Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Big Jim gets Olympic nod

Nice to see that Jim Armstrong is going to lead the Canadian team at the Paralympics. The announcement of the team, which also includes third Darryl Neighbour, second Ina Forrest, lead Sonja Gaudet, Coach Joe Rea of and alternate is Bruno Yizek of Calgary, came down today from the CCA.

Canada is the defending Games champions but won only its first world title last spring when Armstrong skipped the rink to victory.

The curling competition will take place March 13-20.

My favourite memory of Armstrong, who was a much-feared Brier competitor and competitive curler in the 1980s and early ‘90s, was at one particular Brier where if he won his final game, it avoided an onslaught of tiebreakers. Us media-types went to him before the game and mockingly told him that we’d by him a big bottle of his favourite liquid if he could manage a win. That’s because it meant we had the night and the next morning free (this being in the days before the Page System). About eight ends into the contest, Armstrong made a great shot to count a big end and take control of the game. He looked up at the media bench and held up two fingers, mouthing the words “Two bottles, two bottles.” We all roared with laughter, of course.
And yes, Jim did win the game and he did get his bottle.

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