Vote Samurai: final day

Looks like there’s just one more day – Tuesday – in which to vote for the Samurai Curling T-shirt design (above).

When we first informed the masses of the chance for this super tee, 410 people had cast their vote and 24 had commented. Now, 956 have voted – with 39 comments – and while the response is great we are really down to the wire.

This all sounds good but we need more to really impress the judges. Only 10 or so designs get chosen every couple of weeks, and that’s out of some 300 entries. A quick look at other designs on the Threadless.com site indicates lots of strong competition.

So please help: register at the site here and then cast your 5 out-of 5 vote here for the Samurai Curling design. Don’t forget to indicate that you’d be willing to buy – you will not be held to any committment – and please make an über-positive comment.

Hurry hard!

Murdoch wins, Gushue praised

It’s all over in St. Petersburg, Russia, where David Murdoch’s Scottish champions upended Canada’s Brad Gushue, the 2006 Olympic champion, by a 6-3 score in the final.

Pal Trulsen’s 2002 Olympic champs won the bronze, defeating one of the Russian entries 5-4.

In the semifinals, Gushue edged Trulsen 6-5 in an extra-end while Murdoch took out the Russians 7-4.

In the WCT-E photo above (click to zoom in), we note a few things:

1. The event trophies are huge but the individual trophies are quite small!

2. Gushue (far left) deserves an award for fearlessly perching on the very edge of the silver podium without taking a tumble, while his teammates - front enders no less! – stand comfortably in safety. Lead stone Jamie Korab even gets to hold the big trophy!

3. Peter Smith of Scotland – the big guy – has just won way too many trophies in his long career.

4. Who is the new Norwegian lead? We thought coach Ole Ingvaldsen was actually throwing rocks during the week.

5. Note the coloured confetti on the ice. It probably exploded up into the air when the Scots received their championship trophy. But they probably didn’t bounce up and down, chanting, for fear of collapsing the podium.

6. Finally, we note the cool hair and duds on the Master of Ceremonies. That guy has it goin’ on.

So, it’s all over, and the event certainly looked to be a resounding success. We’ve got some comments from World Curling Tour Europe ED Armin Harder, who spoke to TCN about the Canadians:

“The Gushue boys are true sportsmen... they are great ambassadors for the game and for their country. The European Tour really appreciates their flying all that way from Newfoundland. They’ve been the stars here and an enormous boost to our cause, and a pleasure to have along.”

Russia: on-ice action

NEWSFLASH: The Gushues defeat Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud 6-3 on Saturday afternoon, and move their win/loss record to 3-0.

Poor Ulsrud... the defending world bronze medallist is now 0-3, having lost his first two matches to Russian teams by scores of 7-3 and 5-4. Yikes.

In this game action photo, the photographer obviously stepped from the sideline right onto the ice behind Gushue third Mark Nichols! Will this be a new photojournalism rule for the 2014 Olympic curling event in Sochi?

More later...

WCT-E photo courtesy Armin Harder (click photo for zoom image)

Curling Korab reports from Russia

Hey look! It’s Team Gushue’s Jamie Korab, right here on the TCN Blog!

What’s up, Jamie? How is Russia?


What was supposed to be a 24 hour travel day turned into 30 hours... after a late departure from St. John’s – three hours late due to fog – we missed every connection. Even the flight we did make in England got cancelled for some reason. Oh well. St. John’s - Toronto - London - Frankfurt - St. Petersburg.

We made it in at 12 midnight. So much for sightseeing – we pretty much off to bed.

News conference and then we played two games yesterday against two Russian teams. First game was started perfect by Korab – two draws called, one in the hack, one hogged. Whoops – setting the bar low for the season! Everyone was a little green when they started, but we really came around in the second half of our first six-end game.

We won the first game 8-1 and also won the second one by a 7-5 score. The ice is wicked – it’s 23.5 seconds with about three-to-four feet of curl. It gets a little frosty, maybe due to the fact that it’s in a shopping mall!


Don’t forget to check results here, and we’ll also put a plug in for the Team Gushue Facebook group, which is even bigger than our Facebook group (harumph!). You can visit there for the team schedule, photos, info and so on.

More from Russia coming soon!

WCT-E photo courtesy Armin Harder... click photo to increase size

Samurai Curling: vote now

We want this new curling T-shirt.

The problem is, it doesn’t exist. Yet.

We need YOUR help to create it. Right now.

Threadless.com is an ongoing T-shirt design competition. Anyone can submit a design and if it scores enough points, and is chosen by the Threadless crew, the shirt will be printed and sold from the site... but only for a limited time.

A brilliant wizard we shall endlessly praise, who goes by the name of Scipp (real name is Niek van Wingerden, age 26) has created a simply whack samurai curling design (above). You can click on the image to see it larger, and the page link is here.

To “vote” for this design, you need to join the Threadless community via this link, then go to the above design, and then score the shirt on a scale of 0-5... zero is bad, so hit 5, of course!

We also want you click the boxes for “I’d buy it”, both T-shirt and print, and we also strongly suggest you leave a positive comment.

These are the tools Threadless.com uses to gauge the response to the T-shirt designs. No one is forced to actually purchase it if it wins, and goes into production.

Voting ends sometime after Monday night, July 28.

Threadless.com looks at the top 300 designs every couple of weeks and picks out only 10-or-so designs to print, based solely on the design score, comments, and the number of “I’d buy it” clicks. Ultimately the decision of which shirts get printed are left up to them, and there is heavy competition.

