Thoughts on The National

I had a chance to watch the final of The National today and enjoyed the game even though the match was decided on misses rather than makes. I think you’d be hard pressed to remember a weekend where there were so many big misses that decided games. Both semi-finals were decided on big misses – one by Kevin Martin that was almost a whiff, and one by Dave Nedohin that was a draw that came up short.
But in the final, the last three rocks were misses, Gushue with two and Middaugh with one. I’m sure no one was more surprised at winning than Middaugh, at least after he threw his last rock. Gushue had a rock at the back of the four-foot to come to but came heavy. I think his explanation of what happened is something that a lot of curlers, both at the WCT level and the club level, fall into.

“On that type of shot you can’t really use the backing,” said Gushue, the reigning Olympic gold medallist. “If you throw weight to get to the backing it’s not going to curl which is what happened. I really just had to throw T-line weight and I threw back four, back eight weight and that’s the reason we missed the shot.”

So a few questions on the weekend:
* When did Kevin Martin add Uncle Ben’s to his sponsor list? Uncle Ben’s?
* Was I the only one who noticed this came down to a battle of meat sponsors? Gushue with Maple Leaf and Middaugh with M&M Meat Shops.
* How much do you think Wayne and the boys gave Max?
* Is everyone as impressed with Bruce Rainnie as I am? He knows that sometimes the less said, the better.