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.

Schille moving on from ejection and ahead to Brier

Chris Schille says he's learned his lesson and is ready to start focusing on the Tim Hortons Brier. Murray McCormick crafted a nice piece in the Leader Post capping the weekend that saw Schille tossed from a game for bad language and his team, skipped by Brock Virtue, capture the Saskatchewan men's title. He spoke with the CCA's Warren Hansen who said the Sasky boys won't be treated any differently than any of the other rinks. That's a relief to Schille.

“It was a mistake that I made and our team made as a whole because we all knew what we were up against,” Schille said after returning to Regina. “We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I’m glad to hear that there is a clean slate going forward.”

At the Brier, the penalties hit the wallets rather than the lineups. Fines are issued for breaches and while they aren't publicized, they happen pretty much every year. The most famous was at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts where Colleen Jones team was fined for taking too long signing autographs (I believe that was eventually overturned). 

If there is anything troubling about the outcome of Schille-gate, it was the comment from SCA head honcho Amber Holland who said the association would review the social media policy of athletes. This came after Schille sent out some Tweets after the incident that were critical of his penalty.

Holland said the SCA will review a number of concerns that have surfaced during the men’s playdowns. That includes player conduct and a social-media policy when it comes to athletes expressing their thoughts about the association and volunteers.

That could be a slippery slope for an association to travel down and I hope it doesn't get to the point where criticism isn't allowed, whether it be via Twitter or some other outlet. It also makes me wish Twitter had been around in the days when Eddie Werenich was playing!

Language not rock-kicking led to ejection

According to the official who tossed Chris Schille from a game at the Saskatchewan men's playdowns, kicking a rock into a corner had nothing to do with his ejection.

As Kevin Mitchell reports in the StarPhoenix, it was all about bad language.

But [Deanna[ Rindal, an SCA official for more than 25 years, says she never saw Schille kick a rock and that had nothing to do with his removal. The second-end ejection, she says, was because she heard him using obscene language just a few feet from where she stood, moments after teammate DJ Kidby banged his broom.

“These games are being broadcast, we’re getting emails about the foul language and why isn’t something getting done, I was sick and tired of taking the brunt for their actions, and the officials getting blamed for it,” Rindal said. “So I said ‘Schille, you’re gone. Leave the arena.’ He asked what for, and I said for swearing. He said ‘all I said was damn it under my breath’, and I said ‘no, I have ears. I can hear.’ Then (third) Braeden Moskowy came in and was begging for another warning — ‘It’s the B final, it’s the B final! Can’t we get a warning?’ I said you had warnings all week long. No more warnings. I took out my stopwatch and said you have 15 seconds to leave before you forfeit the game."

Schille told Mitchel that he was aware all the curlers were being watched due to previous incidents during the playdown process.

“We knew everyone was on thin ice, based on what happened at southerns and northerns,” Schille said. “We were warned before the event, and they came up and told us a few times, lower your voice or don’t bang your broom as hard. I guess that time, she’d just had enough. I swore under my breath and kicked a rock into the corner, and when I came off she said to keep walking. We tried to reason with her, and all she did was say 15 seconds, you forfeit the game. 

“There was pressure on them; I know that for a fact. There was a lot of unhappy sponsors and lot of unhappy fans at southerns and northerns, and we knew that coming in. It’s tough. It’s not football and it’s not NHL hockey, but we’re here to win. Emotions are going to run high, especially when you’re playing for the biggest prize.”

The officials were certainly in a tough situation but this quote from Rindal makes me wonder somewhat.

“I did my job. I did what I needed to do. From what I’m hearing, I’ve got the support of many, many, many people out there, that it should have been done earlier. And I totally agree — it should have been done earlier, and it’s too bad it was the B final. But I took a stand for the officials. We’re being put to blame for the actions of the athletes out there.”

I have no problem with the her tossing Schille in the B final. But "took a stand for the officials?" and "We're being put to blame for the actions of the athletes out there." I don't get that. It's as if the reason she ejected the curler was as an act of solidarity for the officials, not because he was swearing. I also fail to see how an official would get blamed for a curler swearing. And just who is blaming them? Fans? Sponsors? I doubt it.

Every curler has a duty to act decently when on the ice. They're performers and one of the great things about the game is that fans can get close to the action. When microphones were put on the players back in the '80s, that extended to television audiences. There have been many four-letter words aired on curling broadcasts -- shit-balls comes to mind -- but the difficulty becomes in the subjectivity of the crime as well as the penalty. Does a mutter expletive under the breath warrant expulsion in an important game? And why did the official choose this moment to issue the penalty?

