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.