The Weeksy Awards

My take on the last year, as it appeared in the Globe and Mail.
The Annual Weeksy Awards.

Curling Books Under The Tree

This is the first year in a while that I haven’t had a new book released or one still on the market, and that was as much by my choice as anything as writing books really takes a lot out of you. It’s also the first time in a while that I can recall that there haven’t been any new curling books out. Colleen Jones’ book Curling Secrets was released last February and that appears to be the most recent.

In any case, if you’re trying to pick up a book for someone you know curls, here are my top picks, excluding my own handcrafted tomes and any instruction- or fitness-based books. You can probably find all of these somewhere through the internet.

1. Burned By The Rock – Jean Sonmor
In my humble opinion, the best curling book ever written. It’s a bit dated these days but it follows the lives of the top curlers of the day, which was the early ‘90s. Great stories about Hackner, Werenich and Howard really peeled the cover off what was going on in the competitive scene. A very entertaining read.

2. Open House: Canada and the Magic of Curling
Scott Russell crafted a great look at the game and why it’s so appealing to Canadians. I love how he tries to expose the attraction of the game, something tough to understand for an outsider.

3. The Roaring Game
Author Doug Clark rambles through some interesting topics of note in the game, covering off everything from Shorty Jenkins to the business of the sport. I like his style and approach in this one.

4. Canada Curls
The late, great Doug Maxwell probably knew more about the sport than anyone and put together a great opus on its history. It’s done in a light manner and tells some of the great tales of the game that only Doug could deliver.

5. Sandra Schmirler
The heart-wrenching story of the Olympic gold medalist who passed away far too early in life. Perry Lefko wrote a beautiful book here that will move you even if you never knew Schmirler the Curler.

6. Curling
Warren Hansen’s coffee table style book is one you can sit down with and flip pages getting engrossed in the pictures and words.

7. The Black Bonspiel
W.O. Mitchell’s great Faustian story of a curler. I’ve read this one so many times the pages are getting worn out. Great fun and truly a Canadian legend.

My take on the McEwen Rink

Here's a story that took a little while to get into the paper -- you might notice a funny post-date reference near the end -- but is my take on the success of the McEwen rink.

these guys really seem to be enjoying themselves. Interesting, during the interview with Mike, I asked him with his financial success so far this year if he' treated himself to anything. He said no but it was going to be a very good Christmas for some people near to him. So if you're expecting a present from McEwen, expect a good one!

The Russia Affair: the coach's thoughts

I had the chance to chat with Patti Wuthrich a few days ago to get a little more detail on the Jason Gunnlaugson episode. It will appear in a Globe column, likely early next week.

Wuthrich said the entire episode was a bit of a shocker as just days before, she’d been told to get the boys visas to make the trip back to Moscow so they could go through the citizenship process. She had to break the news to them and they were, in her words, “devastated.” Apparently the news came out of nowhere. She said they “spent a fair bit of time in the bar.” That’s easy to understand when you’ve essentially just lost your job. For Tyler Forrest and Justin Richter it’s especially tough since they left good jobs to embard on this journey.

Wuthrich added that one of the biggest problems in this entire Russian episode has been communication. She says it’s almost impossible to get answers to a lot of questions she sends over adding that she’s never officially received any missive saying the Manitoba boys were fired. She was simply told that there was no citizenship awaiting them and that she should prepare the Alexey Stukalsky and Alexnandr Kozyrev, the two native-born Russians, for the Europeans and to be in Switzerland on Dec. 1. When I talked to Wuthrich, she was getting ready to take to the ice for a practice session in Gimli (yes, the two Russians are still in Gimli where they'd set up shop in preparation for the season). She did say the Russians were aware of all the press here in Canada surrounding the incident.

I asked her about the possibility that the Russians weren’t blown away by the performance of the three hired guns in the national championships where they struggled somewhat in the round-robin before easing to the title with two playoff wins. She said she had no knowledge of that but added that clearly the boys weren’t at their best in that competition’s early going, saying that sometimes you play down to the level of the competition. And let's be honest here -- it's pretty hard to imagine there's any team in Russia that is as talented as the Gunnlaugson three.

All in all, she seemed to say the entire episode was frustrating and disappointing. It's really another black mark for Russian curling which always seems to be like a hose on full blast without anyone holding it. At the Olympics, the coaches of the women's team switched lineups as frequently as a kid in a Baskin-Robbins store changes his ice cream choice. It didn't seem to make much sense.

