Ottawa's Curling Blog

TRIALS OFFER UP MORE THAN BRIER

2005-12-14T02:47:00.000-08:00

By Joe Pavia, Ottawa Sun
The Olympic trials had some moments one doesn't see at a national competition.
There were tears, for example, and plenty of them.
The bitter disappointment felt by John Morris, who had to compose himself before returning to a press scrum after his semi-final loss.
Kevin Martin lead Don Bartlett also broke down while confessing that his marriage broke up in part because of his trials preparation.
And the sudden torrent of waterworks by Brad Gushue when he embraced his ill mother after his win.
This wasn't the Brier.
Provincial rivalries were almost absent as the spectators knew every draw would showcase skilled shot making.
In fact, when Gushue played Randy Ferbey in the round-robin and some ill-mannered spectators cheered for missed Ferbey shots, Jeff Stoughton berated the crowd.
This wasn't the Brier.
And, despite the usual staged autograph signings with most of the teams bringing pre-printed post cards, crying towels and Team Stoughton coasters (or jar openers -- the debate still rages), the players kept a low profile in the Patch.
This wasn't the Brier, either.
Drug testing doesn't get much profile at a national championship. One wins an Olympic spot then has to pee into a bottle.
We know that Team Gushue front-ender Jamie Korab emerged first with his skip coming out last. We also know that Shannon Kleibrink lead Christine Keshen admitted that she "peed all over my hands."
No, it certainly wasn't the Scott.
The Halifax Brier drew a large number of local curling fans, but the trials' Ottawa crowd easily surpassed it.
There seemed to be curlers from every club in the capital region with the Zone 1 crowd holding court at two very long tables in the Patch. According to Navan's Doug Titus, Zone 1 beat Zone 3.
Nope, this certainly wasn't the Brier.

SAVILL ROW: Ottawa's Craig Savill wants to take a bit of time to recover from Halifax. "I'm glad we're not playing in zones." The Glenn Howard team is playing in the January Slam event that conflicts with the regionals in any case. "The Ontario Curling Association did a great job in accommodating us, but there should be a better way to qualify for the provincials." He wishes there were some exemptions to the provincials like other jurisdictions have. It's an idea whose time has come, OCA.

OCA ZONES: Teams advancing to regional competition for the Kia Cup and the Scott Tournament of Hearts are: Zone 1A - Charles Wert and Pascale Letendre, B - Bryan Cochrane and Diana Favel; Zone 2A - Mark McDonald and Anne Merklinger, B - Greg Richardson and Leslie Cafferty; Zone 3A - Jeff McCrady and Deb Karbashewski, B - Willie Jeffries and Ling-Yue Hung. Jenn Hanna also advances out of Zone 4 where she was a fill team. In Zone 5, Ottawa's Robyn Mattie took the A-side, while other notable names advancing from other zones are Sherry Middaugh, Jo-Anne Rizzo and Janet McGhee. Wayne Middaugh did not enter the zones, but may be going to the challenge round. In Gore School zones, Zone 1A Boys -- North Dundas District High (Chesterville), B -- Carleton Place H.S., Girls 1A -- St. Mary's Catholic H.S. (Brockville), B -- Notre Dame Catholic H.S. (Carleton Place); Zone 2A Boys -- St. Mark's H.S. , B -- Osgoode Township H.S.; Girls A side -- Sir Robert Borden H.S., B -- Brookfield H.S.

ABLE SEAMEN: In the Navy senior men's invitational, Rob Warren took the top prize, while other winners were John Braden, Brian Graham and Jim Arnot.

TSN POPULAR?

2005-12-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

Some fans attend the Trials with signs. Well on Sunday evening about 12 fans held up three rectangular, large white banners that read "Red Lake to Halifax - $300"; "Canadian Curling Trials ticket - $200"; "TSN - PRICELESS"

RUSS GUSHUE

2005-12-04T18:08:00.000-08:00

By far the most popular team at the Trials is Team Russ Gushue.
During their Sunday evening match against Randy Ferbey, the 9,000 plus crowd was behind every shot Gushue or anyone on his rink tired to make. Twice in the eigth end the crowd went berserk on two skip shots. When Russ Gushue won the game, he got a standing ovation from the majority of the crowd.

