looked, generally, to be well out of their comfort zone throughout the affair.

And the opening ends of today’s bronze-medal match looked to put the nail in the coffin, particularly when 2006 world junior champ Liudmila Privivkova of Russia stole three in the third to go up 5-nil.

Well, guess what. The ladies from Winnipeg gathered themselves and, coupled with some late shaky play from the Russians, roared back to win the game 9-8 and capture the bronze.

More details and some great quotes from Ms. Lawes are at the WCF website, and The Curling News tips our cap to the squad for a incredibly brave closing performance.

Hooray for Scotland

OSTERSUND – Jill is in Winnipeg and The Curling News has eyes and ears here in Sweden, too.

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday Sweden’s junior women looked unbeatable in thumping Scotland 8-2 in the semi-final. After the Scots passed Russia in last night’s semifinal, the stage was set for a battle of the titans: the smooth Swedes, led by skip Cissi Ostlund, and the always improving Scots, who had to toss their alternate into the lineup just in time for the playoffs, due to a sudden injury.

But it wasn’t close. In one of those inexplicable scenarios that crops up all too often is this crazy sport, the Scots were a house afire – and great on them – but the previously brilliant Swedes could do nothing right. Absolutely nothing. Nine of Scotland’s 12 points were stolen, six of them in one end. Final score was 12-3 and the vocal Swedish contingent was hushed.

Eve Muirhead, the new skip who won the gold last year as third stone for Sarah Reid, is only 17. She has three years of world junior eligibility left. Yikes.

The WCF report is located here, while Curling Today has some thoughts here.

WCF photo of Swedish second Anna Domeij is by Bob Cowan.

Here’s Team... Sweden?

TCN’s own Jill Officer is blogging live from the Tim Hortons Brier in Winnipeg. And now for post no. 3 ...

WINNIPEG – Manitoba received a big round of applause when they made their arena entrance in front of about 9,000 fans for first-round action… they were also the first team to be “honoured” and also host a young curler as part of the junior stars program.

TSN curling analyst Ray Turnbull took part in the ceremonial first rock toss this morning, during the opening ceremonies. Turnbull and his 1958 Brier runner-up team of Terry Braunstein, Ron Braunstein and Jack Van Hellemond donned their green Manitoba sweaters – Manitoba used to wear green?! – for the occasion, and even hauled out their old corn brooms to boot.

This year’s competitors are sporting some new curling uniforms. The curlers’ long and short-sleeve shirts all have two stripes down the arms. In men’s competition, curlers wearing white shirts have last rock in the first end. It was pointed out to me, however, that the white shirts for both Ontario and for Newfoundland and Labrador are the same – white with red stripes. Good thing they won't ever be wearing them at the same time…or at least not on the same sheet. Those boys could get quite mixed up if they decide to spend a night in the Patch.

I asked a few guys about the unis, and for the repeaters, last year’s gear was definitely preferred. Some of the guys don’t like the darker shirts, some are a little snug, and the Alberta boys – that’s Ben Hebert showing off his pipes in the photo – look a bit like Team Sweden with their blue shirts and yellow stripes. I thought this was the Brier, not the Worlds?

Hot Shot

TCN’s own Jill Officer is blogging live from the Tim Hortons Brier in Winnipeg. Here’s post no. 2 ...

WINNIPEG – This week’s Brier hotshot has been declared... at least the first one – and official one – of many to be noted this week. And I’m sure the official Ford Hot Shot won’t be truly happy unless he can go back to The Gap with a bigger curling prize: the Brier title.

Saskatchewan lead Steve Laycock squeaked out a win over Ontario third Richard Hart. Heading into the final shot, Laycock had 20 points and could secure the win with a perfect double takeout, but he missed – no points.

The door was then open for Hart who was sitting at 19 points and could secure the two-year lease for the Ford Fusion SEL V6 by making the double, but he missed too. D’oh! And so, it’s Laycock heading home with the new wheels.

