Men's Olympic Trials almost set

The men’s lineup for the Olympic Trials is almost set. There’s really just one spot left and two teams in the running for it. The fate of those two teams is out of their hands and in the hands of a third team that’s already in.

Let’s look at who will be filling the final eight spots for the trials process.

From 2008-09
Right now those teams would be:
Brad Gushue (Newfoundland and Labrador)
Mike McEwen (Manitoba)
Joel Jordison (Saskatchewan)
Jean-Michel Menard (Quebec)

From the three-year standings:
Bob Ursel (B.C.)

From the two-year standings:
Greg McAulay (B.C.)
Daley Peters (Manitoba)

From this year:
Ted Appelman (Alberta)

However, this is subject to change based on the play of Appelman. While Appelman’s position is solid, the one team whose fate is questionable is Daley Peters, whose not even at the Players’ Championship.
If Appelman loses his quarterfinals game, then the standings remain as above. However, a win by Appelman would propel him past Menard in getting one of the four spots based on the 2008-09 standings.
Menard then would take one of the two-year spots and McAulay would keep the other knocking Peters out.
That would then take us to the final spot, based on this year’s standings and that would go to Sean Geall of B.C.
So Geall’s hopes are still alive and rest on the shoulders of Appelman.

Now that’s four the final eight spots in Prince George at the pre-trials. But what about the final two direct spots in the Olympic Trials in Edmonton.
Going into this week, Kevin Koe and Wayne Middaugh were in front for those spots but with Middaugh’s failure to qualify for the playoffs at the Players’ the Ontario team has lost that chance.
Kevin Koe, who beat Middaugh to make the playoffs, has now ensured his spot at the Roar of the Rings in Edmonton through the three-year accumulated standings.
For the last spot, through the two-year accumulated standings, Jeff Stoughton’s qualification at the Players’ has almost assured him that spot.
If Stoughton wins his quarterfinal game, he will cinch the spot with 356.7 points.
If he were to lose his quarterfinal game, he would be left with 351.7 points, leaving a small opening for Randy Ferbey. However, the only way Ferbey could get that last spot would be by winning the Players’ and then he would walk away with the crown by less than five points — 356.288. If he loses again in the Players’, then Stoughton can book his tickets for Edmonton and not worry about Prince George.

Women's Olympic Trials set

So, with the semifinals set at the Players’ Championship, the final 16 is set for the two rounds of the Olympic Trials this fall.

Firstly, the four with the direct passes to Olympic Trials in Edmonton have been set for a while, as I reported recently. Those teams are:

Jennifer Jones (Manitoba)
Shannon Kleibrink (Alberta)
Cheryl Bernard (Alberta)
Stefanie Lawton (Saskatchewan)

Now here are the 12 who are going to the pre-trials in Prince George and how they qualified:

Qualified before this season:
Kelly Scott (B.C.)
Sherry Middaugh (Ontario)
Sherry Anderson (Saskatchewan)
Amber Holland (Saskatchewan)

Top 4 from the 2008-09 CTRS standings to fill the 2008-09 spots:
Marie France Larouche (Quebec)
Michelle Englot (Saskatchewan)
Heather Rankin (Alberta)
Rachel Homan (Ontario)

And then the additional four:
One team based on the three-year accumulated standings
Cathy King (Alberta)

Two teams based on the two-year accumulated standings
Krista McCarville (Ontario)
Eve Belisle (Quebec)

And the last team based on this year’s standings:
Crystal Webster (Alberta)

So there we go people, now we know who we’ll be watching in thee trials this fall. It should be fun.

CTRS Mumble Jumble Women continued

With just one more draw to go for the women before the playoffs at the Players’ Championship in Grande Prairie, I just wanted to take a look at how things are now shaping up for the final eight spots in the Olympic trials.
As mentioned before, Marie France Larouche has already earned a spot since no unqualified team can catch her in this year’s CTRS standings. So, despite her dismal three-and-out performance at the Players’, she still has her place in Prince George.
As for the other seven, here’s how it is shaping up.
Here’s how this season’s points stand for the unqualified teams, going into the three C finals this afternoon:
Marie France Larouche — 183.3 (final)
Michelle Englot — 100.25 (could increase)
Crystal Webster — 83.45 (could increase)
Marla Mallett — 81.6 (final)
Cathy King — 81.35 (final)
Krista McCarville — 81.1 (could increase)
Heather Rankin — 78.8 (could increase)
Rachel Homan — 75.9 (could increase)
Barb Spencer — 75.15 (could increase).

In the three C finals, Spencer plays the already qualified Sherry Middaugh, Webster plays Homan and Rankin plays Englot.
If Webster wins, she assures herself a spot in the pre-trials. Same with Englot. The other three would put themselves in a great position.
If one of these unqualified teams wins the Players’ outright, then there will be three other berths decided via the CTRS for this season (a fourth will be determined using this year’s standings, but only after picking three through the accumulated year totals).
When it comes to the three-year and two-year spots, fewer teams are in the running.
Cathy King, despite losing three straight, has assured herself a spot thanks to her play in previous years (using her current team’s points, which is denoted on the curling.ca website by Cathy King(a)).
If Englot failed to get a spot using this year’s CTRS standings, she would get the three-year spot because no one can catch her (the only one still alive who is within 40 points is McCarville and she would need to win the Players’ to catch Englot. But if she won, she’d get a berth that way and Englot would still get the three-year berth). So, either way Englot’s going to Prince George.
Now, with Englot and Larouche out of the way, that leaves King the top unqualified team on the two-year list. Since there are two spots via the two-year list, King would definitely get a spot since no one who is still alive can catch her. As well, no one can catch Krista McCarville, so she too is guaranteed a spot, even if she doesn’t earn one from this year’s standings.
So, there are in fact now four teams that definitely have a spot:
Marie France Larouche,
Michelle Englot,
Cathy King,
Krista McCarville.

The final four spots will be fought over between Webster, Mallett, Rankin, Homan, Spencer and Eve Belisle who, even though she’s not in Grande Prairie, could win one of the two-year spots depending on whether those above her in the two-year standards first qualify a different way.

CTRS Mumble Jumble Men continued

Men’s CTRS

With three days down at the Players’ Championship the men’s roster for the Olympic trials is starting to become clearer.
As was stated before, Joel Jordison, Mike McEwen, Brad Gushue, Bob Ursel and Jean-Michel Menard.
However, the crystal ball is starting to become clearer when it comes to the final three spots.
Going into the Players’, we had determined that eight teams had a crack at those last three spots. Those teams were:
Sean Geall
Greg McAulay
Daley Peters
Chris Schille
Dale Matchett
Ted Appelman
and Brad Heidt.

After losing three straight games and being eliminated, Schille is officially out of the picture. But the other seven remain alive.
Even though his team went three and out, Geall still has a ghost of a chance.
If the Players’ was to wrap up right now with the three teams from that list who are still alive not advancing to the playoffs, the last eight spots would be simple.
The four spots from this year’s CTRS would go to:
Gushue,
McEwen,
Jordison
and Menard.
The one spot from the three-year accumulated total would go to:
Ursel.
The two spots from the two-year accumulated total would go to:
McAulay
and Peters.
And the final spot, to be the top team from this year’s 2008-09 CTRS standings, would be:
Geall.

However, if Appelman or Matchett were to qualify for the playoffs (and Matchett has a couple of cracks at it in a B final and a C final, if necessary) then Geall’s dream would be toast.
A defeat in the quarterfinals for either of those teams would give them the eighth and final spot. If they both lost in the quarters, Appelman would score the bid.
For Heidt to get in there, he had have to make it to the final and lose there.
Now, all three of these teams could muddy the waters by winning the Players’ and getting an automatic spot. Appelman and Matchett could muck things up back making it to the semifinals.
If one of them was to make it at least as far as the semifinals, they would take one of the initial four berths from this year’s standings.
Also, if that happened, Peters, who is not at the Players’, would be knocked out of contention.
If just one of the two made it to the semis, while the other missed the playoffs, then Geall would hold on to his last spot. If the other team lost in the quarters, then they would get the spot and Geall would be SOL.
So, with just part of the Players’ to come, there still are several permutations remaining to determine the final three spots but Geall still has a solid hope even though he finished winless.

Going for double digits at the Players'

While the Grand Slam of Curling has only been around since the early part of the third millennium, the Players' Championship, the final jewel is grand slam crown that is currently being contested, has been around, at least for the men, for close to two decades.
Looking at the list of winners and runners-up shows that over the years there is one man, above all else, who has been dominant at this event — Kevin Martin (big surprise).
In the previous 16 Players' Championships, Martin has been in the final more than a half of the time — nine times to be precise.
Martin won the Players' five times — 1994, '98, 2000, '05 and '07 — and lost the final four times — 2001, '04, '06 and '08.
So this year, despite Sunday's stunning loss in Moncton, Martin is aiming to make it an unprecedented 10 finals. And judging from Tuesday night's opening round whupping of Pat Simmons of Moose Jaw — Martin scored six in the first en route to a four-end 9-3 win — he's in good shape to get there.

CTRS Mumble Jumble Men's Extra

As we are now into the second day of the Players’ Championship, I thought I add to my comments earlier about the men’s qualifying for the curling trials spots.
Here, I want to look at who could get those other two automatic berths to Edmonton and the final trials, skipping past Prince George and the pre-trials.
Only two rinks can possibly earn the three-year accumulated total berth into the Edmonton trials.
Kevin Koe is tops on the three-year list among teams that have not qualified for Edmonton (which is Kevin Martin and Glenn Howard).
Koe is 45 points ahead of Jeff Stoughton, meaning he cannot be caught by Stoughton. The only person who can catch up Randy Ferbey. To do so, Ferbey will need to do 20 points better than Koe at the Players’.
If Koe wins the three-year, then this will leave it up to the two-year accumulated total berth and that will be a real dogfight.
Right now, Koe is tops among teams on the two-year list that don’t yet have a spot in Edmonton. If Ferbey somehow passed Koe on the three-year list, he still has a shot with this list.
However, if Koe wins the three-year berth then this leaves the two-year spot wide open with four teams in range to earn it.
Wayne Middaugh is after Koe with 343.645 points on the two-year list. Then comes Kerry Burtnyk at 332.325, then Jeff Stoughton at 331.7 and finally Ferbey, way back at at 316.288.
So, for the final two direct berths to Edmonton, Kevin Koe is not a lock but he has a firm grip on at least one of the spots. The other teams up for the spots are Ferbey, Middaugh, Burtnyk and Stoughton.