Our blogreaders have stepped up before... remember the Indy Curling racecar?

Well, it’s time to step up again. Let’s show these guys – and Scipp – that curling is definitely cool, by registering and voting for this shirt!

Russia’s Adamant Curling Cup

The ADAMANT St.Petersburg Curling Cup is just about ready to start. As you will recall, six international teams will battle it out along with Russian locals in an exhibition series hosted in a shopping mall.

Ice tech Peter Luck, at left in this photo (above) from Tuesday, is the man tasked with bringing the ice to life. Luck, who is 59, has over 30 years of experience in Switzerland – at Wallisellen, near Zurich – and has been the chief ice tech for the past five or so World Wheelchair Championships. He also steered a previous World Juniors in addition to active crew duty at previous World and European Championships.

He’ll head to Vancouver in 2010 for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but first... St. Petersburg!

Action starts tomorrow and concludes on Sunday. The Brad Gushue, David Murdoch and Thomas Ulsrud teams are at full strength, while Pal Trulsen has coach Ole Ingvaldsen at lead stone and Andy Kapp has his brother Uli, who is recuperating from knee surgery, also at lead.

Follow the action here and stay tuned to this here blog site... we just might have some surprises posted through the event.

What else, you ask?


• Following another invasion of New Zealand, the Aussies have declared their World Mixed Doubles team for the 2009 Cortina Worlds ...

• This is the best darned curling ice in Michigan! So there!

• Here’s early notice that the San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club will be a part of a “get psyched for 2010” Olympic-themed open house on Aug. 24... their club blog is located here ...

• Memories of the Thistle (Hamilton, Ontario version) ... and here’s what it looks like these days, sadly ...

• Here’s a peek at new Canadian Curling Association Governor Jim Campbell ...

• And finally: ever wanted to help map out historical curling locations in Scotland?

Of course you have!

All you need is a computer and high-speed connection. The ancient sport’s archivists are looking for your help – click here for the scoop!

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? ...

New Team Corner

Was the retirement a sham, or did he simply change his mind?

Is the tour schedule light, or heavy?

Whatever – Ontario’s Peter Corner (Insight Sports photo by Dallas Bittle) is back for another season, and was putting fresh ink on his new team contract as we were busy blogging.

It’s not a shabby squad, either.

While Mike Harris captains the old Team Corner, Pete’s new mates are ex-Wayne Middaugh pals Graeme McCarrel and Ian Tetley, with Brad Savage at lead stone.

Five world titles in that lineup. As we said, not too shabby.

All hail our Curling History

Today’s blogpost is aimed at delivering well-earned congratulations and thanks to... another blog site.

Two sites, actually.

Many readers know that Curling Today is the official blog of The Scottish Curler, a wonderful curling news publication which happens to be older than dirt... just like ours!

As such, many readers should already be aware that a new companion blog has been launched, Curling History. This one is a partnership between SC honcho Bob Cowan and reknowned curling historian Sheriff David B. Smith.

The new blog has a sharp focus on all things faded and blurry: namely, the ancient history of our Roaring Game. And as readers are aware of our recent 50th anniversary and the celebration of all things, er, older than dirt... readers can be assured that we are quite interested in this new blog. And we invite you to get interested, too.

Our three favourite postings thus far, in reverse order, are:

3. How many have drowned? – why have we never heard stories of outdoor curlers crashing through the ice, nor seen photos nor drawings of such disasters? Well, now we have them!

2. Kerr’s History of Curling online - serious kudos to Bob on this one: we spotted the Electric Scotland curling initiative back in mid-May but neglected to run the story. And now the tale has been told in such better fashion! All we shall add are these quotes from Electric Scotland founder Alastair McIntyre:

Since publishing the first chapter, the webmaster of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club sent me a link to the History of the Strathcona Cup, which I’d added to the page. As he personally played in the last Scotland vs. Canada match, in Canada, I’m hoping he’ll do me a wee article about it and send in some pictures from it.

I would thus be happy to publish the first edition of Canadian Curling News if you would supply a copy!

Finally, as it happens I have had on my site for some time a wee curling game, which I commissioned back in Scotland. It goes nicely with a similar Caber Toss game!

Thanks, and well done, Alastair. And as we at TCN are well-known curling videophiles, here’s the link to the game.

And finally, our favourite:

1. Silver Broom, Perth, 1975 – ah yes, long-hidden colour photos of a magnificent event, now unearthed in the digital age. This is what it’s all about, folks. And Bob was there, of course, snapping the images of a previous, and glorious, curling era.

We have appropriated one of his pics for our story photo, above, as it shows a skillful western-Canadian-style tuck delivery in action, a delivery that was to become even more famous in the 1980s. Any guesses as to who this is, people?


Elsewhere:

• Famed front-ender Scott Pfeifer has a fractured fifth metatarsal in his sliding foot, and is now armed – er, legged – with a cast and crutches. Seems the second man for Team Randy Ferbey rolled his ankle in a workout on Monday, but aims to be back on the ice for late September ...

• Did you happen to spot the comment after our previous posting? Andrew T from the CCC reports that his group of curling diehards are abandoning the hockey arena and will move into a leased warehouse, and make their own ice in the facility. A huge undertaking indeed, and we certainly wish our Columbus friends all the best ...

• Need your summer curling fix? Here’s the final rocks of the Tropicurl in Pittsburgh, at which the Tam Heather skip made this nifty draw to force a tough last brick from his U.S. opponent, who missed the mark. But our favourite is this one, illustrating the Kids’ defeat of the Geezers ...