THE TRIALS: DAY TWO

2005-12-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

The Trials continue here on the second day. Pat Ryan and his team shot the lights out on Kevin Martin by taking away Martin's game. This old/young team might just be the team to watch either to deny a team the Olympic berth or getting it themselves.
John Morris missed some key draws in his loss to Randy Ferbey. The other Ottawa connected team, Glenn Howard, with Craig Savill, is still struggling. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Middaugh come in as skip. One more Howard loss may do it. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

CURLERS GET SHOT AT OLYMPIC GOLD

2005-11-30T04:03:00.000-08:00

Wed, November 30, 2005

By JOE PAVIA, OTTAWA SUN

The Olympic dream begins -- and ends -- for Canadian curlers this weekend in Halifax.
The Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials begins Saturday in the Nova Scotia capital with only potential Olympic glory at stake -- no money, no trophy and no fame for a runner-up finish.
Only two of 20 teams -- one male, one female -- will wing to Torino in February as Team Canada.
Two local players will be on each side of the gender equation. Ottawa's Craig Savill throws lead for Glenn Howard, while Gatineau's Annie Lemay shoots second for Marie-France Larouche.
Lemay expects all the teams will be playing "like it's a final every game."
And she's right. With no Page playoff system, the team that clinches top spot in the round robin goes straight to the final with the second and third place teams locked in the semi-final battle.
Savill believes: "Whoever gets hot and whoever gets the breaks" is going to win.
Six men's teams rank in the Top 10 on the money list -- Randy Ferbey, Kevin Martin, Glenn Howard, John Morris, Mark Dacey and Pat Ryan. Jennifer Jones, Shannon Kleibrink and Jan Betker sit at the top of the women's list.
Is Martin hungry enough to expunge his Salt Lake City wound?
Colleen Jones has won everything but an Olympic medal. Does she have the energy to weather the round robin grind?
Will the hometown crowd propel the three bluenose teams -- Jones, Dacey and Shawn Adams --forward?
With no provincial rivalry, the Trials crowd is much more subdued than a Brier one. How badly does Betker want a repeat gold? Will one skip play so well that the team gets hot and leaves the pack in the dust? With this field, it's a crapshoot, folks. Team sports psychologists will be working overtime.
My predictions: Top three men: Kevin Martin, Mark Dacey and Glenn Howard. Top three ladies: Jennifer Jones, Colleen Jones and Jan Betker. The dark horses: Jeff Stoughton and Jo-Anne Rizzo.
OCA PROVINCIAL BOUND: The junior provincials will now see some real threats from this area. Chris Gardner and Laura Payne advance from the A-side, while James Sills and Jenna Harrington move on from the B-side.
OCA SENIOR ZONES: Zone 1A -- Merv Paine and Diana Favel; 1B -- Bruce Delaney and Betty Kirouac; Zone 2A -- Wally Morris and Lois Graham; 2B -- Jim Raina and Judy Tulloch; Zone 3A -- Mark Smith and Laurel McKay; 3B -- Lorne Rice and Monique DesRosiers.
OUT-OF-TOWN GLORY: Team Ontario skipped by John Epping surged from a 0-3 start to decisively beat Manitoba in the Canadian Mixed final. Ontario counted former Ottawa player Julie Reddick as vice. Glenn Howard qualified in the Painted Hand bonspiel, winning $4,000 in Yorkton. Jean-Michel Menard made the semi-finals in a Quebec City 'spiel, earning $2,500. Russ Howard claimed top prize.
FREE CURLING: The Ottawa Curling Club is allowing anyone who has never curled before, but gets the bug watching the Trials, to try the game for free between Dec. 3-11. Call 234-4119 for info.
THIS WEEK IN CURLING: The senior regionals take place at Navy this weekend. The WM Carp Classic, the last O.V.C. Tour event, starts tomorrow. TSN and CBC share the Halifax broadcast duties starting Saturday. TSN airs all round-robin afternoon and evening draws with a 10 pm tape delay on Dec. 7. The next day, they carry all three draws, then the Dec. 9 tiebreakers and the semis. CBC covers the women's finals on Dec. 10 at 1 p.m., while the men's is on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

2005-11-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

THE OTTAWA CURLING CLUB
It’s where you belong.