CTRS Women's Mumble Jumble

So after sifting through the CTRS to look at the chances to qualify for the Olympic Trials for the men a few days, let’s do the same for the women.
Currently, there are eight teams qualified for the trials or pre-trials. Jennifer Jones and Shannon Kleibrink are into the trials in Edmonton, while Kelly Scott, Sherry Anderson, Cheryl Bernard, Amber Holland and Sherry Middaugh are qualified for the Prince George pre-trials.
Since Jones won the Scotties and Kleibrink won the Canada Cup, that leaves two spots that will be decided by this year’s CTRS standings.
Also, Marie-France Larouche (183.3) can only catch Kleibrink (217.95) in this year’s CTRS if Kleibrink goes winless while Larouche wins the Players’ Championship. However, if Larouche wins the Players’, she’ll get the automatic spot for winning the Players’. Since no one else can catch Kleibrink, there’s another spot that will be determined by the CTRS.
If Larouche goes three and out at the Players’, she’ll still qualify for the pre-trial, since the closest unqualified team, Michelle Englot, is almost 90 points back (94.25), and 30 points is the most any team can get without winning the Players’ and its automatic spot.
So that makes Larouche’s team No. 9 but it still leaves at least two spots from this year to be determined by the CTRS.
In the standings, Michelle Englot is next in line for a spot from this year’s standings, but she is not unassailable. There are, in fact, six teams who could catch Englot for the second spot without winning the Players’ — Cathy King, Marla Mallett, Crystal Webster, Heather Rankin, Rachel Homan and Barb Spencer. Plus, Krista McCarville of Thunder Bay could catch King for the third spot, so they can’t be forgotten.
Next, comes the four extra spots.
For the one spot based on the three-year standings, Englot and King are also in the top two spots for that post. If they hold their spots and win a position through this year’s CTRS, then McCarville is next in line for the 3-year spot, with a 16.038 lead on Crystal Webster.
With the two-year rankings, again, Englot, King and McCarville lead the way. The next team in line Quebec’s Eve Belisle. Since Belisle is not at the Player’s, this is her only hope to qualify. She does have a 19.033 lead on the next team, Webster.
After Webster at 99.550, Rachel Homan at 95.485 and Martha Mallett at 92.413 are close, in the push for one fo thtose two spots.
Finally, the last slot goes to the highest unqualified team on this year’s list. That leaves the following rinks with a shot at one of the seven remaining spots:

At the Players’:
Michelle Englot
Cathy King
Marla Mallett
Crystal Webster
Heather Rankin
Rachel Homan
Barb Spencer
Krista McCarville

Not at the Players’:
Eve Belisle

The other question with the women is who will get the two remaining direct passes to the trials in Edmonton, to join Jones and Kleibrink.
Right now, Kleibrink has earned her spot because she is uncatchable on the three-year accumulated total. Therefore, that leaves to final spots to be decided via the two-year accumulated total. Since there is no way for the next team that does not have a direct pass to catch them, Cheryl Bernard and Stefanie Lawton’s rinks will earn those direct passes.
However, if Kleibrink wins the Players’, she will get the spot because she won three events — this year's Canada Cup, the Players' and the CTRS.
If Kleibrink takes that route, then one spot goes to the next highest on the CTRS 3-year standings. There's only two rinks that could get that spot — Stefanie Lawton or Cheryl Bernard, whoever does better at the Players'. (While Kelly Scott is within 40 points of both Lawton and Bernard, barely, if she were to get the full 40 for winning the Players Kleibrink would be getting the 3-year spot, so Scott cannot earn it — 30 points for second place would not be enough to catch either Bernard or Lawton). If they have equal success, then Bernard would win the spot less than three points. The other spot goes to the top one on the 2-year, and that will be either Bernard or Lawton who are more than 50 points ahead of the teams behind them.
If Kleibrink doesn't win this weekend, then the final two spots will go to the top two unqualified teams on the 2-year list and that's Bernard and Lawton, they cannot be caught on either the list.

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 7

With the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship underway in
Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
For part seven of the 1980 Silver Broom, we’ll look at the fifth draw, held in the afternoon of the third day of competition, Wednesday, March 26.

Canada entered the day as the only remaining undefeated team with a 4-0 record.
In the afternoon draw on Wednesday, March 26, Canada had no problems extending that record to 5-0, thanks to a 10-4 pasting of West Germany.
Initially, Rick Folk’s Canada rink gave up a deuce to the Germans in the first end. But Canada roared back with a deuce of its own in two and a steal of one in three.
After the Germans tied it at 3-3 with a single in four, the wheels fell off for the Germans. Folk took two in five and then stole two in six and stole another in the seventh end. He would add another deuce in nine to seal the victory.
After the game, German fourth man Hans Dieter Kiesel told The Canadian Press that his rink wasn’t that good and it didn’t have much hope to make the semis.
This seems like an odd statement to make when you consider the loss put the Germans at 3-2 and in a tie for third with Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the U.S. However, the Germans at this point had yet to play any of those teams with its two losses coming against first place Canada and second place Norway and the three wins against the three bottom-feeders — Scotland, Denmark and France.
Jurg Tanner did not play again in this draw, due to his injured hip, but it was not a problem as Switzerland stole six straight points in ends five through eight to blow open a 3-1 game and win 9-1 over France after eight ends.
Sweden and the U.S. played in a tight rollercoaster game. Former world champ Ragnar Kamp scored deuces in the second and sixth ends to take a 4-2 lead into the seventh. But after a single in the eighth end and a steal of one in the ninth, the game was tied 4-4 going into 10. Kamp was able to get his single with the hammer to move up to 3-2 and bring Paul Pustovar down to that level.
Here are the linescores from the fifth draw:

Switzerland 200 122 11x x - 9
France 001 000 00x x - 1

Norway 111 000 201 x - 6
Italy 000 111 010 x - 4

U.S. 100 100 011 0 - 4
Sweden 020 002 000 1 - 5

Canada 021 022 102 x -10
West Germany 200 100 010 x - 4

Denmark 001 010 020 0 - 4
Scotland 010 201 000 1 - 5

Standings
Canada 5-0
Norway 4-1
Italy 3-2
Switzerland 3-2
Sweden 3-2
W. Germany 3-2
U.S. 3-2
Scotland 1-4
Denmark 0-5
France 0-5

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 6

With the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship underway in
Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
For part six of the 1980 Silver Broom, we’ll look at the fourth draw, held in the evening of the second day of competition, Tuesday, March 25.

Rick Folk was starting to develop a pattern at the Moncton Silver Broom — huge victory in the afternoon draw followed by a tight game in the evening draw. That continued in Draw 4.
Even though Scotland was winless in its first three games, Silver Broom rookie Barton Henderson of Aberdeen Curling Club (in what would be his only world's appearance) was anything but an easy mark for the Sasktoon rink.
The two teams went back and forth with only deuce by Folk in the third making a difference. With a 5-4 lead in the ninth end, Folk salted the game away with an excellent angle raise to get his two and win the game 7-4.
The victory put Folk all alone on top at 4-0. He called being on top, unbeaten, "a super feeling."
On another sheet the game was anything but close between the only two former world champion skips in the Silver Broom, Norway's Kristian Soerum and Sweden's Ragnar Kamp.
Kamp was having trouble with his team and had a meeting midway through the game against Soerum. According, to The Canadian Press, Kamp and his third Hakan Stahlbro had "minor differences" throughout the game.
The problem was the fact Norway scored two in the first and then singles in the second and third for a 4-0 lead. After Kamp put up a single in the fourth, Soerum threw up two more deuces, including a steal in the sixth.
After the game, Kamp was asked about the meeting. He said the rink discussed some changes in tactics but the strategy turned out to be wrong as Norway won the game 10-2 in eight ends.
As for Switzerland skip Jurg Tanner, he took a painkiller and froze his injured hip before the fourth draw so he could return after missing the third draw.
Tanner admitted that the hip, which he had banged up several months earlier, still bothered him during the game — but you wouldn't know it based on the result as he dropped a five on Giuseppe Dal Molin of Italy in the fifth as part of a 10-3 drubbing. The win unceremoniously dropped Italy out of the unbeaten ranks while Tanner moved to an even record of 2-2.
For seven ends, France looked like it would have a serious shot at winning its first game. After seven, France led the U.S. 3-2.
However, in the eighth, Paul Pustovar plopped a big six down on the French and ended the game 8-3.


Here is the scores from Draw 4:

Norway 211 022 02x x - 10
Sweden 000 100 10x x - 2

Denmark 010 010 011 0 - 4
West Germany 200 101 000 1 - 5

Canada - 102 010 102 x - 7
Scotland - 010 101 010 x - 4

Italy - 000 101 10x x - 3
Switzerland - 030 050 02x x - 10

U.S. - 010 100 06x x - 8
France - 100 001 10x x - 3

Standings

Canada 4-0
Italy 3-1
Norway 3-1
U.S. 3-1
West Germany 3-1
Sweden 2-2
Switzerland 2-2
Denmark 0-4
France 0-4
Scotland 0-4

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 5

With the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship underway in
Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
For part five of the 1980 Silver Broom, we’ll look at the third draw, held in the afternoon of the second day of competition, Tuesday, March 25.