• The Gravenhurst, Ontario summer spiel is always a good time ...

• A new European Junior Curling Tour has been announced, with more here. There are three stops announced thus far and the project is steered by the Danish curling coach Sune Frederiksen (Czech Republic) with help from Norway’s Ole Ingvaldsen and Scotland’s Rhona Martin. This welcome initiative is sure to grow, and kudos to WCT-E ...

• Here’s a pretty good wipeout in Strasbourg, France ...

• This one is a beauty: an off-the-wall gem outdoors in the fading sun ...

• Bob Weeks talks golf and curling on The Curling Show ...

• In what was labelled by London’s venerable Daily Mail as “one of the most audacious recruitment raids since Australia poached a million Britons in the 1950s and 60s”, the Canadian province of Alberta has been calling on Britons to emigrate to Canada, and curling has apparently been mentioned as a lure. Well, then ...

• Here’s another sales page for the silly but cute Ice Cube Curling, and here’s an online promo, too ...

• And finally, commercial spots that poke fun at curling are nothing new, and we only fail to appreciate those which lack decent humour. But does anyone fail to see the irony in a sports betting company taking such a potshot? Canada’s Richard Daneault and Carter Rycroft star in this one from Spain – against their will, and that of CBC-TV, no doubt ...

Doo Dah Curling

The Doo Dah Parade is a popular and utterly farcical show held once a year in Columbus, Ohio, on July 4. It’s modelled after the original Doo-Dah Parade which began in Pasadena, California in 1976 as an avant-garde response to the traditional formality of the Rose Parade.

Naturally, it’s the participant groups that make the very colourful scene. Groups like the legendary “Marching Fidels,” a gang of men and women who dress like Fidel Castro, take siestas along the parade route and conscript bystanders into the “Cuban army”, dressing them in camouflage and forcing them to march in the parade.

In recent years, groups such as The Fishnet Mafia, the Wilber Hills Country Club, Feature Creatures Haunted Acting Troup of Central Ohio, Deri Air, the Ohio Roller Girls, and the Doo Dah Band have taken part. And now, as this ambergris photo illustrates, a group from the local curling club has done so, too (click for larger image).

Judging takes place along the route and participants bribe judges to vote for their entries.

Wonder how the curlers did?


Elsewhere:

• Are there really any fears that the Guelph Curling Club might be closing? No way, we say, but here’s a recent blogpost that just might throw a scare ...

• Oooh, looky at this very cool old curling board game ...

• Here’s a couple of Curling 101 webposts from around the world; this one from Japan and this one from Croatia (we think)

• One-time import curler SSS, in Indiana, has just discovered curling in his own backyard...

• ... and SSS was the first person to register at this online curling group ...

• Sad to see the Midsummer spiel in Nelson, B.C. go the way of the dodo after this week’s 64th anniversary tourney ...

• The Pettit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will share in a $500,000 “Olympic Opportunity Fund” grant being issued by the United States Olympic Association to 24 organizations. We guess their share, marked for curling initiatives, will be over 20K ...

• And finally, that’s a large paint job for San Jose’s San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club ...

Olympic Curling 2018

Curling fans are slowly going bonkers over the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games – don’t forget, tickets are on sale in early October – and of course we then have Sochi, Russia in 2014.

In fact, it was one year ago today that Sochi got the nod from the International Olympic Committee, shocking many observers (including us).

What comes next, in 2018?

Well, PyeongChang, South Korea is bidding again, having lost to both Vancouver and Sochi. In fact, it says here the Koreans will bid over and over and over until they win it. Simple as that.

Munich, Germany will be bidding, and despite the proximity of Sochi to Europe, the Germans are a major threat to win.

Tromso, Norway, is going to bid and 2002 Olympic curling champion skip Pal Trulsen has thrown his support behind the bid. They are first out of the hack with a website; a Facebook page, located here (you must be a Facebook member to view it)... and here’s a cool promotional video... love the big rings located on the mountain facing the main stadium!

And in a clear acknowledgment that a bid will go forward, there is even an official opposition group already online. But of course.

The Americans are interested, but if Chicago wins the race to host the 2014 Summer Games, any Yankee winter hopes – probably centered on Denver, Colorado – are gone.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarians and Serbians are reportedly combining on a joint bid; the French are infighting over bidding on summer or winter; the Swiss (in Geneva) need a referendum to proceed, the Swedes are exploring their options, and even some southern hemisphere locales (like New Zealand) are thinking about it. But not Durban, South Africa, as some had recently believed.

All formal bids are due in January, 2009.


Anything else?

• Once again, the glorious sport of curling was included in many a news outlet’s annual Canada Day Quiz... such as this one here. However, the answer featured a horrendous inaccuracy – can you spot it?

• It was, of course, Canada Day on July 1... and today, on this fourth of July, we say Happy Birthday to our American friends. There is, by the way, lots of curling action going on down south these days:

– Texas Dan recently celebrated 50 years of Frisco curling and also illustrates another 50-year anniversary, in Green Bay, Wisconsin – and you’re telling us curling is located right across the street from this iconic shrine? Are you kidding?!