(November 27, 2005)

TRY IT …IT’S FREE
Ottawa Curling Club will let people hooked on Olympic Trials broadcasts try curling at no charge.

(Ottawa): The twice-daily television coverage of the Olympic Curling Trials from Halifax will expose many non-curlers to the best curlers in the country as 10 men and 10 women teams fight for the right to represent Canada at the Torino Winter Olympic Games in February 2006.

Many non-curlers are attracted to curling broadcasts but don’t know where to turn to try the sport. The Ottawa Curling Club will solve that problem.

During the Olympic Trials, anyone can try the ice for FREE. How does it work?

DATES
The Trials run from Saturday December 3 to 11.2005. During those dates people may get on the ice at no charge (first time curlers ONLY)

TIMES
Weekdays: 12 noon to 2 pm
Weekends: Saturdays 1 to 4 pm; Sundays 6 to 8 pm

HOW DOES IT WORK?
Simply call or e-mail the Ottawa and book your day and time. Our manager will be happy to accommodate you. We provide all the equipment.

So get off the couch, quite watching the curling and TRY IT. There’s no time like the present.
INFORMATION
The Ottawa Curling Club
440 O’Connor Street (O’Connor at the Queensway)
(613) 234-4119
manager@ottawacurlingclub.com

-30-

2005-11-18T09:05:00.000-08:00

Wed, November 16, 2005
A sweep win for Jeffries
By JOE PAVIA, OTTAWA SUN

Although they played the full length of a sheet, it was almost a short game.
When Willie Jeffries threw a draw against Jeff McCrady to break a tie in Sunday's Money Concepts Rideau Skins final, one could see a hint of panic as his rock lost momentum.
McCrady had just thrown down the in-turn path but barely hit paint. Jeffries followed that same path -- the one he had just thrown on twice previously. It looked to be the battle of anemic weight.
Jeffries' front-enders (Mark Rodgers and Nic Aubin) pounded the rock with everything they had. Suddenly, their third Spencer Cooper bolted out of the house to join the sweeping frenzy. The rock ever so slowly came to a stop in the top eight giving the team the $3,114 win.
"Yeah we've been in three finals in a row," beamed the winning skip, who was still smiling about his last draw. The Skins victory, plus his North Bay win and a runner-up spot in Arnprior, makes Team Jeffries $7,364 richer. "We practise a lot more, everybody's committed and doing the little things to win" said Jeffries. The new work ethic, the addition of Aubin and Cooper to the rink and a solid sponsor (Goldline) seems to have paid off for Jeffries and Rodgers.

