The Home Hardware Masters of curling got under way in Waterloo, Ontario at the Waterloo Rec Complex last night. This is the first grand slam event of the 2006 – 07 season, and the for the first time all round robin games will only be eight ends. Draw one action saw money leader Kerry Burtnyk defeat defending Brier champion Jean Michel-Menard by a score of 6 – 4.  Glenn Howard beat provincial rival Wayne Middaugh by a score of 4 – 3. Middaugh could have sent the game to extra ends with an open hit for two but his shooter rolled too far, leaving him with a single point.

Scotland’s Tom Brewster showed no signs of jet lag as he posted a 7 – 3 victory over John Base. Brad Gushue got things off to a good start by beating Shawn Adams by a score of 6 – 3.Â

The schedule game between Pete Fenson and Jeff Stoughton was delayed when Pete and the boys were grounded due to inclement weather.

Interesting to note that the team that started the game with the hammer won three of the four games last night. Therefore, having last rock to start the game appears to be extremely important with the games being only eight ends. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues throughout the week.

Team Europe claimed the Continental Cup yesterday, beating Team North America handily by taking 229 points of the available 400. Team North America played well early on in the event but just couldn’t get it done in the skins games as the European contingent won almost all of the available points. Rumour has it that the Continental Cup is in jeopardy due to lack of funding and some misgivings on the part of the WCF. Hopefully this is not the case as I found the entire event a joy to watch and from what I can gather all the players enjoyed the experience as well.

Speaking of fun events, I thought NBC did a fantastic job on their coverage of the Korbel Elite Challenge. Pete Fenson squeaked out a win over Debbie McCormack in the battle of the sexes, but the real winner here was the game of curling itself. Don Chevrier and Don Duguid did a great job of explaining strategy and all of the different shots from draws, quiet tap backs to up-weight takeouts which should make the game more interesting to anyone new to the sport. It was also nice to see that Dan Jansen and Picabo Street seemed genuinely interested in learning the strategy and they appeared to be enjoying to whole experience. Could an Olympic curling medal be in their futures….. on second thought, I highly doubt it.

Lazy Handles

Tickets are still available for the Home Hardware Masters grand slam of curling in Waterloo, Ontario starting this Wednesday. The field is full of talent which should make for some great curling so show your support. CBC Sports will be showing the final this Sunday for those of you who can’t be there in person.

The alarming trend of clubs closing down continues, this time it is the Lakeshore Curling Club in Lower Sackville, N.S. and the local curlers are understandably upset. Please see the article in The Daily News.

Gushue’s golden boys are to be inducted into the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador with Russ Howard becoming an honourary member. Congratulations and well deserved.

The Curling News is reporting that Olympic heros Brad Gushue and Russ Howard will play together at this weekend’s Continental Cup of curling – and for the first time since Torino. Full story is here.

You can also check the weekend pairings for the Continental Cup here.

Since the Olympics the two skips have been leading their own rinks:

Gushue has replaced Russ with youthful Alberta import Chris Schille on the road to 2010, while Howard will seek his Brier fortune out of his hometown of Moncton, along with son Steven Howard. Thus, this fourth edition of the Continental Cup is the last hurrah of the men’s Olympic champions, in terms of the once-controversial lineup change that brought Howard on board in October, 2005.

I for one, couldn’t really see a real reunion on the ice for these 2 (before the next Olympics), but it does bear watching. Stranger things have happened…

What a hoot!

The Canadian Curling Assoc has released a series of historical Brier videos on their www.Curling.ca that profile the MacDonald’s Briers as far back as 1948 and as recent as 1974. The videos were originally shot as short films for MacDonald Tobacco who owned the rights to the Brier prior to 1980. In curling’s early days, they videos were the only TV coverage of curling available and would be shown on the CBC after evening newscasts as an annual wrap-up of the beloved tournament.

CurlTV.com has the whole story here.

British Columbia handed Quebec their first loss at the mixed championships on Wednesday. Alberta started the game with the hammer and managed to score two points in the second after successfully blanking the first end. They would go on to steal a single point in the third before Eve Belisle managed to get on the scoreboard, picking up three in the forth. The game turned defensive at that point, as B.C. blanked the fifth, then was held to a single point in the sixth. Quebec managed to tie the game at four with a single of their own in the eight end. B.C. skip Brad Kuhn was able to blank the ninth and he followed up with a single to stop Quebec’s undefeated streak at seven. Quebec would go on to post a 9 – 6 victory over Alberta, ending the day with an overall record of 8 – 1, locking down first place overall in the round robin.