– San Jose has not one but two open house days scheduled for next week, and at two different locations to boot;

– curling maniac Richard Maskel won a new summer spiel in Port Huron, Michigan... with extra photos located here. The photographer was Keith, by the way;

– New York’s Coach Heidt, a hockey and lacrosse buff, was recently intrigued with curling;

– there are curling stones rarin’ to be tossed at the new Chaparral Ice rink in Austin, Texas;

– how about Indianapolis? Yep, here’s the story (plus video);

– Team Debbie McCormick second Nicole Joraanstad – a 2007 calendar girl – was recently voted Madison Sportswoman of the Year for 2008;

– the Pittsburgh Tropical is going on, like, right now;

– and those loveable tinseltowners in Los Angeles are making news, again... first they were somehow part of a Dodger Stadium pre-game award presentation to pro baseball player Russell Martin; and now CurlTV has finally drawn a bead on them. Their latest funspiel goes tomorrow ...

• This silly hockey story caught our eye: specifically the reference to past disputes between Canada’s CBC-TV Sports and the world of curling. We simply love the line “... sparked hundreds of thousands of angry curling fans to threaten a march on CBC headquarters with lit brooms and pitchforks” ...

• Here’s an odd little curling cartoon, from Italy:

• Here’s a curling league software package for $79.95; someone tell us if it’s any good ...

• Peter dropped by Naseby, New Zealand, and checked out the only dedicated curling facility located in the southern hemisphere of planet Earth. Soon to come is a luge ride (just scroll down a bit) ...

• The Winnipeg Brier has raked in a half-million dollars in profit ...

• And finally, the Canadian Curling Association was in Prince George, site of the 2000 STOH, for a venue inspection for the 2009 Pre-Trials Qualifier. Story plus photo here, and video here ...

Curling Into the Black

Today’s news release on the recent Canadian Curling Association “National Curling Congress” and AGM weekend (photo above) reminds us all that curling politics continue in this early summer.

It also reminds us that not too long ago, Canadian media hounds were draped all over such gatherings, buzzing and speculating over the troubles that seemed to flow endlessly out of Gloucester.

No more. The hounds are fast asleep and today’s news is all good, thus keeping the curling journos in hibernation. And what’s wrong with that, eh?

CCA is now fully in the black, have paid off the entire unfunded deficit, and has started its first-ever financial reserve. This year also featured the largest surplus in CCA history.

The number that was formerly marked in red would appear to be $556,468, by the way, not $1.4 million. In fact, 1.4 M happens to be the amount of the new surplus.

As such, new employment positions might even be in the offing as the CCA analyzes current operations. There are a number of aspects that are desperately needed, especially considering the departure of two longtime employees in 2007.

With this kind of news, it’s clear to see a revitalized spirit of cooperation and outlook for Canadian curling making its way around the boardroom table.

“We are extremely pleased to have had such a banner year,” said CCA CEO Greg Stremlaw, who assumed his role last October. “While our athlete performances at the world level were outstanding, it was the financial performance of the organization that I’m extremely proud of as well.

“This is a significant financial turnaround for the CCA but everyone realizes there is still a great deal of work to be done to totally stabilize the association for the future. I’m committed to running the CCA as a business and the entire organization is forging ahead with renewed fiscal responsibility.”

Which brings us to elections. Fran Todd, a former prez of the Ontario Curling Association and longtime Senior champion (Canada and world, with skips Anne Dunn and Jill Greenwood) is the new Chair of the Board of Governors, and the Peace region’s Graham Prouse is the new Vice Chair.

Todd beat out New Brunswick’s Beth Sullivan in the all-female run to the top job.

You may have noticed some new lingo in the above. True enough, new governance motions and policies were approved which sees the former CCA Board of Directors now changed to CCA Board of Governors, and all (former) Directors are now referred to as Governors. As such, for the first time the CCA no longer has a President - but rather a Chair of the Board. Same with the veep.

Two brand new faces on the Board mirror the home provinces of the new Presi – er, Chair and Vice-Chair: Jim Campbell is an Ontarian and Laura Lochanski hails from Alberta.

Former CCA President Al Forsythe of Moncton retired from the board as did Georgina Anderson of Manitoba.

In another new twist, voting will now be permitted electronically.

CCA has also confirmed that the next two NCCs and AGMs (2009 and 2010) will be hosted in Ottawa.

Todd is pumped about the future. “I’m really looking forward to it,” she told us. “It’s going to be an exciting year.”

Careful With That Axe, Eugene

OK... does anyone know this yahoo?

According to police in Vernon, British Columbia, this nitwit took a few chunks out of the Vernon Curling Club with an axe. Of all the noive!

You can read the brief story here, which includes another photo.

Turns out this happened on March 18, just before the start of the most awesome
2008 Ford World Women’s Championship. Of course, you recall what happened during that tourney – more crime!

There was a happy ending to that tale, however, as the Vernon community raised over $10,000 to reimburse the affected teams. Now, hopefully this axe-wielding dingbat will get what’s coming to him.

Still with B.C., the CCA has opened its 2009 Scotties TOH office in Victoria; the story is here and another photo can be found here.

What else is happening, you ask?


• One of our favourites, The Weakerthans, have made a video for their curling song, Tournament of Hearts. It’s an odd work of art shot in black and white which mixes genuine ancient curling footage with modern fakery. Watch for lovelorn curlers standing on tables at your club this coming fall, yelling “Why?” ...

• The Capital One Grand Slam event schedule has been released, and Richard Hart from Team Glenn Howard is pumped.

“It’s a great schedule,” Hart told The Curling News Blog. “Quebec last year hosted an amazing Slam, and Winnipeg has been a great Slam market the last couple of years. We won the Slam when it was held in Waterloo, so that will be great for us. And I hear the women’s worlds in Grande Prairie was awesome a few years ago, so bring it on.”