Neither does this latest move.

The Dominion Makes Dreams Come True

Just like this article in the Guardian points out, what the Dominion has done is give a lot of avid curlers a chance to experience the highest of highs.
Methinks this could be just about the most important event on the CCA's docket these days, one that might help grow the game even more than the Brier or the Scotties.

The Dominion Underway

I note, with a tinge of envy, that the Dominion Curling Club Championship is underway in Charlottetown.

I say envy because I was a participant in this event after winning my club championship last spring and had visions of being on the ice in my favourite city in the world. OK, so I dream big.

The Dominion, in just its second year of operation, has become one of the most enjoyable and successful events in Canadian curling. It tapped into a great vein of curler appreciation and when the first national championship went off with so much success, word spread quickly. Now according to the effervescent Leigh Armstrong, who administers the event (among the Dominion’s many other curling championships) on Dominion’s behalf, told me that entries were up slightly this year, but I’d bet awareness has grown exponentially.

In fact, if there is any problem with this event, that’s it: it’s so popular that the boundaries of who should be eligible are stretching because so many curlers want in. So who is supposed to play? Here’s what appears on the Ontario Curling Association web site about the rules and spirit of the event:

The Dominion Curling Club Championship gives grass roots curling teams from every corner of the country an opportunity to compete in provincial and national level competition. Club curlers are those who enjoy the sport recreationally, supporting club leagues on a regular basis from September to April.
The event is formulated for true club curlers, not elite, past or present. We want to support ordinary curlers and the development of curling across Canada.

The rules also state the following:

Each team will be allowed only one player who has played in a Men’s, Women’s or Seniors’ provincial event in the current or previous year, or participated in a Grand Slam event in the current or previous year.

The Dominion also has a provision to allow individual associations to adopt more restrictive policies if it sees fit.

There were no real problems in the zone playdown in which I competed. There was one notable curler who two weeks later played in the final of a Grand Slam event, but the rest of his team qualified under the rules as stated. (and we beat him anyway!)

At the provincial final though, there were teams that were regulars on the Ontario Curling Tour, which in my mind kind of goes against the spirit of what the Dominion is all about. I don’t know if they were true club curlers but it didn’t seem so. They were more elite curlers than club curlers. So under the rules, they qualified, but under the spirit?

And that’s the question: when does a really good club curler cross over to become a competitive or elite curler? And who is going to make that decision? Tough questions, for sure.

Now this fine line isn’t new by any means. Any Toronto curler who played in the big City of Toronto bonspiel, sponsored for a century by Canada Life and now by Goldline, is aware of it. For years that spiel tried to weed out or limit the top teams from entering. In many cases, what happened was the big players, such as Ed Werenich of Paul Savage, bought in and would skip teams of knee-sliders and it would be one fun week for all. But there will always be those with some sour grapes who think someone is over-qualified.

This probably isn’t a big enough concern to be worried about just yet. The Dominion is off to a great start and is a truly tremendous event. But it’s that way because it’s for the average curler out there, giving him and her a chance to play in a national championship. Here's hoping it stays that way.

Russians chop Gunnlaugson

It was fun while it lasted.

Jason Gunnlaugson’s Russian adventure is apparently all but done after the Russian Curling Federation pulled the offer it made to the Winnipeg curler and his two mates, Justin Richter and Tyler Forrest.

The three, along with a couple of Russian curlers, won the national championship a few weeks ago and were set to represent the country at the Europeans next week. But on the weekend, rumours leaked out and I had a note from Jason late last night that the deal was pretty much dead. Apparently it all stemmed from the requirement that the three become Russian citizens before the European championships.

According to a story in the Winnipeg Sun, the arrangement fell apart when the three refused to renounce their Canadian citizenship, a move that would have made obtaining Russian citizenship quicker. They wanted dual citizenship but that couldn’t be arranged in the time frame. Hard to blame the guys, especially since they were merely hired guns.

Here’s Gunnlaugson quoted in the Sun:

"It’s disappointing,” Gunnlaugson said. “Most people, when they lose their job they think OK, well maybe now I’ll do what I really dreamed of doing. Well, that was what we dreamed of doing, going to the rink every day and working hard at getting better at the game.
“You couldn’t ask for a more fun job for the three of us. It’s obviously a big letdown, but s--- happens in life and I’m sure we’ll all make the best of it.”

You can read the full article here.