It's been a while since I’ve been in a media scrum…at least on the side of the mics and cameras, but I got in on the Q and A with the champ, and, well, he was a man of few words.

“You can always use a vehicle,” said Laycock, who currently drives a 1997 Pontiac Grand Am.

Nice to see a fellow front-ender come away with the big prize. Although Laycock was a skip, in another life... he won the 2003 Canadian and World Junior championships from the tee, remember?

And with that done, the games have begun. The hometown team is on the first draw against the Territories. More on that in the next post.

A bunch of Brier Hot Shots

TCN’s own Jill Officer is blogging live from the Tim Hortons Brier in Winnipeg. Here’s her first posting...

WINNIPEG – I showed up at the MTS Centre today only to find people actually waiting to get in to watch the Ford Hot Shots preliminaries. Now that I’m set up on the media bench (my view in photo above), I look around to see almost 300 people in this still brand-new arena just to take in the Hot Shots.

Just like curlers are eager to arrive, slide on the ice and get their first game under their belt, some fans are clearly diehards and can’t wait to get down to the venue, find their seats for the week and check out the very first rocks to be thrown on the fresh ice (the curlers did get to practice already this morning, but we won’t tell the diehards that).

There’s also a pile of young fans already clamouring at the boards for autographs. It’s always a good sign to see young fans out… this could mean our junior programs are working. Right?

So something new for this year’s Hot Shots – sweeping. In years past, there was no sweeping in the preliminary rounds, so in terms of makin’ themselves look good, throwers were on their own. Now this skills competition is played as a team with sweeping and line calling included, but still scored for each individual competitor.

At this year’s Scotties in Regina, the scores were generally higher than in the past, which should prove (if there was every any doubt) how much impact sweeping has on the outcome of a shot. In the past anywhere from 16 points and up could get you into the next round, but now you need at least 20. In the case of the Brier today, you needed 24!

Before he went out, Alberta lead Ben Hebert made an interesting and funny point… he says in the past if you scored six points you didn’t feel so bad, but now with sweepers if you hit a low score, he says “now I’d feel like I suck!” Hebert went on to score 25 on the opening shift and has made the playoff round that takes place tomorrow after the opening ceremonies.

And as a side note, there was no noticeable problem with the broken finger of Johnny Mo... he managed to help sweep Hebert into the Hot Shots playoffs.

B.C. second Kevin Folk and Ontario third Richard Hart were the top scorers today at a whopping 28 points! These two guys shared one of the best scores ever!

Here are the top eight players (and their scores) that will go for for the two-year lease on the 2008 Ford Fusion tomorrow:

Kevin Folk – British Columbia – 28 points
Richard Hart – Ontario – 28 points
Jason Vaughan – New Brunswick – 26 points
Ben Hebert – Alberta – 25 points
Brent Laing – Ontario – 25 points
James Grattan – New Brunswick – 25 points
Steve Laycock – Saskatchewan – 25 points
Brad Gushue – Newfoundland and Labrador – 24 points

Turns out there were a few other players at 24 points, but Gushue’s draw to the button was closer than the others.

And so day one of on-ice action is over but things are just getting heated up here in the ’Peg. Hometown rocker Burton Cummings is lighting up the stage to get the party going at the Patch tonight… and this is only the beginning.

Brier Blog stars an Officer

Where, oh where, are we supposed to start?

It’s the Brier, the Canadian men’s curling championship. And there is just so much out there to surf to, consult, read up on, etc. And, of course, to watch on either TV or your computer.

We can’t cover everything, but we will point you in a few directions. Then, we’ll wrap up some other curling stuff, and finish with our famous curling linkfest.

Item one: Jill Officer. The all-star second and Ford Hot Shots champion – not to forget 2008 Canadian women’s champion – can now throw a rock with her eyes closed (Kruger products photo by Andrew Klaver, above). That’s how easy the sport has become for this Sport Canada carded athlete. Just say “oooohhmmm”, open your hand, and be the rock. Oh yes, yogi, it’s that easy.