• Remember Rockstar Curling? Sure you do.

There was some general moping when the proposed curling reality show delayed tryout announcements until the coming fall, but the project still seems to be a go. A new official-looking YouTube membership was recently taken out, with not one but two videos posted in the last 24 hours. PS: have you signed up yet?

• Not one but two former WCF presidents have fallen: Dr. Don Barcome Sr. in the United States, and Canada’s Clif Thompson ...

• Team World at December’s Continental Cup will feature Chinese teams for the first time, plus two rather big names behind the bench, as coach and captain ...

• The 2009 World Mixed Doubles Championships will take place in Cortina, Italy, the site of the 2010 World Men’s. The event runs late, in mid-April ...

• John Morris – and many, many others - beware: Scotland is making a move to punish the elite of the sport for leaning, grabbing and otherwise flopping on the ice after throwing. Other countries are sure to follow suit ...

• In curling club news, they’ve broken ground for the new Windsor CC in Nova Scotia; Quebec’s CC Lanaudiere is in trouble; and The Oshawa will survive: following last month’s ominous news, an extremely well-attended meeting has produced a new president and also a new plan of action.

“We’ll be putting together an aggressive membership campaign and are looking forward to another season of terrific curling on great ice!” said past president Rob Faulds.

We also hear the Toronto Curling Association has been helpful... but what of the Ontario Curling Association?

• And finally, the Quote of the Week comes from 1998 Olympic champ and CBC curling commentator Joan McCusker, regarding the influx of volunteers and sports fans from Saskatchewan who are expected during the upcoming winter Olympics:

“You know what that means – a lot of watermelon helmets going on in Vancouver 2010.”

Curling Ice King Hospitalized

Sad news out of Trenton, Ontario that legendary curling ice maestro Shorty Jenkins is in hospital, with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease now confirmed.

In this 2007 photo by David Rollins, above, Shorty is seen whooping it up – or being whooped up, it would seem - with his squad at the Heart to Heart Charity Bonspiel in Sudbury.

“He has all these secrets about icemaking he’s never told anyone,” remarked Jo-Ann Rizzo, who skipped a squad at the last Canadian Olympic Trials and happens to be Shorty’s niece.

“He taught Dave Merklinger, for example, as much as he thought Dave should know, but not everything. He’s going to take many secrets to the grave.

“Somebody should sit with him and write a book. He’s had such an interesting life.”

Actually, there is a full chapter on Shorty in the 2007 book The Roaring Game: A Sweeping Saga of Curling. An essential part of any curling fan’s library, you can read a review – a shameless endorsement, really – on this archived page.

Author Doug Clark briefly traces the life of “The King of Swing” from when he asked his parents if he could leave and join his brothers at an orphanage – he was nine years old – to his air force career and eventually his life as a curling rock star; immortalized in the national Curling Hall of Fame, in a legendary Tim Hortons TV commercial, and in a cameo appearance in the film Men With Brooms.

He’s even got a World Curling Tour cashspiel named after him, which at one time boasted pink house rings – but of course.

“Shorty was a huge part of my enjoyment in writing the book,” said Clark.

“When he started talking about his life story, I knew this was the closest I could get to a biography of a classic Canadian character in just one chapter.

“Even if you don’t love curling, you’ve gotta love Shorty Jenkins.”

Jenkins is expected to return home from hospital in the next two weeks. On some days, he is unaware of his condition – short-term memory being one of the first things at risk with this progressive disease.

“We are really not sure what the near future holds, unfortunately we do know what the distant future will be,” wrote Rizzo in an email to friends.

And so, curling fans who want to send best wishes to Shorty and his wife Johanna are encouraged to do via:

183 Reid St.
Trenton, Ontario
K8V 5W4


“A curling rock is smarter than a human being.”
– Shorty Jenkins

Curling Stompers

This one is all about Stomping. And music. Oh, and curling, of course. And about links... lots and lots of links.

Blogreaders know we love music, and it’s connection to curling. Whether we happen to really love the artist, or, er, despise a particular song, or just recognize a curling connection.

So we simply cannot pass up the opportunity to throw a picture of Canadian music legend Stompin’ Tom Connors up here.

So what’s the connection?

Well, a new play focussing on this legendary character just may vault a Middaugh to Hollywood stardom. No, we;re not talking about Sherry or Wayne... we’re talking about their young daughter, Kelly.

As this story tells, Kelly starts her non-school acting career today (and running through June 21) playing the Stompin’ Tom’s sister in a local production.

Speaking of stomping, we ran a great photo of Arnold Asham in our April edition of The Curling News – did you catch it? Arnold was stomping it up at the Brier in Winnipeg, and our intrepid Jill Officer was on site to get the photos... and now there’s a few videos online, located here and also via a ton of YouTube links here, of his Stompers doing their thing at various events, including the men’s worlds in Grand Forks a few weeks later.

OK, still think that this curling-music thing is a little weak? How about this: Peter Loewen is just loving the curling song by The Weakerthans, and lo and behold, that song was dedicated to a Scottish fan – and music journo – at a Weakerthans’ gig in Birmingham, England the other night.

Still very weak?

OK, then... now we’ll let your fingers do all the talking ...


• Team Kelly Scott has been inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame ...

• Team Michelle Englot is moving on with a new third; former vice-skip Darlene Kidd is hanging them up, and will be marrying Scott Bailey of Team Wayne Middaugh in July ...

• The Sun says Manitoba curling needs some help, pronto, while the Freep says good luck with that ...