Playing beside the men, Jenn Hanna battled Uxbridge's Janet McGhee in the women's final.
The game came down to the last end, where Hanna threw a dandy double-raise back to lay three. The game ended when McGhee sailed her draw through the house. Hanna won $2,478, while McGhee got $1,896.
Ironically, the game was played on the same sheet where McGhee lost a round-robin game in last year's Scott Tournament of Hearts. The loss kept Hanna alive in that tournament. Hanna then beat McGhee in a tie-breaker to advance.
Ottawa's Lee Merklinger is the McGhee squad second, but played third for this event because another Ottawa native, regular third Julie Reddick, couldn't play. Lee's sister, Breanne, spared as lead.
Buckingham's Chantal Osborne (winning $928) and Marie-France Larouche ($996) both qualified.
The men's side qualifiers were Roy Vallille ($1,274), Terry Scharf ($1,136), Howard Rajala ($992), Noel Herron and Greg Richardson ($966 each) and Eastway Tank ($956).
The 'spiel's Cinderella story belonged to Team Scharf. They were a last-minute replacement for Josh Adams because Adams pulled out to play for Guy Hemmings in Utica, N.Y. The thrown-together replacement team (Terry Scharf, Chris Gardner, Keith Coulthart, Tom Scharf and a few others) ended up in the semi-final vs. Jeffries.
OUT-OF-TOWN GLORY: Gatineau's Jean-Michel Menard lost a close final to Mark Dacey in the New York Open in Utica on Sunday. Menard won $6,000 US. Glenn Howard qualified in Utica, receiving $4,000.
GUY'S THE GUY: Look for a CBC announcement soon naming Hemmings as one of the curling analysts for its coverage of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. While the move is positive for curling fans, it might not sit too well with his team. Western Quebec's Dan Lemary and Louis Biron are on that team. Hemmings is having a dismal season.
THIS WEEK IN CURLING: It's the start of the quest for provincial glory this weekend. The annual Ontario Curling Association zone competitions begin tomorrow with junior men and women battling to advance to regions at Winchester, Prescott and City View.

MEETING CLEARS AIR

2005-10-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

By Joe Pavia, Ottawa Sun

The expected fireworks between nine provincial curling associations and the Canadian Curling Association simply didn't occur yesterday.
The provincial associations called for the special general meeting to clear the air on four major sticking points:
In-house marketing; the handling of the 2004-05 television deal; the legal fees associated with the TV deal; and the lack of communication between the CCA and its associations.
While most of yesterday's six-hour meeting was held behind closed doors, many provincial association presidents felt good about the progress that was made.
Newfoundland and Labrador Association president Eugene Trickett said he felt like "a pretty happy camper" following the meeting.

"The meeting cleared the air. We just needed to understand that we have a common goal to market our sport," said Trickett.

CCA members granted meeting of the minds

2005-10-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

By Joe Pavia, Ottawa Sun

No one in curling circles can remember a meeting like this ever happening before.

Tomorrow morning, a special general meeting between the Canadian Curling Association and its 13 member associations will take place in Ottawa. The meeting, however, wasn't called by the CCA.

Seemingly fed up with the lack of communication between the national body and themselves, the members requested the meeting with four items on the agenda:

- The handling of the 2004-05 television deal.

- The legal fees associated with the television deal.

- Bringing the marketing of curling in-house to the CCA.

- And finally, the aforementioned lack of communications between the CCA and its member associations

"I think in the past when we asked for a number of different things, the CCA has hidden behind the confidentiality smokescreen," said Ontario Curling Association GM Doug Bakes.

Will the meeting be confrontational? Every curling body is saying no -- at least for now.

"We're just trying to find out what is going on," said Bakes. "We want to get the trust and confidence factor back in place and make sure this doesn't happen again."

How to get it back in place may just be the bone of contention.

HAMMER COMES IN HANDY: Dave Murphy's rink blanked the seventh end to retain hammer and set up his win against Willie Jeffries at the Dairy Queen Arnprior Cashspiel on Sunday. The 6-3 victory for Murphy (with Scott Linesman, Murray Arkinstall and Ron Reddick) came in a tight, rocks a-plenty final that saw the hammer decide one-point ends in each of the first six ends. Tied in the seventh, Murphy faced two opposition stones with his last shot. He wanted to blank, but he had to execute an angle raise take-out on two Jeff-ries' counters to do so. The down-weight hit worked, enabling Murphy to draw for three in the last frame. The winners collected $3,000, while Jeffries received $2,000. Semi-finalists each earning $1,300 were Greg Richardson and Robyn Mattie. Qualifiers cashing in $1,000 each were Howard Rajala, Guy Hemmings, Christine McCrady and Jenn Hanna, who also won the women's side of the 'spiel.