For Draw 3, Canada’s Rick Folk and Company — Ron Mills, Tom and Jim Wilson — were not challenged at all by Denmark’s Jorn Blach.
Coming into Tuesday after two losses on Monday, the Danes knew they’d be in trouble against the Canadians and that became obvious early on.
Folk put up a deuce to kick off the scoring in the second end. After forcing Denmark to take one in three, Folk came back with another deuce in four and a steal of two in five.
By then the game was virtually out of hand. After Blach made the score 6-2, Folk threw up a four-spot in the eighth end and then it was handshakes, with a final score of 10-2.
Blow-outs were on the menu Tuesday afternoon in all of the other games except one.
The U.S. blitzed a Jurg Tanner-less Switzerland. Tanner sat out the game with the hip injury he had aggravated the night before versus Canada.
Paul Pustovar of Hibbing, Minn., stole four points in the second half of the game with singles in six and seven and a deuce in eight to turn a 3-1lead into a 7-1 victory.
Sweden put up the first six of the competition en route to obliterating France 15-3.
After three ends the game was just 2-2 but the six points in the fourth, coupled with steals of two in the fifth and sixth ends and a three in the eighth put away the French.
Norway took what was a close 3-2 game after six ends and scored four in the seventh and three in the ninth to defeat West Germany 10-4. The loss was the first defeat for the Germans.
In the only close game, Scotland’s Barton Henderson and Italy’s Giuseppe Dal Molin went back and forth until Henderson forced an extra end with a single in the 10th. In the 11th, Dal Molin got his single to win 6-5. With the victory, Dal Molin became the unlikely co-resident of the unbeaten ranks with Folk. However, while Folk had defeated Norway and Switzerland, Dal Molin had only defeated the three winless teams.

Scores from Draw 3

U.S. 020 011 12x x - 7
Switzerland 001 000 00x x - 1

Sweden 020 622 03x x -15
France 002 000 10x x - 3

West Germany 000 200 020 x - 4
Norway 021 000 403 x - 10

Denmark 001 001 00x x - 2
Canada 020 220 04x x -10

Scotland 002 000 200 10 - 5
Italy 100 210 010 01 - 6

Standings after Draw 3

Canada 3-0
Italy 3-0
U.S. 2-1
Norway 2-1
W. Germany 2-1
Sweden 2-1
Switzerland 1-2
Scotland 0-3
France 0-3
Denmark 0-3

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 4

With the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship underway in
Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
For part three of the 1980 Silver Broom, we’ll look at the second
draw on the first day of competition, Monday, March 24.

With Canada’s Rick Folk getting off to a stellar start by trouncing
the defending Silver Broom champions Norway, skipped by Kristian
Soerum, the team was ready for another tough challenge against the
1978 European champion, Jurg Tanner of Switzerland.
This game was not as easy as, according to The Canadian Press
reports, Folk’s team struggled somewhat.
The trouble really started in the fifth end, when Switzerland the
hammer and was down 3-1.
“We got a little careless in the fourth end, allowing Switzerland to
score three points,” Canada third Ron Mills said to the media.
“We missed two back-to-back takeouts, which put us behind at the
time. But we got two key points in the sixth end, which gave us a 5-4
lead and we played better after that.”
In the seventh end, Tanner aggravated a hip injury and pulled himself
out of the game in the eighth.
Folk made an open draw to the eight-foot in the eighth, when
Switzerland was shorthanded, to go up 7-5. After a single in nine for
the Swiss, Folk and crew ran the team of three out of rocks.
Norway’s Kristian Soerum was able to put the thumping by Canada in
the afternoon behind him. Norway stole three in seven and a deuce in
eight to solidify an 8-1 drubbing of the U.S. and Paul Pustovar.
As well, 1977 champion skip Ragnar Kamp of Sweden came back from a
loss in the afternoon to Switzerland to defeat Denmark 7-3.
In its game against France, Italy opened by scoring in each of the
first five ends to take a 7-0 lead before closing it out 8-4 in 10.
Here are the scores from the evening draw on the first day.

Scotland 000 020 103 x - 6
West Germany 020 302 030 x - 10

Switzerland 010 030 101 x - 6
Canada 102 002 020 x - 7

France 000 000 110 2 - 4
Italy 212 110 001 0 - 8

Norway 000 101 321 x - 8
U.S. 000 010 000 x - 1

Sweden 101 001 011 2 - 7
Denmark 010 110 000 0 - 3

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 3

With the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship underway in
Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
For part three of the 1980 Silver Broom, we’ll look at the first draw
on the first day of competition, Monday, March 24.

On each of the first four days of the round-robin, there would be two
draws per day, with five sheets and all 10 teams in the event in each
draw.
For Canada’s Rick Folk, his team would not have an easy start. Folk
would start the Silver Broom against the defending champion, Norway’s
Kristian Soerum.
In the evening draw would be another tough match, the 1978 European
champion, Jurg Tanner of Switzerland.
Before the start of the event, Folk told The Canadian Press he was
looking forward to the challenge right off the bat.
“It just might be good for us to play Norway and Switzerland. If we
win, it would get us off in high gear,” Folk said.
Folk also indicated that he felt the calibre of competition here was
about the same as it was at the Calgary Brier he had just won.
He also talked about the Saskatoon rink’s strategy.
“We’ll take gambles ... go for the freeze instead of hitting. It’s
just a matter of going afte the other team instead of waiting for them
to come to you.”
The strategy obviously worked in the opening draw.
Folk curled 88 per cent in hammering Soerum 7-2.
“We decided we were going to go right after them and whatever chance
we had, we put a draw in behind and kept them looking at tough shots
all the way through those first three ends,” said Folk to The Canadian
Press.
Canada scored one point in each of the first three ends and did not
look back from there.
Another interesting game had Paul Pustovar of the U.S. scoring two in
nine to take a one-point lead and then stealing two in 10 to cement a
7-4 victory over Barton Henderson of Scotland.
Here are the results of the first draw:

Canada 111 010 03x x - 7
Norway 000 101 00x x - 2

Italy 120 020 010 x - 6
Denmark 001 101 002 x - 5

U.S. 010 100 102 2 - 7
Scotland 100 011 010 0 - 4

Sweden 010 101 010 0 - 4
Switzerland 102 000 200 1 - 6

West Germany 000 100 202 x - 5
France 010 001 000 x - 2

CTRS Mumble Jumble

This isn’t so much about history as it is about the present, although it leads into this summer major project.
Once we get into the warm weather, Curling Into the Past will slow down to about one blog entry per week. But in that time we’ll be doing multi-part series on Canada’s four previous Olympic Curling Trials, as we build to the pre-trials in Prince George and the Roar of the Rings in Edmonton.
With that in mind, I was looking at the CTRS standings on the Canadian Curling Association’s website. Currently, the site still lists only 8 teams qualified for either level for the men. However, while their placings are not official, there are five teams that have mathematically clinched a spot with just the Player’s Championship to come.
At the end of last season, eight teams had spots clinched — Glenn Howard and Kevin Martin had already qualified for Edmonton. Meanwhile, six other teams had qualified for Prince George. Those teams are: Randy Ferbey, Kevin Koe, Pat Simmons, Jeff Stoughton, Kerry Burtnyk and Wayne Middaugh.
So, that leaves everyone else looking for one of those eight remaining spots.
Now, here’s where we get into some math, so bear with me.
The lone remaining event is the Players’ Championship. The most points anyone can get out of that is 40, which will go to the winner. The runner-up gets 30 points. Keep that 30 in mind because it’s important since the winner would get an automatic berth if they are not one of the eight mentioned above.
There are four automatic berths, the one I just mentioned for the Player’s Championship, plus one for winning the Brier, one for winning the Canada Cup and one for being the top team in the CTRS. Kevin Martin won both the Brier and Canada Cup, meaning those spots will be given to a team based on the final CTRS for 2008-09. Since the closest team that hasn’t qualified is 100 points back of the leader, no one who hasn’t qualified can win the CTRS, so that spot too will go to a team that hasn’t yet qualified based on this year’s standings.
So, there’s at least three spots that will be based on the CTRS standings for this year.
The fourth-highest team in the standings that does not have a berth in the trials is Jean-Michel Menard. However, he’s stuck at 99.5 points because he’s not in the Player’s, so we’ll have to use Sean Geall since he is in the player’s. At 89.150, the most points Geall can have without winning the Players’ is 119.150. That is well below the current totals of both Brad Gushue of Newfoundland (191.15) and Mike McEwen (158.95). This means those two are mathematically guaranteed spots in the trials. So that’s two more.
Now, the final four spots will be based on three criteria in this order: one spot will go to the unqualified team with the best total over the past three seasons; two spots go to the unqualified teams with the best totals over the past two seasons; and the last spot goes to the best unqualified team in this year’s standings.
First , with the three-year standings, the best unqualified team is Joel Jordison at 235.931.
The closest team playing in the Players’ is Ontario’s Dale Matchett at 91.873. Since he can’t catch Jordison and the other seven teams between them can’t increase their totals, Jordison’s Moose Jaw rink has mathematically qualified for the trials even if it bombs at the Player’s.
That’s three teams into the trials.
Now, looking at the two-year total, we find that Bob Ursel, B.C., (173.775) and Menard (157.378), who are not in the Player’s, still can’t be caught by any unqualified team in the Players’. That means both of those rinks are in.
And that brings us to the final spot, which is decided by the current year’s CTRS. That is still in flux with the Players’ championship coming up.
But there are five teams that are now mathematically in, although the CCA has not made it official: Brad Gushue, Mike McEwen, Joel Jordison, Bob Ursel and Jean-Michel Menard.
That means there are still three spots. Let’s have a look at who those could go to.
If Jordison (who has 102.1 this season) does not win a game at the Players’, he can be caught by the following teams: Geall (89.15), Chris Schille (79.05), Ted Appelman (78.15) and Dale Matchett (72.85).
If Jordison stays ahead of those four, however, he would get the third spot.
Now, any of the unqualified teams can make life easy by winning the Players’, but if it is won by a qualified team, then that would mean a fourth spot would be determined by the CTRS.
Menard, at 99.5 is currently next in line for that spot but Geall could catch him with a quarterfinal finish. Appelman and Schille could catch him with a semifinal finish and Matchett can do it with a runner-up finish.
Now, if Jordison gets one of the spots for being one of the top four unqualified teams this year, that would free up a spot from the three-year standings.
Next in line for the three-year spot is Bob Ursel and no one at the Player’s can catch him. So he would get a spot through that method.
That would free up his spot through the two-year total.
Greg McAulay would get that spot, since he sits at 137.638 in the two-year accumulated standings and the closest team to him in the Players’ is Geall at 89.150. If Geall finished second, he would still be 8.488 points short of McAulay (if Geall won, he wouldn’t have to worry about this spot).
So, Greg McAulay has a reason to root on Joel Jordison.
If none of the teams behind Menard in the single season standings catch up to him through the Player’s, then that would open up another slot through the two-year total.
If Geall, scored 20 or more points, he could be next behind McAulay and that could give him a chance. That’s only if, however, somebody below him on the single year passes him in the race to catch Menard in that standings. If they don’t then he’d take Menard’s spot and we wouldn’t be discussing this.
So, if Geall did not make the playoffs of the Players’, the second two-year spot would actually go to Daley Peters.
So, we have three remaining spots and there are several teams that have a shot at it, depending on how those that are in the Player’s do in that event:
Sean Geall
Greg McAulay (who’s not in the Player’s and will be cheering for Joel Jordison)
Daley Peters (also not in the Player’s, hoping no one catches Jordison or Menard)
Chris Schille
Dale Matchett
Ted Appelman
and Brad Heidt (who has the longest chance).
The final spots will go to three of those teams.
Sorry, if I bogged you down in numbers but I hope it shows who has already qualified mathematically and who, that is remaining, has a shot at going to Prince George.