• 14-year Saskatchewan Curling Association boss Stan Martin has died, at age 78 ...

• Olympic champion fifth Mike Adam has gone home to Lab City ...

• Kirkland Lake CC in northern Ontario needs new brine pipes, and they’ve raised two-thirds ($50,000) of the funds needed so far ... meanwhile, Alberta’s Fort Saskatchewan club wants a 50K loan, and Saskatoon’s now-defunct Hub City CC has reopened... as... this ...

• Congrats to Moncton’s Lorne Mitton, a former CCA president and overall curling dynamo, on his recent retirement from the mayor’s office ...

• Who is all for curling in Fenland, England? Well, this fellow is, and we are, too ...

• What, more curling club arson mayhem? This time in Chilliwack, B.C., which hosted the 2006 Continental Cup of Curling ...

• Brampton’s Dave Stewart has made it into his town’s Sports Hall of Fame, and as first reported a month or so ago, northern Ontario curling coach Tom Coulterman gets inducted into his hometown sports hall tonight ...

• They’re still curling in Bratislava, Slovakia ...

• And finally, ESPN sports legend Chris Berman was asked about curling.

Whadaya know, Boomer?

“Curling – not a lot. It’s a big thing, it goes slow, you sweep it with a broom... It’s interesting, it’s good humour – or, as you say up here, hu-more. But I’ll be the first to admit – don’t ask me to dissect the world curling championships.”

How come it’s so popular up here and not in the States?

“Don’t know the rules. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t – especially late at night with the bar crowd.”

Shopping Mall Curling in Russia

World Curling Tour Europe – these guys, not these guys – have leaped into the headlines with word of an annual curling exhibition being hosted in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Date of the first event is almost imminent: July 25-27, 2008.

The format sees five international men’s teams of considerable heft being jetted into the city to join three local teams, as yet undetermined.

Invited and accepted are:

Brad Gushue – Canada
Pal Trulsen – Norway
Thomas Ulsrud – Norway
David Murdoch – Scotland
Andy Kapp – Germany

Key to the venture is new WCT-E partner Adamant Construction & Property Management, a rather large Russian developer that happens to own some 1.7 million square metres of property in that city alone.

They also own a few shopping centres, including a big one that happens to boast a small ice rink. A rink that has seen curling displays in the past.

As such, shopping mall curling has come to Russia, just as it came briefly to the world’s biggest mall in Edmonton, and more recently (but sadly no longer) to a mid-sized mall in Galt, Ontario.

“It’s a bit of a breakthrough for us,” said WCT-E chief exec Armin Harder, a Canadian who lives in Switzerland.

“Adamant are covering all the costs, and the idea is to do this quite a few times leading in to Sochi in 2014.

“We look forward to putting on a good show for these guys.”

And what do the players think?

“We were pretty surprised,” said Gushue.

“We were notified by Armin Harder that the event was in the works and they asked if we were interested in attending. Of course, we said yes. But we didn’t want to get too excited until we knew for sure that the event was a go. Once we heard it was a go we got really excited.

“We have our tickets booked and we are looking forward to it... should be a great experience. Hopefully the event will help raise the profile of the game in Russia and add another event on the WCT-E for down the road.”

And on the western front:

“We are happy to be among those top teams that have been invited to this
event,” said Füssen’s Andy Kapp.

“St. Petersburg is a fantastic and booming city and to play a tournament in the middle of summer heat will be very interesting. In Germany and Switzerland we are used to playing tournaments in July and August, but not in a shopping center and not in Russia. If the ice isn’t melting, we will melt it!”

Jennifer Jones vs. The Boys

Jennifer Jones will skip the first women’s team to ever appear in the TSN (ie. Casino Rama) Skins Game.

The announcement came out of TSN’s Toronto H.Q. this afternoon. The second annual Rama Skinsfest will go January 10 and 11, airing live on TSN and TSN HD.

High-Definition curling... *slobber* *drool*

JJ and her 2008 Ford World Women’s champions will be taking on defending skins champ and fellow World wonder Kevin Martin; the 2007 World champeen Glenn Howard; and in a twist, Team Randy Ferbey, merely the best team in curling through the first half of the decade.

On the outside looking in is last year’s Skins runner-up, Wayne Middaugh.

$100,000 will once again be up for grabs.

TSN prez Phil King:

“Jennifer Jones captivated an entire nation this year with her outstanding performances at the Canadian and World championships. She is an extremely competitive curler and her talents and accomplishments could not be overlooked as an invitee for this year’s Skins game.

“Along with Martin, Howard and Ferbey, this year’s competition is stronger than ever.”

We hope Jonesy tees it up against the Ferbs. Remember the 2005 challenge skins between those two, hosted in Brandon? “Kings versus Queens” it was called, if we recall.

We also recall the boys shmucking the girls pretty good. And some pretty good trash talk before, during and after.

Olympic Curling Victory

Test the Nation: Sports, introduced in last Thursday’s posting, was a success for CBC-TV last night, and a particular success for the five curlers who were a part of Team Olympic (and Paralympic) Medallists.

Victory! Nothing less than gold for the Olympians!

Here’s Brad Gushue (photo) with the trophy. The Goosh was also the focus of a question, regarding the terminology for a “burned rock”, that was introduced via video by Colleen Jones.

Amy Nixon, from Team Shannon Kleibrink, also got some face time when host Ron Maclean announced she was the top scorer for the Olympians/Paralympians squad. Amy also graciously supplied the photo, above.