A TRIP WORTH WHILE: Why a trip "up the line" for the Ottawa Valley Curling Tour? According to the OVCT competitions co-ordinator Jeff Norman, some previous dates were vacant and Arnprior competitive curler Doug Johnston pitched the idea to the Arnprior Curling Club. It seemed to work as Norman felt that "Arnprior exceeded the Tour's expectations." Club President David Chesworth praised his eight-person committee and the 50 volunteers who have toiled since last spring to make their first cashspiel a success. "It's been a total club effort" said Chesworth. "It's increased exposure to curling in the community and brought more people into the club than I expected. Lots of people came to the club who haven't curled in awhile." Organizers got the support of local media and businesses - every team was sponsored for instance. They even published a poster (with Hemmings and Hanna as the stars), provided two meals to all the athletes and even set up spectator bleachers. They also raised close to $5,000 in sponsorship money. A happy president remarked "This has exceeded our preliminary budget expectations and if the Tour wants us back, we'll be here." Indeed the Tour will return according to Norman.

OUT OF TOWN GLORY: Local skips Jean-Michel Menard and the surging Team Charette won coin in the Coupe de Quebec on Sunday. Menard took the event and $5,000, while Charette qualified yet again getting $1,225.

CURLERS ARE A CHEAP LOT

2005-10-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

We have no one to blame but ourselves.
For years, the curling fraternity thrived on spending the least amount of money they could to play the game they love. This has hurt the sport in the long run.
How so?
Take a look at curling club infrastructures. Many are aging and there isn't enough self-generated money to fix them.

Take a look at curling club fees. It almost seems curlers take pride in saying that they curl for only (mention any paultry sum for a season here) a piddlng amount of money a year. What they won't spend on their curling fees, they pay gladly at a golf course. Without hesitation.

Maybe golf got it right from the beginning. Set some standards and their wallets will follow.

That same sentiment of cheap pride encroaches on many curlers' equipment. "I've had the same Bauers for 25 years. Why change now!" Why buy one's own broom when I can use a 10 year old, never cleaned, smelly, flea infested club broom. And god forbid, I should ever buy curling pants. Or replace my 12 year old gripper. "It's only torn on one side."

Man oh man, never forget that my $37,000 SUV can squeeeeeeeeze into a curling club parking lot...just. But I would never pay to park in a spacious parking lot to play the sport I love.

You ever pay to watch curling? You mean spend a few bucks to see live curling? I don't think so. Jeez, I didn't even pay the $4 a month for Country Canada last year.

Ye reap what ye sow. Eventually cheap will come back to bite curling.

An Unanswered Question About The Television Deal

2005-10-22T04:29:00.000-07:00

So the curling television deal has been signed. However who is paying for the production costs. No one wants to say - not the CCA, not TSN nor CBC.

Why are production costs important? Because your money is paying for curling coverage.
In the former TSN/CCA deal, the CCA paid close to $750,000 to TSN for production - that's right folks - this isn't big sorts time America! In effect the CCA bought the air time from TSN.

This is a trend in television sports even in the USA. Yes some professional sports and amateur sports get big time television rights money (NFL, MLB, NCAA) but arena football for instance doesn't get NBC money - NBC picks up the costs and hopes ot recoups in advertising revenue.

Here in Canada lots of amateur sports pay TSN - if they didn't nobody (except maybe the CBC) would show the national women's CIAU volleyball championships from Red Deer, Alberta.

So here we had the CCA touting a CBC deal last year as a win situation because CBC was picking up the prodiction costs and saving the CCA tons of dough that could get used for things like grass roots curling development.

WELL THAT DIDNT LAST LONG
Sure enough, the CBC claimed expenses from the CCA towards the end of 2004's Season of Champions - for the Worlds and for expenses incurred for not being able to broadcast in the CBC's major hubs.

The money the CCA was supposed to have saved went to defray these costs.

WHOSE MONEY IS IT?
This is your money paid for by your membership fees as well as some tax dollars.
While we all cheer about the new television deal (welcome back Vic!) let's remember to examine how our money is spent.