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 2

With the 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship underway in
Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
For part two of the 1980 Silver Broom, we’ll look at the field of 10 teams.

For the 1980 Silver Broom, Canada was, yet again, represented by a team of rookies — to the world’s. But Rick Folk’s experienced rink of cornslingers from Saskatoon — Ron Mills, third, Tom Wilson, second, Jim Wilson lead (pictured here) — was anything but inexperienced. Many Canadians thought the team could erase Labonte’s Curse (see previous entry).
The defending champ was back for an attempt at back-to-back crowns.
Norway’s Kristian Soerum had returned with most of his rink from 1979. One key ingredient, his brother Morten, was no longer at third. In his place, Eigil Ramsfjell moved up from second. Gunnar Meland moved up from lead to second and Harald Ramsfjell joined the team at lead.
Another world champion skip was also back in the mix.
Ragnar Kamp of Sweden won the world title in is home country in 1977. This was his first time back to the Silver Broom since that win and would be his last appearance ever, although that was not for a lack of trying.
After moving to a new country, Kamp twice tried to win that nation’s crown, skipping Nova Scotia in the 1984 and 1989 Briers.
Kamp had a whole new team with him in 1980 from the world championship squad of just three years earlier. Among the team was second Thomas Hakansson, who, like Kamp, would skip Nova Scotia at a Brier (1988).
Also in the lineup of skips was future world champ Jurg Tanner of Switzerland. This was his first world championship but he had won the European Championship in 1978.
Also in the field was Paul Pustovar of Hibbing, Minn., who would represent the U.S. on a few more occasions over the next 25 years.
Interestingly, there were three rinks that had the skips throwing something other than the last rocks.
France’s Henri Muller threw lead stones, while Germany’s Franz Engler and Italy’s Giuseppe Dal Molin were throwing third rocks
Dal Molin was experienced at the world level. This was his sixth world championship in seven years. He had only missed out on the 1978 Silver Broom. Dal Molin’s best performance had been a fifth at the 1976 Silver Broom. In all of his previous Silver Broom appearances, Dal Molin threw last rocks and skipped. This was the first time he had relinquished control of the final stones to Andrea Pavani.
The other skips were Barton Henderson of Scotland and Jorn Blach of Denmark.

Next up: the opening day

1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 1

With Saturday being the opening day of the 2009 World Men’s Curling Championship in Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
To start, we’ll look at Canada going into the championship and, specifically, a painful little streak of which Canadians were tired.

As the 2009 World Men’s Championships started in Moncton, we as Canadians could look back on the past and seven years and be fairly happy with our recent record at the world’s. Sure, it’s not perfection but from 2002 to 2008, Canada had won the world title five times, with Mark Dacey coming up with a bronze in 2004 and Jean-Michel Menard taking silver in 2006 to interrupt the run.
Well, as the Air Canada Silver Broom began in Moncton in late March of 1980, the record over the previous seven years was devastating. In that time frame, from 1973 to 1979, Canada had zero world titles to show for it. This was especially tough for Canadians to swallow considering the fact Canada won all but two of the first 14 world titles, running from Ernie Richardson in 1959 to Orest Meleschuk in 1972.
There had to be an explanation for such a bizarre turn-of-events and thus, the Curse of Labonte was created. The curse was attributed to members of the media after the streak had started to stretch.
As most of you know, Labonte’s Curse referred to U.S. skip Bob Labonte of North Dakota who came close to winning the 1972 championship in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany.
In the 10th end of that championship, Labonte was up by two over Winnipeg’s Orest Meleschuk. With his last stone, Meleschuk had to hit and stick for two to force an extra end. But as Meleschuk’s shot stone rolled after the hit, U.S. third Frank Aasand looked at where the Canadian rock stopped, signalled that the U.S. was second shot and kicked off the fateful celebration.
Upon seeing Aasand’s celebration, Labonte, with cigarette dangling from his lips, ran into the house to celebrate with his third. Labonte was jumping up and down when he entered the house and then slipped and fell. As he landed on his tuchas, his foot hit the Canadian rock that was either second or third shot.
When the burned rock went undeclared, the stones were measured. Now whether the Canadian rock was moved closer to the button by Labonte’s errant foot is not clear but what was clear was that the measurement went in favour of Canada, giving it the deuce and forcing an 11th end.
In the extra, Canada stole one from Labonte to win the crown. That would be the last win for a while for Canada. After a few defeats in a row, a reporter came up with the theory that Labonte had put a hex on Canada after losing to Meleschuk in a controversial fashion, leading to Canada’s inability to win after that.
This is what faced Canada as the 1980 Silver Broom began with Saskatoon’s Rick Folk and his team of cornslingers carrying the Canadian colours. Many Canadian curling fans hoped it would be Folk’s team who could end the so-called curse.

Here's a video of the fabled Labonte incident from 1972.



Next: A look at the field of the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom.

Masters of curling

As the 2009 Canadian Masters wraps up today in Saskatoon, I’d thought I’d look at the list of former champions of the masters and some of the notable names from the over-60 national curling championship.
There are several curlers on this list who have done the masters-seniors double. The very first men’s champions from Ontario in 2000, Jim Sharples, Brian Longley, Joe Gurowka and Art Lobel, had also won the seniors crown as a team 1992. The only difference then was that Lobel was at third and Longley was the lead in 1992, roles they switched in 2000.
The same team won the seniors title in 1989 except with Peter Warren at lead instead of Longley. In the masters, Longley would come back and win another title as second for 2007 champ Bob Edmondson.
Lobel is one of two men to pull off the trifecta — the Brier, the Seniors and the Masters.
Lobel was Jim Ursel’s third when Quebec won the Brier in 1977.
The other man on the list who has pulled off the trifecta is John Helston of Manitoba.
Helston won the masters playing third for Martin Bailey in 2004. In 1991, Helston was the second for Jim Ursel’s seniors winning team from Manitoba. In 1984, he played second for Mike Riley’s Brier-winning rink.
There are a couple of other Brier winners on this list.
In 2001, former Brier-winning skips Barry Fry (1979) and Don Duguid (1970, ’71 and 1965 as third for Terry Braunstein) won the masters with Fry at skip and Duguid at third.

Canadian Masters
Men’s
2000 Ontario
Jim Sharples, Brian Longley, Joe Gurowka, Art Lobel Toronto, Royals CC

2001 Manitoba
Barry Fry, Don Duguid, Winston Warren, Barry Coleman

2002 Manitoba
Ken Grove, John Usackis, Bob Lesko, Richard Schroeder

2003 Quebec
Dave Moon, Mac Baines, Bob Suderman, Dan McConnell

2004 Manitoba
Martin Bailey, John Helston, Brian Taylor, Gary Smith

2005 Manitoba
Doug Armour, Frank Gudz, Don Barr, Ken Sabad

2006 British Columbia
Dale McKenzie, Roy Giles, Sheldon Paulger, Fred Trussell

2007 Ontario
Bob Edmondson, David Stewart, Brian Longley, Graham MacEachern – Oakville CC

2008 British Columbia
Rick Pughe, John Zawarych, Jack Finnbogason, Bob Bryn – Royal City CC

The only woman who has won both the seniors and masters crown is Betty Clarke of Alberta, who won as lead for Linda Wagner in 2007. Clarke won the seniors title in 1994 as second for Cordella Schwengler.
The other notable name is Sue Ann Bartlett, masters champion skip in 2006 for Nova Scotia. Although this was her first national crown, Bartlett is better known for representing Newfoundland at 12 national women’s championships.
She came close to winning twice for Newfoundland, losing in the final in 1981 to Alberta’s Susan Seitz (in Newfoundland, no less) and in 1985 to B.C.'s Linda Moore.


