The Domion a HUGE hit

I got over to the finals of the Dominion Curling Club Championship yesterday and witnessed a couple of very good games, one with a rather strange conclusion.

First, the event. By all accounts – and I mean all accounts – this was a rip-roaring success. Every player I talked to simply gushed about the event, praising Dominion for its hospitality. There was wine tasting, beer tasting, a wings-and-beer night, dancing, carrying-on to the wee hours and more. It also looked as if Dominion gave every player a new broom too. Wow.

Also, host site St. George’s was done up to the hilt. They had the time clocks from the OCA above all six sheets and the rocks all had the hog line lights on the handles.
It was big time, all the way.

The finals were interesting. At first you forget these aren’t elite players as you’d expect in a national final. They’re talented club curlers and so there were some misses and some strange calls, but overall, the games were exciting.

The men’s final went to an extra end and Ontario’s Bob Stafford took the win in a close match.

The women’s was a wild affair. Ontario’s Kelly Cochrane got up 4-1, then surrendered a three when she decided not to peel off a corner guard (as I was saying about strategy). It ended up in an extra end and it was bizarre. One centre guard in play, that’s it. Cochrane throws her last rock, it looks a little hot, but it picks just as it goes over the hog line. All Manitoba’s Jackie Komyshyn has to do is find the paint.

She throws her rock and the red lights indicating hog line violation go off – even though it appeared she clearly let the stone go before the hog line (I was about 25 feet from her at the time).

In the second extra, Cochrane tries to go behind a corner with her last one but it hangs out. Komyshyn has an open hit and stick. She comes wide, it hangs and I’m thinking a hit and roll out and a third extra, but she hits it too thin and fails to remove it, rolling out her own. Ontario wins.

I suspect when all these teams head home this event will blossom. When news gets out about how well everyone was treated and great an event it was, there will be a scramble to try and get in it.

Good for Dominion for moving into the grass roots of the sport. There’s so much attention at the upper levels but this type of sponsorship is much more important these days in my opinion. A good event all around.

Do We Really Need Mixed Curling?

Mixed curling. I don’t get it.

I mean, I get the Friday night sweep-and-giggle stuff at the club. That’s fun and that’s obvious. I haven’t played mixed for some time, but I enjoyed it when I did. I even remember one guy in a league in which I once played who had a team comprised of his wife and his mistress. His wife didn’t know of course. She also didn’t know that his mistress was carrying his child. How’s that for cajones?

What I’m talking about today is the Canadian Mixed which just wrapped up a great week at the Burlington Golf and Country Club down the highway from where I live.
Former golf pro and now Timmies owner Mark Dacey skipped his Blue Nose rink to victory. By all accounts the week was a smashing success both on and off the ice. (although how someone wins the 2010 Mixed in 2009 is a bit of a mystery.)

I’m not trying to shoot down any of that, but I don’t get why we have a national mixed championship in the first place. I mean, other than those Friday night leagues at the club and some social bonspiels, no one curls mixed competitively. The only time there’s any sort of competitive mixed curling is. . . at the playdowns leading to the Canadian mixed. (I’m not including the newly created mixed doubles here which is another story -- enjoy Russia Mark and Heather!).

Every other national championship makes sense as guys and gals form competitive teams, play hard all year and then enter the playdowns. There are cash events for juniors, men’s, women’s and senior’s – but not for mixed.

I don’t want to be the bad guy who suggests this, but maybe we don’t really need a national mixed, which, by the way, hasn’t had a national sponsor since the days of the corn broom.

Globe column on Wayne Middaugh

Here’s today’s Globe column on Wayne Middaugh. I spoke to Wayne just after he won his spot in the Trials, which, by the way, marks his third trip – he was there in Brandon and Halifax and now Edmonton.

I think Wayne has mellowed slightly, not just in curling but in life. I’ve always found him to be a very accommodating guy and the odd time he’s blown by me after a big loss, he’s always come back later to talk. In some respects, I think he knew on those occasions that it would be better to say nothing than to say something out of frustration. So while it wasn’t that convenient for deadlines, it was wise.