There was one other curling question: what is the name of the “modified drinking hole” at curling events? Answer: the Patch, of course.

Full results:

• 1st: Olympic Medallists with 74.2%. Coached by Victoria Pratt.
• 2nd: Refs & Umps with 73.7%. Coached by Paul Coffey (tied as top scoring celebrity).
• 3rd: Sportscasters with 73.2%. Coached by Alan Thicke.
• 4th: Armchair Athletes with 72.9%. Coached by Debra DiGiovanni.
• 5th: Cheerleaders & Mascots with 57.1%. Coached by Brian Bailey.
• 6th: Team Extreme with 55.4%. Coached by Chris Murphy (tied as top scoring celebrity).

Olympic Curling Test

Test the Nation is a popular TV show which originated in the Netherlands and has now found success in Canada, via CBC-TV.

This Sunday evening, an episode called Test the Nation: Sports will be aired, featuring contestants assembled into various teams to battle each other – and with the Canadian public also getting in on the action, either via TV or online.

The teams are:

Refs & Umps
Armchair Athletes
Sportscasters
Cheerleaders & Mascots
Olympic Medallists
Team Extreme

There are a few celebrities hanging out – like former NHL star Paul Coffey – and you can see some behind-the-scenes action in this video.

What’s the curling angle? Well, Team Olympic Medallists features no less than five curlers, in addition to a nifty mixture of other Olympians from various eras, and at various levels of fame.

“It was a ton of fun being part of the show,” says 2006 gold medal champion skip Brad Gushue. “There was trash talking, jokes flying around and we were treated great. It was great to be part of it.”

Joining Gushue were fellow 2006 curlers Amy Nixon, Glenys Bakker and Christine Keshen – the entire support staff for bronze medal women’s skip Shannon Kleibrink – and 2002 Olympic silver men’s medallist Don Bartlett.

So... Brad... any curling questions?

“There were a couple curling questions,” Gushue acknowledged. “One about the Patch and one about the correct terminology for a burnt rock. One of the answer options for that was Gushue. Pretty funny... I had to sacrifice a wrong answer on that one!”

So, who wins?

We’ll all have to tune in to find out. According to a survey on the show website, Sportscasters are the top pick to win with over 30 per cent of the vote, while Armchair Athletes rank second (over 25 per cent) and the Olympians third (over 15 per cent). Interesting that Refs & Umps get no respect, with less than 10 per cent!

Another opinion says the Olympians “are so engorfed in their own sports...” Wow. check out the video at 3:41 for that hilarity.

Canadians can tune in or log on Sunday night at 8:00pm eastern time, while outlanders can also take part via the show website.

Prague Adult Curling Camp

Have you heard about Prague? Not only is the stunning Czech capital (above) one of the world’s top travel destinations, it is also host to Europe’s only Adult Curling Camp.

This year’s camp, a second-year collaboration between the World Curling Federation and the Czech Curling Association, takes place May 31 to June 3 and features hands-on coaching from four top Canadian coaches and four additional high-performance curlers.

There are only a few spots left, so book your travel and your spot in the camp right away.

Some other stuff ...


• Alberta’s Fort Saskatchewan club wants a 50K loan ...

• The Potomac just got Waymarked (TM) ...

• Texas Dan was at the big Texas Open bonspiel in Dallas ...

• And finally, here’s a lengthy report on the Canadian Legion championship, hosted in Dauphin, Manitoba back in February, which was marred by events such as a train derailment ...

Save The Oshawa

The Oshawa Curling Club is in deep trouble, as this story and this chat thread both reveal.

Club president Rob Faulds, above in this TCN photo by Anil Mungal, is best known to blogreaders as the voice of Rogers Sportsnet curling coverage, which had its run from the fall of 1998 through spring 2006. And like other curling commentators before him – such as TSN’s Vic Rauter – we can see that Rob has become quite the curler himself. Enough to get involved at the grassroots level too, at his home club, which is additionally impressive.

Rob’s young son also curls.

Question: can the Greater Toronto Area, the financial H.Q. of Canada and host of one heckuva big tournament in 2009, really afford to lose yet another curling club? And one with eight sheets of ice, so soon after the appalling death of Avonlea?

Will the Toronto, Ontario and Canadian Curling Associations take any proactive measures?

Does anybody care?


More stuff for a Friday ...

• We couldn’t resist scouring the web for some vintage Faulds: here he is way back in 1988, on the baseball beat, in this funny piece called “Expos Dragnet” ...

• There’s a dearth of season wrap-up stories this year; but good old Jim Bender has one, located here ...

• Manitoba Curling Association chief Ian Staniloff is moving on after 12 years at the helm; stories here and here.

Obviously Staniloff’s last official gig will be to represent Manitoba at the Canadian Curling Association’s annual Congress, held early June in Ottawa. This will be CCA CEO Greg Stremlaw’s first Congress – hard to believe he’s only been on the job for eight months – and he is expected to reveal that a significent dent has been made in the CCA’s infamous $1.4-million deficit ...

• Sounds like Bob Cowan will be kept busy for a while as the stories behind the Scottish women’s Vernon debacle continue to twist and turn, and spring turns to summer ...

• The Bubbler recently declared the Green Bay Curling Club portal to be their “Site Of The Week” ...

• Here’s a look at Pittsburgh’s other ice sport in the news these days ...

• Word has it that Charley Thomas and his 2007 world junior championship squad of Brock Virtue, Matt Ng and Kyle Reynolds were recently named Alberta’s Team of the Year.