Women’s
2000 Alberta
Phyl Raymond, Toni Ironside, Vida Rosebloom, Jackie Ogryzlo - Calgary CC

2001Alberta
Shirley Tucker, Ruth Kimmitt, Lorna Priddle, Betty Jean Buchanan

2002 New Brunswick
Marlene Vaughan, Ellen Brennan, Rose Donovan, Pierette MacNaughton

2003 Ontario
Gloria Sorley, Jacki Lococo, Lynne Coull, Marg Newton

2004 New Brunswick
Marlene Vaughan, Ellen Brennan, Sandra Franey, Fran Meehan

2005 Ontario
Gloria Sorley, Jacki Lococo, Lynne Coull, Marg Newton

2006 Nova Scotia
Sue Ann Bartlett, Adine Boutilier, Carol Whitmore, Marjorie MacKay

2007 Alberta
Linda Wagner, Sandra Turner, Marilyn Toews, Betty Clarke - Calgary CC

2008 Alberta
Mary Lynn Oates, Heather Paul Scott, Sylvia Babich, Linda Pratt - Calgary CC

Firefighters update

I wrote a blog earlier about the Canadian Firefighters Curling Championship and its rich history. The 50th edition of the championship is now well underway. I had noted in that blog that Johnny Mo himself won the Alberta crown as skip but seeing as he has to be in Moncton for the World Curling Championships starting this weekend, Johnny Mo is a little busy. So, I found it neat to discover that with Morris out the Alberta team has found a pretty solid ringer as a replacement. Jim Henderson, who I wrote about in that blog, is replacing Morris at skip. That's a pretty impressive replacement considering the fact that Henderson has the second most firefighter titles to his name, eight, behind only Southern Ontario's Neil Harrison who has 10. However, Henderson is the all-time leader for wins as a skip, since seven of his eight has come as a skip and Harrison only won six as skip. Henderson most recent crown was in 2005.
At this point, however, Henderson may be hard-pressed to make it nine since his Alberta rink is mid-table with just a handful of games left.

Not keeping up with the Joneses

Tonight Jennifer Jones is getting a second chance due to the WCF rule that gives the loser of the 3-4 game a shot at the bronze medal.
If she misses out on this opportunity by losing to Denmark’s Angelina Jensen, then Jones will do something that has only happened four times before — leave Canada without any medal at the World Women’s Championship.
Canada’s women’s teams have been extraordinarily successful at bringing home some kind of medal from the world’s but there have been those few occasions without any success and there’s been one common denominator in those four previous failures. And that common denominator is there again this year.
The common denominator is simple — the last name Jones.
All four of those rinks that have failed to bring Canada home a medal in the past 30 Women’s World Championships have been skipped by a woman with the last name Jones, just like this year’s crew.
In 1982, in Geneva, Switzerland, Colleen Jones’s young team from Halifax found itself in a four-way tie for second at 6-3. Back then, the top four teams made the playoffs with 1 playing 4 and 2 playing 3 in the semis.
Now, in games played between those four who were tied, Scotland and Sweden were 2-1 while Norway and Canada were 1-2. In other situations, Scotland and Sweden would have been given second and third and played off against each other in a semifinal while Norway and Canada would have played in a tiebreaker with the winner advancing to play first place Denmark, skipped by Marianne Jorgenson, in the other semi.
However, organizers instead put the four teams through a series of tiebreakers.
In the tiebreakers, Scotland, skipped by Isobel Torrance, defeated Canada 8-6, while Sweden, skip by Elisabeth Hogstrom topped Norway 6-4. That left Scotland and Sweden in second and third to face off in one semifinal while Norway and Canada would then play in a tiebreaker to decide who would play Denmark (where have we heard this scenario before?)
Jones lost to Norway, Trine Trulsen (with Dordi Nordby at third) 8-6 and was eliminated, leaving Canada without a medal for the first time.
From 1983 to 1998, Canada won a medal of some colour every year.
In 1999, after a 17-year drought, Colleen Jones won a second Scott Tournament of Hearts crown and headed back to the world’s, this time in St. John, New Brunswick.
This time, for the first, and only time in World Women’s history, Canada didn’t even make tiebreakers as Jones finished in fifth with a dreadful 4-5 record. What was sad was that Jones started 3-1 with just a 9-5 loss to Japan’s Akiko Katoh as her only blemish in her first four games before losing four of her final five games to finish out of the playoffs. She was actually at 3-5 and out of the playoffs when she won her last game against Denmark.
After finally winning a world title in 2001, Colleen Jones returned again in 2002, this time in Bismarck, N.D. In a three-way tie for fourth at 5-4, Jones watched Switzerland’s Manuela Kormann defeat Denmark’s Lene Bidstrup in the first tiebreaker.
The Canadians then knocked out the Swiss 6-5 in the second tiebreak only to lose to Margaretha Sigfridsson of Sweden in the semifinal. She then lost to Norway’s Nordby in the bronze medal game to come home empty-handed a third time.
In her last two worlds, Jones would medal — a silver to the U.S. in 2003 and a gold in 2004. But, in 2005, Canada was again represented by a Jones and would again come up empty-handed.
This was the first world championship for skip Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg. Held in Paisley, Scotland, it would definitely not be memorable for Jennifer Jones.
In this event, this first world’s to have 12 teams and a page playoff, Jones finished third at 8-3 but lost to Norway’s Dordi Nordby in the 3 vs. 4 game. In 2005, the bronze medal went to the loser of the semifinal and thus Jones did not get a second chance to win a medal, like she is getting tonight.

50 years of fire on ice

While seniors curlers will be wrapping up soon in Summerside, P.E.I., another group of curlers will be invading the island to play for a national championship. This event will be in Charlottetown.
The trophy at stake? The hydrant.
Yes, the winners will be presented a red fire hydrant, the annual prize for winning the Canadian Firefighters Curling Championship.
This will be the 50th championship and as such, it is an event with a long history.
The championship’s long list of winners includes a handful of familiar curling names.
The biggest name that jumps out is the five-time winner of the Canadian Firefighters Curling Championship, representing Southern Ontario, Ed Werenich was the winning skip in 1978, ’79, ’80, ’82 and ’84.
Another major name of note was Werenich’s third in the first four of those five championships, Neil Harrison, who won the Brier with the Wrench in 1983.
After winning four crowns as the vice, Harrison took over the skipping reins and won another six titles on his own (1988,’91,’94, 2000, ‘01 and ’07) giving him one more win as a skip than the Wrench.
While Harrison owns the firefighters record for most championships at any position with 10, neither he nor Werenich holds the record for most victories at the national firefighters’ championship as a skip.
That honour goes to a curler whose name isn’t nearly as recognizable to the average curler as Werenich’s and Harrison’s but he is the hydrant king all the same.
Jim Henderson of Alberta has been the winning skip at the Canadian Firefighters’ Championship on seven different occasions — 1992, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98, 2003 and 2005. On each occasion he was representing the Edmonton Fire Department. Overall, he has eight crowns (Henderson was the third for skip Larry LaFleur from the Smokey Lake Fire Department in 2004).
After Harrison’s total of 10 titles, is Henderson with eight and Southern Ontario’s Frank McCourt, who also has eight (he played lead for Werenich when he won his last two titles in 1982 and 1984 and he played with Harrison in a variety of roles for all six of his victories).
In 2008, McCourt finished third playing second for Southern Ontario skip Shane McCready.
Southern Ontario’s Jim McGrath, who was with Werenich for all five of the Wrench’s titles plus Harrison’s first two, is next with seven titles. McGrath curled for Ontario in three Briers as well — he was lead for Bob Charlebois in 1971, Joe Gurowka in 1976 and Werenich in 1981.
Besides Werenich and Harrison, there are a couple other names on the list of champions familiar to Brier fans.
Howie Brazeau represented the Northwest Territories/Yukon twice in 1976 and 1978 at the MacDonald Briers, finishing 5-6 both times. He won back-to-back firefighters’ championships in 1976 and 1977.
John McCorrister, who won the firefighters crown as the skip of Manitoba in 1964, was the second on Mac Scales Manitoba rink that was runners-up to the Richardsons in the 1960 Brier.
Doug Wyatt won three firefighters’ crowns as the skip of Saskatchewan in 1966, ’70 and ’71 and skipped the Saskatchewan reps at the Brier to a 6-4 record in 1972.
Two-time firefighters’ champ Rod Montgomery of Moose Jaw (1993 and ’99) represented Saskatchewan at the 1996 and 1998 Briers (he also was Joel Jordison’s fifth man at this year’s Brier).
Last year’s champion skip, Steve Moss of the Northwest Territories, has represented the Northwest Territories/Yukon at five Briers, including two 0-11 appearances in 2001 and 2005. Moss’s third at last year’s firefighters championship was former Canadian and World junior champion Chris Haichert, who played second for Pat Simmons at two Briers (2005 and 2006).
Among the list of this year’s competitors at 50th edition of the Canadian Firefighters’ Championship, one name jumps out at you.
Skipping the Alberta entry, from the Chestermere Fire Department is none other than John Morris.
However, since the firefighters’ championships wraps up on April 4, the same day the World Men’s Curling Championships starts in Moncton, Morris likely won’t be there at the end even if his team is in the final.

Schopp-ing around

Just two more World Women’s Championship appearance after this year and the grand old lady of German curling, Andrea Schopp will be tied atop the leaderboard for appearances at the World Women’s Curling Championship.
First appearing at the worlds in 1985 in Jonkoping, Sweden, where she finished fifth after losing a tiebreaker to Scotland’s Isobel Torrance (Canada’s Linda Moore won the crown), Schopp has made 15 subsequent appearances bringing her total to 16. The person on top of the list? Why, none other than Dordi Nordby with 18.
Schopp has one world title on her resume — the 1988 crown when she defeated Thunder Bay’s Heather Houston in the final.
Since then she’s won a bronze medal (1989) and that’s it for hardware. Most of her subsequent world appearances have ended with finishes in the middle of the table.
This year, will probably be no different , as she sits 4-5 at the end of the fifth day in South Korea.
Interestingly, in all of those 16 appearances, Schopp has always skipped the German entry.
The skip from Garmisch-Partenkirchen also has three Olympic appearances on her resume — a fourth (1988) and a gold (1992) when curling was a demonstration sport and an eighth place finish in 1998.

