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.