Presumably, this award celebrates 2007 achievements.

The Canadians routed Sweden 8-3 in eight ends last year in Eveleth, Minnesota to earn a second gold medal in two years. Thomas and Reynolds were also on the 2006 world championship team, along with Geoff Walker and Rollie Robinson, that captured gold in Korea ...

• RIP to a Cornwall curling legend ...

• And finally, our heart goes out to Ontario’s Dave “Hutch” Hutchison and his wife, who were victims of a recent burglary with a particularly sad twist.

Hutch is a true curling guy, who ran the Annandale “Eager Beaver” cashspiel (no laughing!) for years before joining the the Ontario Curling Association as an employee. He discovered the theft when he returned home from the OCA office.

Hopefully the press on this story will reach the ears of the thief, who will then choose to do the right thing.

Award-winning Curling Photo

For once, the shooter shares the limelight with the subject.

David Cooper, a photographer for the Toronto Star, has won a Canadian Newspaper Award for this photo of Ontario skip Glenn Howard scoring the title-winning three in the ninth end of the 2007 Brier curling final.

The award news release is here, and the Star photo page is here. And here is the original Star story as it ran (online) back in March of 2007. In the print edition, by the way, the photo itself ran full-size, and very large, on the front page of the sports section.

There were all kinds of similar photos taken at that very same instant – by Adrian Wyld of CP, by the National Post, by Michael Burns of the CCA, local shooters, and also by Anil Mungal of this here The Curling News – which makes us wonder: did other news outlets submit their versions of this photo for the award, or not?

If the former, the question becomes: what made the Star photo better than any of the others? Was it the precise angle of the shot? Did Cooper get more “air” between Howard and the ice?

Regardless, a nice job from a photographer who would typically not have even been in the building, if not for Hamilton’s close proximity to Toronto.

By the way, did you know The Curling News is currently running a photo contest? No? Well, you must not read the print edition of TCN; the contest has been underway since late February and the entries received to date are quite good. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming days ...


In other news:

• Longtime Ontario curling coach Tom Coulterman, the father of Krista McCarville third Tara George, is being inducted into the Sault Ste. Marie Sports Hall of Fame ...

• This story by the International Council of Sport Science and Physcial Education (ICSSPE) includes Austria skip (and curling calendar queen) Claudia Toth ...

• Another new podcast from The Curling Show features Tylenol Players’ Champion Amber Holland ...

• Finally, we’ve shown this Desktop Curling Game before, but the gadget gurus at Gizmodo aren’t too impressed. However, fans include Nerd Approved (if a wee bit sarcastic), plus heisthelamb who likes it, big time ...

Burtnyk, Now and Then

Okay, let’s see if we can plow through all the Manitoba curling stories and thus free ourselves, finally, to look at other curling news... eh?

Kerry Burtnyk finally acknowledged that he is bringing an Edmonton import into his team: and it is, of course, former Kevin Martin third Don Walchuk. Story from the usual suspects here and here, but only The Curler posted a photo of the news conference, which you can see here. Uh, a photo without Walchuk, although we was on the telephone. And with two team sponsor reps who look somewhat out of place. Whatever.

Some are questioning why Burtnyk held a news conference to announce what everybody already knew? First of all, if arch-rival Jeff Stoughton is going to hold a news conference, then you can be darned sure Bubba is going to host one. Secondly, there was additional Bubbaspec on who is going to play lead – perhaps another Edmonton import? – and Burtnyk took the opportunity to declare that Garth Smith will be returning.

Still with Manitoba:

• Much like the recent long-overdue celebration of the 1976 Canada Cup hockey champions, Burtnyk’s 1981 Brier and Worlds team (see ancient photo above) were recently inducted into the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame. The only sour note was the no-show by lead Ron Kammerlock (at right), who was supporting a curler who got the chop from Burtnyk’s squad just a few days earlier – his son.

Ron should have been there, plain and simple.

Here’s what Burtnyk said about that particular team, back when the inductees – which also includes former Stoughton third Jon Mead, Winnipeg skip Janet Harvey and the infamous Johnny U – were first announced. The Curling News ran this quote in our popular They Said It section of the April issue:

I think it put us ahead of many experienced teams that played the wide-open game. And it’s hard to believe, but there were actually a lot of experienced teams that feared us because we’d basically draw to anything early in the game, and people just couldn’t understand what we were doing. So at the time, I think we were kind of ahead of the curve for what young teams were normally like.

We did something that nobody else has really been able to do as that young a team. And I think that was an outstanding accomplishment. We were almost a team that maybe was a bit ahead of its time.

• Naturally, there’s a bunch of other men’s changes taking place in the Peg ...

• Earlier on, Jim Bender had an interesting possible prediction of Burtnyk’s new third: Joe Frans?! Meanwhile, over at Hacks & Wonks, PolicyFrog thinks young Reid Carruthers is... er, making a mistake ...

• This fellow suggests a list of reasons why Ryan Fry took off to The Rock to begin with ...

• A fan built this tribute video to Team Jennifer Jones and then posted an apology on the team website for not having enough images of the front end! Judging by the skip’s personal reply, the result is a fine piece of work ...

• And finally, DID YOU KNOW that the arson suspect in Winnipeg’s 2006 Thistle Curling Club destruction – who had confessed – was freed by the judge? Want to guess why? Well, here is the story, and here is an editorial comment on the matter.

And here is another link to Paul Wiecek’s “Memories Of the Thistle” story we linked to back in June, 2006 ...