The rise of the dragon

As China sits in first place at the conclusion of the penultimate day of round robin play at the 2009 World Women’s Curling Championship, it is stunning to witness China’s quick climb up the world ladder, considering the fact the country’s first participated in a Pacific Curling Championship in 2002.
China’s first foray into international women’s curling was in November 2002 in Queenstown, N.Z., for the Pacific Curling Championships. In that spiel, China, skipped by Qingshuang Yue looked like it was brand, new to curling with a record of 0-8 in the five-team, double round robin.
The scores weren’t terrible for China, losing by two points to Australia and one point to Japan, but it also lost 12-6 and 10-6 in its two games versus the host Kiwis, and 14-3 in its first game versus Australia.
The next year, the Chinese won two games, both against Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and finished fith of six teams, with skip Kelu Song.
The next year, 2004, marked the arrival of Bingyu Wang and the rise of the curling dragon.
Wang skipped a rink that included former skip Yue at second, Wang’s rink lost a close final 9-8 at the Pacific Championships that november in Chuncheon, South Korea.
This gave China its first berth at the worlds and started Wang on her steady climb to the top.
Starting with a respectable 4-7 and seventh place out of 12 teams in Paisley, Scotland that year, Wang and crew followed with records of: 6-5 (fifth) in 2006 and 5-6 (seventh) in 2007 before last year’s stunning breakthrough of a 10-3 record and a silver medal.
At the Pacific Championships, Wang has led China to two silvers (2004, ’05) and three golds (2006-08).
With this kind of speedy progress, one would think it would just be a matter of time before China won a world crown and that could happen as soon as Sunday.

The nomadic, curling cop

Since the 2009 Canadian Police Curling Championships is underway in St. John's, N.L., I feel it’s important to shine a spotlight on those championships and specifically the one curler who has been the most dominant at those championships over a span of 25 years.
Garth Mitchell has skipped the national polic curling champion on five different occasions. The amazing thing is that Mitchell has done this while curling out of three different provinces.
Mitchell won his first crown in 1984 while representing Nova Scotia at the police championships held in Winnipeg.
There would be a 15-year drought for Mitchell until he won his second crown, this time for P.E.I. at the police championships held in Regina in 1999.
The 2000s would bring Mitchell three more crowns — all of them while curling out of a third province, Ontario.
Starting in 2004, Mitchell skipped a rink of Don Shane, Jeff Corey and Troy Izlakar to three crowns in four years winning in Hamilton in 2004, Calgary in 2006 and Moncton in 2007. In actuality, Mitchell’s fifth crown, in 2007, was actually won while carrying a fourth banner, as his team was Team Canada, as the defending champions, and not Team Ontario.
As Team Canada in 2005, Mitchell’s rink finished second in the round robin, lost the 1-2 page playoff game to Ontario, defeated Alberta in the semifinal before losing the final to Ontario 7-4.
In 2008, as Team Canada, Mitchell repeated the pattern from 2005, except it defeated B.C. in the semifinal and lost to Alberta in the 1-2 playoff and the final. The score in the final was 8-7.
Mitchell and his rink are back this year as Ontario, looking for a fourth crown as a rink and a sixth for Mitchell.
Interesting side note: two members of Mitchell’s championship teams would win another without him before he started the winning streak in Ontario. Paul Saulnier, Mitchell’s third from the P.E.I. championship squad, skipped P.E.I. to national crown in 2002, while Jim Delaney, the lead for Mitchell from the 1984 Nova Scotia rink, was Saulnier’s vice-skip with the P.E.I. rink.
As for Mitchell, no skip has won more police curling championships in the event's 50+ year history.

Canada Cup history

Sorry about the absence folks, but your Curling Historian is back.
I’ve got some Brier-related wrap-up tidbits still to come but with us knee-deep in the Canada Cup, it’s worth taking a look at the history of that event as it relates to what’s going on in Yorkton.
Now off until Sunday’s final, Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink is on the verge of doing something no women’s rink has ever done before — win the Canada Cup twice.
Since the event’s birth in 2003, six different skips have won the crown in six years.
The winners have been:
2003 — Sherry Middaugh, Ontario;
2004 — Colleen Jones, Nova Scotia;
2005 — Shannon Kleibrink, Alberta;
2006 — Cathy King, Alberta;
2007 — Jennifer, Jones, Manitoba;
2008 — Stefanie Lawton, Saskatchewan.

The only two skips left who can keep this tradition of parity alive are Marie-France Larouche and Cheryl Bernard, who meet tonight in the semifinal.
What’s interesting is the runner-up of the women’s Canada Cup has been different every time and that will continue this year since none of the three remaining skips have been Canada Cup runner-up.
The runners-up have been:
2003 — Kelley Law, B.C.;
2004 — Sherry Anderson, Sask.;
2005 — Jan Betker, Sask.;
2006 — Jennifer Jones, Man.;
2007 — Cathy King, Alberta;
2008 — Kelly Scott, B.C.

While parity has been the definition of the women’s side of the Canada Cup, Albertan dominance has been the order of the day on the men’s side.
No team from outside Alberta has won the cup and only once has a team skipped by somebody with a name other than Martin or Ferbey won the Canada Cup.
The winners have been:
2003 — Randy Ferbey, Alberta;
2004 — Randy Ferbey, Alberta;
2005 — Kevin Martin, Alberta;
2006 — Kevin Martin, Alberta;
2007 — Randy Ferbey, Alberta;
2008 — Kevin Koe, Alberta.
Interestingly, besides Ferbey’s four, Carter Rycroft has also won the crown three times, with Martin in ’05 and ’06 and Koe last year.
It looks like there’s a very good chance this domination by Martin/Ferbey will continue this year. Ferbey is in Sunday’s final and Martin plays Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton in tonight’s semifinal.
As for the runners-up, the team’s have either been from Ontario or Alberta.
The runners-up have been:
2003 — John Morris, Ontario;
2004 — John Morris/Kevin Koe, Alberta;
2005 — Randy Ferbey, Alberta;
2006 — Glenn Howard, Ontario;
2007 — Kevin Martin, Alberta;
2008 — Kevin Martin, Alberta.
Unless Stoughton gets the win tonight, this will also hold to form.
Interesting side note, one man has lost the Canada Cup final four times without winning once.
That man is John Morris in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008.
If Martin wins tonight and loses to Ferbey in Sunday’s final, Johnny Mo can make it five for five in final losses.

When they were just pups

Time to take a trip back in time 13 years to the other big city in Alberta — Edmonton.
In 1996, 13 teams gathered in the Alberta to vie for the Maple Leaf junior men’s curling championship.
The reason this championship is notable, is due to the fact that five of the 13 skips at that championship were in Edmonton for the junior championships.
In that event, Ryan Fry skipped Manitoba, Brad Gushue skipped Newfoundland, Jamie Koe skipped N.W.T., Jean-Michel Menard skipped Quebec and Joel Jordison skipped Saskatchewan. This week, all but Fry were at the Brier skipping their respective provinces. Fry was at the Brier playing second/vice for Gushue’s Newfoundland rink.
Of the five teams, Fry was tops at 9-3 and the only one to make the playoffs. Koe was tied for fourth at 7-5, and Gushue, Jordison and Menard tied each other for ninth at 5-7.
Fry was crushed in the final by Northern Ontario’s Jeff Currie 8-3.

Quebec-Manitoba preview into the past

Quebec’s Jean-Michel Menard and Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba are about to battle in a tie-breaker at the Brier and it’s time to look at some interesting factoids about the playoffs and the two provinces.
Since the advent of the playoffs in 1980, the two provinces have only been in a handful of tie-breakers (not including regular playoff games).
Manitoba has played in four tie-breakers. In 1982, Mel Logan defeated New Brunswick’s Charlie Sullivan Sr. before losing to Al Hackner and Northern Ontario in the semifinal. In 2000, Stoughton defeated Ontario’s Peter Corner.
Vic Peters played in the other two and they happened in the same year. In 1993, after a four-way tie for top spot (back when there were only three playoff berths), the CCA put together what was essentially the forerunner to the page playoffs to determine who the three would be.
Peters, who was upset because he felt his wins against the other three teams in the round robin should ensure him a spot in the final, lost its first game to Ontario’s Russ Howard. He then played Northern Ontario’s Rick Lang in the battle of the first round losers (B.C.’s Rick Folk defeated Lang), with the winner being eliminated. Peters lost that game and he was out.
As for Quebec, it has played in two tiebreakers, both in the same year. In 1985, Quebec’s Don Aitken defeated Al Delmage of the N.W.T./Yukon before losing to Saskatchewan’s Eugene Hritzuk in the second tie-breaker.
As for head-to-head in the playoffs, Manitoba and Quebec have only met five times in the playoffs and they all happened in a four-year span.
It started with the semifinal in 1998, when Guy Hemmings of Quebec beat Dale Duguid of Manitoba. The following year, Hemmings lost twice, in the 1-2 and again in the final, to Stoughton. In 2000, Stoughton lost to Quebec’s Francois Roberge in the 3-4 game. And finally, in 2001, Manitoba’s Kerry Burtnyk defeated Hemmings in the 3-4 game.
As for personal records in the playoffs, in six previous Briers, Stoughton has made the playoffs four times and played two games in each one.
In 1996, he defeated Kevin Martin twice, in the 1-2 and the final. In 1999, it was the two wins over Hemmings.
In 2000, he won the tie-breaker before losing to Roberge. In 2007, It was a 6-3 win over Martin in the 3-4 game before losing to Ontario’s Glenn Howard 8-4 in the semifinal.
Menard has made the playoffs twice. In 2005, he lost to Nova Scotia’s Shawn Adams in the 3-4 game. In 2006, he lost to Glenn Howard in the 1-2 game, defeated Nova Scotia’s Mark Dacey 7-6 in the final and defeated Howard in the final 8-7.

Club hopping

Club hopping
In the history of the Brier, there have been six skips who have won multiple championships and represented different curling clubs at different times in winning those titles.
Of those, seven skips, two have won separate titles for three different curling clubs and, surprise, surprise, they’ve come from the city of champions — Edmonton.
Randy Ferbey was the first one to do it, winning for the Ottewell in 2001 and 2002, the Avonair in 2003 and the Granite in 2005.
Next up was Kevin Martin who has won each of his three Briers while representing a diffferent curling club — the Avonair in 1991, the Ottewell in 1997 and the Saville Sports Centre in 2008.
The other multi-club winners as skips have been:
Rick Folk, Nutana Curling Club in Saskatoon in 1980 and Kelowna Curling Club in 1994;
Ed Lukowich, Medicine Hat Curling Club in 1978 and Calgary Winter Club in 1986;
Hec Gervais, Alberta Avenue CC in 1961 and the St. Albert CC in 1974;
Ernie Richardson, Regina Civil Service Curling Club in 1959 and 1960 and the Regina Curling Club in 1962 and 1963;
Ab Gowanlock, Glenboro, Man. CC in 1938 and Dauphin CC in 1953.
The five-winningest all-time curling clubs are:
The (late) Strathcona CC of Winnipeg — 7 (last one in 1949 by Ken Watson);
The Winnipeg Granite CC — 7 (last one in 1992 by Vic Peters);
The Ottewell CC, Edmonton — 5 (last one by Randy Ferbey, in 2001);
The Edmonton Granite CC — 4 (last one by Randy Ferbey in 2005);
The Calgary CC — 4 (last one by Ron Northcott in 1969).