The final day of the round robin is going to be interesting to say the least. Manitoba and New Brunswick are tied for second place with a record of 6 – 3. Five teams share third, including defending champs Ontario, along with Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan and Newfoundland at 5 – 4. Northern Ontario sits alone at 4 – 5, P.O. stands at 3 – 6 with Nova Scotia at 2 – 7 and the Northwest Territories / Yukon at 0 – 9. This is the first time that this NWT rink has played together as a team and its been said that they are enjoying the entire experience.

Team North America gets set to take on Team Europe in the forth installment of the Continental Cup in Chilliwack, British Columbia. The event gets underway Thursday November 23rd and runs through until Sunday the 26th. Representing Team North America will be the Canadian rinks of Jean Michel Menard, Brad Gushue, Shannon Kliebrink, Kelly Scott and the American squads of Pete Fenson and Debbie McCormack in what can only be called an All-Star team.

Not to be outdone, the European team will be represented by Finland’s Marku Uusipaavalniemi, Norway’s Pal Trulsen, Scotland’s David Murdoch, Germany’s Andrea Schopp, Switzerland’s Miriam Ott and the most dominant women’s team in the world, led by Sweden’s Annette Norberg and her golden girls.

Team Sweden’s Anna Svard

The competition is points based, not unlike golf’s Ryder Cup, with 400 total points available from the four different events. The four events are mixed (36 pts), singles (32 pts), team competion (72 pts) and the skins format (260 pts). For anyone unfamiliar with the skins format in curling, you must score two or more points with the hammer, and without last rock you must hold the opposition to one point or better yet, steal one or more to win a skin. For more details on each event and the scoring system for each event, please see the Continental Cup website.
Team North America will be looking to keep the title and improve their record to 3 – 1 in Continental Cup but Team Europe has the talent and the experience to even the series at two a-piece.

Tickets are still available for the event and can be purchased through ticketmaster, and Curltv will be broacasting live from the event.

Play is under way at the mixed curling championships in Waterloo, Ontario with Alberta and Quebec leading the pack, winning their first two games. Quebec, led by Skip Eve Belisle, vice Mark McCory, second Martine Comeau and lead Christian Bouchard upset defending champions Ontario 7 – 4 in draw 1. Also in draw 1, Alberta beat New Brunswick 9 – 7, P.E.I. beat NWT / Yukon 8 – 5 and Saskatchewan outscored Nova Scotia 10 – 3. Draw 2 saw Alberta beat P.E.I. by a score of 9 – 5, with key steals of 1 in the ninth and three more in the tenth. B.C. won their opener by defeating Manitoba 8 – 6, starting the game without the hammer, and a stealing single point in each of the first three ends. Northern Ontario beat Newfoundland and Labrador by a score of 7 – 3 and New Brunswick scored 11 points in 6 ends on route to a 11 – 2 victory over the Northwest Territories / Yukon rink.

The championship curling season starts to get in full gear this week as the 44th annual Canadian mixed curling championships get started Saturday at Kitchener’s Westmount Golf & Country Club.

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The defending champion is Ontario’s John Epping from the Oakville Curling Club who will try and re-capture the title he claimed last year in Whitehorse. Epping and his team of Julie Reddick, Scott Foster and Leigh Armstrong had a great run last year en route to victory winning 10 straight games ater dropping their first 3. On tuesday of this week members of Oakville CC hosted great reception to send them off..and wish them luck against a tough field.Â

As earlier reported there will be TV coverage of the final on Rogers Ontario.

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The Canadian mixed curling championships gets underway this Saturday at the Westmount Golf and Country Club in Kitchener / Waterloo, ON. For event and ticket information, please visit the official website.

Brad Gushue and his rink from Newfoundland were no doubt the favourites heading into yesterday’s World Curling Tour stop in Brantford, Ontario. But surprise, surprise, Montreal’s Dwayne Fowler had the hot hand and took the title with a 9-4 win.

From today’s article in the Hamilton Spectator:

“The toughest part of the spiel is getting to the finals,” said Fowler, before taking to the rink for yesterday’s final, which he won 9-4.

“The pressure is off because you’re getting to the money. That’s not pressure. It’s fun.”

Fowler walked away with the $10,000 cash prize.

“There’s such a fine line between winning and losing at this level. If you believe you are good enough, the rest is between the ears.”

What will be more interesting to see is Gushue (and Marc Nicholl’s) performance in the first season post-Torino. For what is essentially still a very young rink, expectations will be very high for this team that has been sitting on top of the curling world for nearly 9 months. It should prove interesting to see if they keep their lofty perch atop the competitive Canadian curling ranks or not. Anything less than a successful run at this year’s Brier would certainly be a disappointment.