As for that temper, well I remember something Wayne’s longtime third Graeme McCarrel said to me once: “I’d rather have a guy who gets pissed off at losing that a guy who doesn’t.”

Makes sense.

49er tries his hand at curling

They are a little off on some of the facts about the sport and the rules, but give the Associated Press full marks for arranging this. San Francisco 49er tight end Vernon Davis was brought out to try his hand at curling in San Jose, Calif., and became a convert to the sport.

New CCA Commercials

Unless you were running to the fridge to replace your brew or stocking up on more chips, you probably saw the new CCA television ads during the weekend’s broadcast of the pre-Trials-roaring-road thingy.

I thought they were excellent and very catchy, something that’s been needed for a long, long time.

If you didn’t see them, you can watch here. You’ll notice a few familiar faces as they zip past, none more prominent than Paul Savage. He along with John Pineo of CMG Marketing were behind the new spots that are intended to try and re-brand the culture of the game. That’s a wise move as to outsiders, the image is still that of a sport played by old white people.

The campaign also includes a call to action at the end to go to a web site, www.startcurling.ca which is also very well designed and looks like it’s intended to appeal to a younger audience.

The whole program is a huge step up from the horrid My First End campaign where a bunch of zombie-like people talk about playing for the first time. There was zero excitement in the ads and it made going curling about as attractive as getting kicked in the groin.

These new ads, however, are great. Now here’s the complaint (you knew there’d be one, right?). If you go to the CCA’s web site (curling.ca), you won’t find any mention of the Start Curling campaign. There’s no link to the micro-site, no mention of the commercials, nada. In fact there’s still a link to My First End.

Here’s hoping that when the Trials get underway that’s changed. This is a great chance to get new people into the sport and every resource available should be used.

TV numbers for the Roar

The numbers for last weekend’s Road to the Roar were solid once again, drawing substantial numbers for TSN. Saturday afternoon’s match drew an audience of 455,000 while the evening game, going head to head with Hockey Night in Canada, had 378,000.
I can only imagine what the numbers will be for the Trials in Edmonton.

The Granite Club

Last weekend I went into my first bonspiel in some time. As I may have mentioned, I’ve been away from regularly playing the game until this year due to injuries and a hockey-playing son who required a chauffeur.

So our squad headed over to the Granite Club for the 53rd annual men’s invitational. That’s pretty darn impressive – 53 years. The event started in the old Granite Club, which was located at St. Clair and Yonge, and is now, of course at the new Granite Club.

Now the new Granite Club is easily, to me, the most impressive curling club in the world. There aren’t many places where you drive in and the parking lot attendant tells you: “The curling is on the third floor.” Heck, there aren’t many curling clubs that have a parking lot attendant.

But the Granite Club is about as swank as they get. It’s a massive fitness, figure skating, badminton, squash, swimming and tennis facility. I’ve probably left a few sports out too. There's also computer courses, a speaker's series, music lessons, wine-tasting and more. Just walking around the place is like being in an art gallery as there are some fabulous pieces on display.

The curling facility is on the third floor and there’s a lounge in the centre that looks out on the sheets on one side and then on other side, looks down on the figure skating ice a floor below. While we were there, the stars of Battle of the Blades were all training for the big finale.

I'm betting that a lot of the current members don't have a clue that the club's name comes from the material out of which curling rocks are made. They may not even know the grand history of the place.

Of course the Granite Club has an amazing history – it was the site of the first 13 Briers, from 1927-39 and then again in ’41, the last time it was held in Toronto. The club has done a good job at preserving that history. But the club goes back way before then. In fact, on the ice are numerous banners for winning provincial championships including one that stretches back to 1889 – wow!

The club put on a remarkable event – I think there were about five meals over three days, including a dinner-dance on Saturday night where you could bring your wife or girlfriend (but not both), lots of free drinks, and some curling. I’m not really sure how they did it all for the entry fee – good sponsors, I assume – but it was quite amazing.

Oh yes, we managed to keep our head above the water line long enough to grab the fifth event and win a nice bottle of scotch.