Battle of blood

As the brothers Howard face off this morning, we delve into the Brier’s rich past to look at the last time two brothers squared off at a Brier.
No, the Howards are not the first set of brothers to square off.
The last time this happened was in 1995 at the Brier in Halifax.
In Draw 11 of that Brier, the top two teams in the standings at that point — defending champions from British Columbia at 5-1 and the unbeaten team from Manitoba at 6-0 — faced off.
The teams were skipped by two former champions — Kerry Burtnyk from Manitoba and Rick Folk from B.C.
But it was at the third where the family battle could be found.
Pat Ryan, a Brier-winning skip in his own right, was playing third for Folk and Jeff was playing third for Burtnyk.
In that game, B.C. scored a deuce in 10 to force an extra where Manitoba got its single to continue undefeated.
Head-to-head, Pat outclassed his brother curling 84 per cent to Jeff 75 per cent
B.C. spiralled out of control from there, dropping to 5-2 and finishing 6-5 and out of the playoffs. Manitoba won the Brier, making Jeff and Pat the first brothers to win the Brier for three different provinces.
According to The Curling News, there have been two other affaires des freres: in 1942 brothers Gord (Ontario) and Donnie (B.C.) Campbell faced off during the round robin. Both teams finished runners-up to Ken Watson’s Manitoba rink with identical 7-2 records.
The other match up was in 1970 when Hap (skip for New Brunswick) and Roger (Newfoundland lead) Mabey met in the round robin.

A legend 31 years in the making

It was delightful this morning, as I caught part of the sixth draw, to hear the wonderful P.E.I. lilt from the mouth of veteran Rod MacDonald, the skip of Prince Edward Island.
Interesting note about Rod, he started his Brier career before any other curler (not counting fifths) in this year’s event, even before Russ Howard. Howard’s first Brier was in Calgary in 1980.
For MacDonald, the debut came two years earlier in Vancouver. While a young fourth from Alberta by the name of Ed Lukowich was the focus of that Brier, a young team from P.E.I. was running up a solid 5-6 record (the Island’s best record in five years) with 20-year-old third Rod MacDonald playing for Peter MacDonald.
Since then, Rod has made five more appearances as a player, including this year, and two others as a fifth.
In 1981 and 1996 he played as a lead for Peter again — making the playoffs in 1996, eliminating Ed Werenich in a tiebreaker before losing to Don Westphal of Quebec in the 3-4 game.
Since then he’s been a fifth twice, in 2004 for Mike Gaudet and 2007 for Peter Gallant, and a skip twice in 2005 (4-7) and 2006 (3-8).
Including the fifths, there’s one player whose Brier experience stretches further back than Rod’s and that is the aforementioned Peter MacDonald, playing fifth for Rod. His first Brier was in 1976 as a second for Ken MacDonald of P.E.I.

Tough road to climb

For teams wishing to unseat the Howard/Martin combo, it will not be easy considering the fact everybody else has at least one loss and they are at 3-0.
Here's the really bad news for the other 10 teams, no matter where you finish, if you're not in the 1-2 playoff game on Friday you're pretty much SOL. On top of that, it's best to be in first place.
Since the page playoff system was instituted in 1995, no team at the Brier has ever come from the 3-4 game to win the Brier.
Sure it's been done at the Scotties (it's becoming Jennifer Jones's M.O.) but it just doesn't happen at the Brier.
In those 14 Briers, the first place team has been the winner of the Brier all but three times. The other three — Jeff Stoughton in 1996, Kevin Martin in 1997 and J.M. Menard in 2006 — were all second place and the first two had won the 1-2 playoff game.
As an added bonus, the winner of the 3 vs 4 game has won the semifinal only four times —
2001, fourth place Manitoba (Burtnyk) won the semi over second place Ontario (Middaugh) but lost to first place Alberta (Ferbey) in the final;
2003, third place Nova Scotia (Dacey) won the semi over second place B.C. (Ryan) but lost to first place Alberta (Ferbey) in the final;
2005, third place Nova Scotia (Adams) won the semi over second place Manitoba (Dutiaume) but lost to first place Alberta (Ferbey) in the final;
2008, third place Ontario (Howard) won the semi over second place Saskatchewan (Simmons) but lost to first place Alberta (Martin) in the final.
So if anybody wants a chance they have to muscle past either of the top two before we get to the playoffs.

11 years later

As we roll into Day 2 at the 2009 Brier, it's interesting to look at something I've gone into earlier in this blog, junior champions having success at the adult level.
Specifically, there is one world junior championship squad that has its fingerprints all over this Brier and the
past couple Briers as well.
What's interesting is that four members of that championship squad is at this Brier, as well as the 2008 Brier, but on three different rinks.
The skip from that rink is on Kevin Martin's Alberta rink — specifically, John Morris. The third and lead from that rink (not second and lead as erroneously identified this morning by TSN's Cathy Gauthier) were Craig Savill (this year's Ford Hot Shot) and Brent Laing, the lead and second respectively on Glenn Howard's Ontario rink.
And the guy everybody forgets about was the fifth on that championship team (dramatic pause), a very young looking Brad Gushue, who, of course, is the skip of Newfoundland and Labrador. Yes, Brad never lived in Ontario, where the Morris rink was from, but as the young skip at the 1998 Canadian Karcher Juniors, whose team finished 4-8 although he was ranked fourth among skips, he was chosen by the Ontario crew to join them in Thunder Bay at the worlds.
One interesting side note that is to get to that world championship, Morris and co. had to win a tie-breaker over New Brunswick's Rob Heffernan, a semifinal over Manitoba's Mike McEwen and then a final over Carter Rycroft of Alberta. The interesting part is that the second on the team that lost to Morris is the same man playing second with him now, Marc Kennedy.
Besides Kennedy, Morris, Gushue, Savill and Laing, there are a couple of other competitors from that Canadian junior championship held in Calgary (coincidence, I think so) in 1998.
Jamie Koe, the skip for the Northwest Territories in 1998 is back to Calgary as the NWT/Yukon skip and Andrew Gibson, the lead for Nova Scotia in 1998 is the second for Mark Dacey's Nova Scotia rink this week.

Looking to end a Rock-y drought

The second draw wraps up with the boys from the Rock (and one Buffalo boy) off to a what looked like a good start only to gas it in the 10th by giving up 3.
For the Newfoundlanders, while this is a tough start, it's against a great team and so they are far from done. But even then, it will not be easily for Newfoundland to not just win, but overcome a serious drought.
Of the nine provinces/regions that have won a Brier before, none has gone longer since winning the Tankard than Newfoundland and Labrador.
Thirty-three years is a long time and that's how long it has been.
Jack MacDuff shocking victory in Regina in 1976 is the stuff of Brier legend and we'll get into it at a later date.
But since then it hasn't been like Newfoundland has been wandering in the wilderness like it had been before then.
Newfoundland made its debut at the Brier in 1951.
Prior to 1976, it's best performance had been 4-6 (the Territories joined in 1975). The Newfs finished 4-6 four times (1958, Bud Fisher; 1970, Les Bowering; 1971, Bob Cole — yes that Bob Cole; and 1973, Jim Ward).
In the early days, the Brier was tough on the newest province.
From 1951 to 1964, Newfoundland finished 0-10 or 1-9 every time except 1958 and 1959 when Fisher went 3-7.
Up to 1975, Newfoundland won zero games four times, one game 10 times, two games four times and three games on three occasions, to go with the four four-win Briers. That's a record of 43-208.
After MacDuff won the Brier with a 9-2 record, Newfoundland was turned around as a province.
Since then, Newfoundland hasn't been Manitoba or Alberta but much better than before the Regina Brier watershed.
Since then, Newfoundland has gone 3-8 or worse only 10 times in 34 Briers.
Including MacDuff's win, it has gone 6-5 or better 13 times. Since 1980, it has made tie-breakers or playoffs on six occasions, although Gushue's final loss in 2007, is the only final appearance.
Gushue's boys will have to prove they can hold to a win better though if they're going to finally break this drought.

Ahead to a century

On Thursday afternoon, barring injury, one player at the Brier will reach 100 career games as the penultimate draw of the round robin wraps up. This will surpass the likes of Rick Lang and Don Walchuk and equalling Randy Ferbey.
This is not a former champion like Jeff Stoughton, Mark Dacey or Bruce Lohnes, who will all be more than 10 games short of the century mark at the end of the Brier.
No, it’s little heralded P.E.I. lead Mark O’Rourke, who, besides Ferbey, will also equal fellow Islander Peter Gallant.
Sure, O’Rourke has never won a Brier, and may never will (although Brett Gallant gives P.E.I. a bright future), but his dedication and consistency shown in making now 11 Briers is very impressive.
O’Rourke has been a main member on now nine occasions. He was also a fifth twice. In 1996, he did not play and in 2006 he played in one game.
While some people who’ve played in that many show some versatility in playing a variety of possessions, prior to today, O’Rourke had played one game as a third in 1997, and 88 as a second.
Today was his very first game as a lead. Now he just needs to throw fourth stones and he’s gone around the horn.
O’Rourke plays for P.E.I., which other than Territories, has been the most unsuccessful province since the advent of the playoffs in 1980.
In 29 Briers since 1980, P.E.I. has made tie breakers three times (1985, 1995 and 1996). In 1996, the team made the 3 vs 4 game.
Of those three playoff teams, O’Rourke’s been on two of them.
In 1995, he was part of the P.E.I. team skipped by Robert Campbell that lost a tie-breaker 7-4 to Ontario’s Ed Werenich. In that game, O’Rourke actually outcurled two-time world champion Ontario second Pat Perroud, 85 per cent to 84 per cent.
In 1996, O’Rourke played fifth for the Peter MacDonald who defeated Newfoundland’s Mark O’Driscoll in a tie-breaker before losing to Quebec’s Don Westphal in the 3 vs. 4 game.