Now Jill will take a break from Ford Worlds preparations and staff the official Curling News-desk at the Brier media bench, blogging daily, right here, for one and all to read. She’s also writing an occasional column for the Winnipeg Sun (see points to follow) and ensuring the stacks of TCNs are on display in the Patch, Purple Heart Lounge, et cetera. Oh, and you might see this budding photographer out on the carpet, too, snapping some still images of her male counterparts. Naturally, the TCN servers will explode as viewers click here often to see how many of Jill’s favourite butt shots make these pages. Oh, behave!

So there you go. The Curling News Blog becomes Jill’s official playpen, starting tomorrow. Check back often.

Now, for those two Winnipeg newspapers, the Freep and the Sun. These guys will both go wall-to-wall over the next nine days, and while the Freep’s Brier portal just plain looks better than the Sun’s aging appearance, the Freepies are also boasting of AM draw coverage streamed live from their website. But then again, both CurlTV and CBC Sports Online are doing that, too.
Oh, and TSN.ca, too ... after their live TV games you’ll be able to call up any games you missed online.

Like we said... where to start?

We’ve also decided to cut through the chaff and spotlight some cool Brier pre-stories, just for you. And they are:

– This feature on Manitoba’s quiet second, and the incident which drives him

– This look at curling’s true Odd Couple;

– This peek at curling’s Gambling Man;

– This mention that the fifth-end break of the semifinal – on the afternoon of March 15 – will feature a tribute to the big three of curling journalism, who all passed away in the last eight months: Don Wittman, Don Chevrier and TCN’s own Doug Maxwell. Don’t miss it.

– And finally, can it be true that TCN’s own Matt Hames was the only person to notice that the ice at the Scotties featured the brand new World Curling Federation expanded ice size of 15’7” (up from 14’2”)? We think so, and hold on to your seats folks, because the Brier features the same expanded ice, too.

And now, for your linkfest ...


• DID YOU KNOW: that Canada’s William Dion finished first in the round-robin at the World Juniors, while Kaitlyn Lawes’ Canadian women are down 6-3 to Denmark midway through their tiebreaking match?

• DID YOU KNOW II: that the World Junior semis and finals are available on Curlingkanalen (which is Swedish for Curling Maniacs) and also on Eurosport’s Swedish website? The news is here ...

• DID YOU KNOW III: that Kevin Koe has next year’s bye to the Alberta provincial? His squad is now thinking about a trip to Perth, Scotland next January for the big Masters cashspiel ...

• Scotland’s Michael McCreadie plans to be back ...

• Stranraer is rejoicing over two of their own ...

• Teflon sandals? Vinyl brushes? Enthusiasm? You bet ...

• Wow, these folks are organizing themselves early ...

• And these guys, too ...

• Dave curled in Finland the other day... maybe he’ll drop by Vierumaki tomorrow?

• Catester is quite peeved over the ridiculous slights to Colleen Jones and Kelly Scott ...

• Here’s John Gushue, from St. John’s. And what are the chances there’s no relation?

• Was this truly the shot of a lifetime?

• Dude, you need a little more rotation on your throws ...

• More pricing in Moose Jaw... will they ever see the finish line?

• Ken Peterson went curling in... Korea!

• A nifty curling graphic from SINC located here: topical as many a curling fan shall be dining in front of the TV in the coming days!

• DID YOU KNOW IV: that 2002 Olympic champion Rhona Martin appeared before a special Scottish sport participation committee inquiry last week (here and also here)? Here’s the wrap-up, but you can apparently view the proceeds online, too ...

• And finally, it looks like we forgot about our Ithaca friends and their glorious championship, held in late December. News story here, and a plea from the ARSI for Olympic status in 2010 located here.

Our apologies ...