Howard off and running at Dominion Tankard

The Ontario Dominion Tankard got underway on Monday in Barrie with a nice opening ceremonies that included honouring past Ontario world champions. It was especially nice to see Neil Harrison and Ed Werenich in the house. Also there were Paul Savage, Ian Tetley, Pat Perroud, Kent Carstairs and Tim Belcourt.

Glenn Howard started strong on the opening day, posting two wins that were conceded after seven ends. There appeared to be a bit of adjusting to the rocks as there were some glaring misses from players, including Howard how came well short on a couple of draws.

The Howard rink, of course, is the favourite, going for its eighth straight Ontario crown. The Barrie Examiner did a nice preview of the competition, focusing on the almost-local boys and the record run:

“To continue any streak in sports is really tough,” Howard said. “Obviously, to win two, three or four in a row is impressive, but to win seven, I just can’t believe we’ve done it.”

Howard also said he's expecting to know almost everyone who comes to watch, seeing as he's just 30 minutes up the road:

“As the crowds get bigger and bigger, I’m probably going to know three-quarters or four-fifths of the people here,” Howard said. “I have a lot of family and friends coming down from Penetang and Midland, and from pretty much anywhere in Simcoe County.“Again, I was ecstatic when I found out that it was here in Barrie, and I think you’re going to see that it’s going to be one of the best-attended events that we’ve ever had.”

In the London Free Press, Steve Green offered up a nice look at the Wayne Tuck Jr. rink, which was Howard's first victim in the opening draw, but came back with a win last night. Pre-tournament, Tuck did comment on the difficulty of playing against Howard.

“As long as your team is curling minimum 85%, you’ve got at least a 50-50 shot, because they don’t normally curl below 90,” Tuck said.

Yup. And sometimes even that doesn't work.