First draw wraps up

Well, the first draw of the 2009 and history doesn't bode well for the four who were defeated.
In the previous 29 Briers in the playoff era, the champion has played in the first draw 23 times
So there's a good chance the winner took the ice this afternoon and an even better chance they were won of the four winners.
In those 23 games, the eventual winner won all but six times.
So it should not be a surprise that of those four winners, three of them — Kevin Martin, Alberta; Jeff Stoughton, Manitoba; and Jean-Michel Menard, Quebec — are former Brier champs.
Now, keep in mind that since 1992, just 66 per cent of the field plays in the first draw, with the four-sheet format (before then it was all but two teams from 1980 to 1990 with five sheets and everybody played with six sheets in 1991). So of those six winners who didn't play in the opening round, five have been since 1992 (that's 30 per cent, just about right).
So that gives a little hope to the four teams (N.L., Ontario, N. Ontario and B.C.) who didn't play in the opening draw. Remember, Martin didn't play in the opening draw last year.
So, while history says that there is a good chance Martin, Menard, Stoughton or P.E.I.'s Rod MacDonald will win the Brier, it's not a done deal. But if any of the four playing their first game tonight want to be the Brier champ, they have to win this evening. Of those six champs to sit out the opening draw, they all won in the second draw.
That means, the champ won its opening game 23 out of 29 times.
Now of those six opening round losses by the future winners, four have taken place since the CCA adopted the four-sheet format in 1992. So that's a little hope for Jamie Koe, Joel Jordison, and former champs Mark Dacey and Russ Howard.
There's one other thing that Howard's New Brunswick crew can take to heart — of those six opening round losses, Howard owns two of them. In 1987 B.C.'s Bernie Sparkes topped Ontario's Howard 8-5. In 1993, Manitoba's Vic Peters beat Howard 5-4. And Peters was the previous year's winner, like Martin.
Hmmm, interesting little factoid.
Well, enjoy the second draw.

Cowtown moves into second

As the 48 curlers of the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier head on to the ice to start the action at the Pengrowth Saddledome on Saturday, Calgary will move into sole possession of second place on the list of all time Brier hosts.
As the host of the first 13 Briers (1927-1939) and number 15 (1941), Toronto has a firm grip on first place on the list of all-time Brier hosts with 14.
With the start of this year's event, Calgary's total rolls up (Timmy's anyone?) to six, well shy of Hogtown, even though the Ontario capital hasn't hosted a Brier in almost 70 years.
The Brier has previously called Calgary home in 1948, 1961, 1980, 1997 and 2002.
The Victoria Arena was the locale for the first Alberta Brier in 1948. The next two were held in the Stampede Corral (the first home of the Calgary Flames). The last two, like this year's, were held in the Saddledome.
If anybody's looking for any omens, in those five previous Cowtown Briers, Alberta won three of them (1961 — Edmonton's Hec Gervais, 1997 — Edmonton's Kevin Martin, and 2002 — Edmonton's Randy Ferbey).
The other two were also won by western rinks — B.C.'s Frenchy D'Amour in 1948 and Saskatchewan's Rick Folk in 1980, the first of the playoff years.
Ironically, in those years, Alberta was represented by Calgary rinks.
Scotty McLaws from the Calgary Glencoe finished tied for sixth with Nova Scotia in 1948. In his only Brier appearance, two-time world junior champ Paul Gowsell of the Calgary Winter Club finished third after losing the semifinal to Northern Ontario's Al Hackner.
While this may bode well for Martin seeing as though Edmonton rinks fare well in Calgary and his rink is based out of the Saville Centre, half of the team is from Calgary (John Morris and Ben Hebert). Who knows what that'll do to them?
As for Calgary's exclusive hold on second place, that will last all of a year as Halifax has been picked to host the 2010 Brier. That will be the sixth time for the Nova Scotia capital. The other cities that have hosted five times (Edmonton, Winnipeg and Saskatoon) will all likely get No. 6 before Calgary sees No. 7.

Oh Canada, this doesn't quite add up

With Sunday night's win, Jennifer Jones and Jill Officer have won their fourth national crowns together. However, what's interesting here is that next month's world women's championship in Gangneung, South Korea will only be the third world championship appearance for the duo. On the flip side, when they return to defend the crown in Sault Ste. Marie next year, it will be the fourth appearance for the pair as members of Team Canada in a Canadian championship.

How did these oddities come to pass?

Well, the initial blame falls on the shoulders of former Brier runner-up Shawn Adams of Nova Scotia, his teammates from 1993 and some alcohol.

From the time the world boys' juniors started in 1975, Canada always sent the previous year's champion to represent Canada at the worlds. Thus, for example, Paul Gowsell won the national titles in 1975 and 1977 and the world junior titles in 1976 and 1978. The rational for sending the previous year's winner, at least according to the CCA's website, is because of a scheduling conflict between the two events.
The website goes on to say that it was changed in 1994 with the current year's junior champions being sent to the world's just a month later because of a change in the CCA's scheduling of its championships that year.
However, this doesn't hold water as the only reason when you consider the fact that in 1984, Saskatchewan's Jamie Schneider played in the world's and defended, unsuccessfully, his 1983 Canadian junior crown by playing in the 1984 Pepsi Juniors.

That brings us back to Adams. It's not clear how much of a factor Adams and his team had on the decision to change when the national champions were sent to the world's but there is a connection.
In 1993, Kim Gellard of Ontario won the junior women's while Adams and Nova Scotia won the boys' title. After the championship, Adams' rink was caught drinking by officials (although some, if not all of them were of age in Quebec, where the championships were held). Adams rink was promptly suspended by the CCA, thus eliminating them from representing Canada in 1994.
To solve this, the 1994 junior men's champ Colin Davison went to the world's that year in Sofia, Bulgaria and that has been practiced ever since.
But there was still a problem on the women's side of the equation since Gellard's team had done nothing wrong.
So, Gellard & Co. headed to Bulgaria in 1994. There was, however, a need to harmonize the women's side with the men and that brings us back to Jennifer Jones.
While Davison was winning the pass to Bulgaria in 1994 over Kevin Koe, Jones' team, which included Officer, simply won the national title — no trip to Bulgaria. Instead, they got a trip to Regina.
Regina was the host of the 1995 Canadian Junior Championships where Jones & Co. would be Team Canada. If they won then they would get to go to the worlds. If they lost, then no world championships for them.
The problem was they were not part of the entire tournament. They were automatically ranked first and given a direct pass to the semifinals without playing one round-robin game. That year Team Canada would play the third-place team from the round-robin in one semifinal while first and second played in the other semi.
Brought in completely cold, Jones' rink were demolished by the third place squad also from Manitoba skipped by a diminutive Kelly MacKenzie (now Kelly Scott).
Interesting footnote to that playoff, which MacKenzie won in the final, is that all four skips in that playoff were at the 2008 Scotties in ... wait for it ... Regina!
Jones was skipping Manitoba, Scott (MacKenzie) was skipping Team Canada, Marie France Larouche, the Quebec skip in 1995 was skipping Quebec last year and Kirsten Harmark, the Ontario skip in 1995, is now Kirsten Wall and was playing third last year for Ontario's Sherry Middaugh.

So, no world championship for Jones and Officer in 1995 and next year in the Sault will mark their fourth appearance at a Canadian championship as Team Canada — 1995 juniors and 2006, 2009 and 2010 Scotties.

You've got to start somewhere

Well, I'm kicking off this new blog just two days after the 2009 Scotties Tournament of Hearts wrapped up and four days before the start of the 2009 Tim Hortons Brier. This is the heart of the season. With that in mind, I need to start somewhere so I might as well start with a look at the now completed Scotties and a couple of historical points.

One thing I've noticed is that it seems much more common for women curlers who've won a national junior crown to have success at the adult level than it is for male champions.
A look at the rosters of the 12 teams that just finished competing in Victoria shows no less than 16 former Canadian junior champions filling out the 48 rosters spots (a full one-third of the spots).
In fact, the entire New Brunswick team was made up of members of two different championships (1991 and 2005).
These players were spread out on seven different teams. Only N.W.T/Yukon, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and Nova Scotia did not have any of these players.

Here are the 16 in question with their maiden names, if necessary, the position they played when they won the junior crown and the province they played for in Victoria along with the position.
Darcy Kirkness (Robertson) — Manitoba skip 1984; Manitoba third
Barb Kirkness (Spencer) — Manitoba third 1984; Manitoba skip
Barb Fetch (Enright) — Manitoba lead 1984; Manitoba lead
Marla Geiger (Mallett) — B.C. lead 1987; B.C. skip
Cathy Overton(-Clapham) — Manitoba skip 1989; Team Canada third
Denise Cormier (Nowlan) — N.B. third 1991; N.B. third
Jennifer Jones — Manitoba skip 1994; Team Canada skip
Jill Officer — Manitoba second 1994; Team Canada second
Marie-France Larouche — Quebec skip 1999; Quebec skip
Nancy Belanger — Quebec third 1999; Quebec third
Stefanie Miller — Sask. skip 2000; Sask. skip
Marliese Miller — Sask. third 2000, Sask. skip 2003; Sask. third
Robyn MacPhee — P.E.I. second 2001, third 2002; P.E.I. fourth
Andrea Kelly — N.B. skip 2005; N.B. skip
Jodie deSolla — N.B. second 2005; N.B. second
Lianne Sobey — N.B. lead 2005; N.B. lead

On the flip side, there doesn't seem to be as many competing and winning at the Brier and I'll look at that in one of my upcoming posts.