There are no easy answers to this one.

Schille gets the boot

Here's a first for me: a curler was ejected from a game. I've covered curling for more than 30 years now and can't ever remember of a player being punted from the contest. But that's what happened in the Saskatchewan men's playdowns when Chris Schille, second for Brock Virtue, was thrown out of the game.

Don Landry over at the Eh Game, had the details of Schille's expulsion:

Chris Schille, second on Brock Virtue's team, was tossed during the B Event final on Saturday morning, as Virtue battled Josh Heidt's foursome for a spot in tonight's 1 vs 2 playoff game.
Schille was apparently given the heave ho by an official during the second end, when he admittedly kicked a rock into the corner of a sheet.

Schille took to Twitter to give his side of the story, with some strong Tweets. 

No point in lying about what happened is it was on TV for all to see. I kicked I rock into the corner after a 'made' double by Brock....
— Chris Schille (@cschille) February 2, 2013

Apparently the lovely lady never competed in her sad life official saw it differently. Instead of talking it over I was given 15 seconds ...
— Chris Schille (@cschille) February 2, 2013

To leave the ice or we forfeit the game, then given 5 more minutes to change and leave the building before being 'physically removed' ....
— Chris Schille (@cschille) February 2, 2013

This is clearly all very acceptable and I should probably also be thrown in jail, maximum security at that. 25 to life sounds fair.
— Chris Schille (@cschille) February 2, 2013

If all Schille did was boot a rock into a corner, then the official is the one who should be tossed. This happens in just about every big game and I imagine a player such as Wayne Middaugh would lead the World Curling Tour in ejections if this was an infraction.

Now there are reports that Schille was warned earlier in the game. Another Tweet said that he'd told the official to fuck off. If that's true, then there may be some basis for some sort of penalty. I don't think you can tell a volunteer to fuck off and not incur some sort of penalty.

While we don't know all of the story, let's be real here. It wasn't as if Schille went into the crowd  and started beating on the fans. He apparently just kicked a rock into the corner a little too forcefully for the official. Perhaps some words were exchanged. The question is does the penalty fit the crime?

I'm all for broom slams and even broom breaking or shirt ripping, such as John Morris did back in the day. I don't mind when a curler thumps the end of his broom down on the backboards either. I think it's better to see a little emotion from players, to display some passion for what's going on than being Melba Toast bland. Certainly there are limits, but let's get real here. This isn't the Friday Night Mixed League we're talking about -- it's some of the best players in the game fighting to get to the Brier.

Again, there are two sides to every story but so far, we haven't heard from the umpire or the Saskatchewan curling officials in any official way. That should come out as soon as possible so this doesn't spin out of control any more than it already has. 

There was a time when officials became far too much a part of the story in curling. That was when they sat at the hog line and pulled rocks off. Replays often showed them to be wrong, sometimes horribly wrong. It's fair to say that one hog line official cost Paul Savage a very good chance at a Purple Heart. 

Thankfully, the Eye on the Hog took that all away and now officials are there to enforce the rules of the game as written.

But the Rules of Curling do give an official the power to toss someone from a game. Here's what it says in the good book.

"The Chief Umpire may expel a player or a coach from the game or competition area for what they consider to be abusive or unacceptable behaviour including refusal to comply with the rules and direction provided by an umpire."

I'm with Schille in that far too often people who work as umpires haven't been competitive players and therefore don't understand what goes on in a game from a player's standpoint. It's why some of the best umpires of the past were people such as Keith Reilly, a Brier winner, who had been in the player's position before. (You can say the same thing about the people who score games, but I digress).

The fact that this has blown up in the curling community shows just how rare and unusual it is. Hopefully it continues to be that way.

Welcome Nunavut

The curler in me says adding more teams to the national championships may dilute things (something I think will soften) but the Canadian in me thinks this is awesome. Nunavut played its first rocks in the M+M Junior and while they didn't win, they were out there.

Al Cameron of the CCA (did I just write that?) wrote this release about the day in Fort Mac.

FORT McMURRAY, Alta. — The scores were immaterial. What was more important was the two teams’ presence on the ice at the CNRL Arena 2.

Teams from Nunavut both went down to defeat in Saturday’s opening draw of the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships.

What was more notable was the fact that it was the first time Nunavut has been represented at the Canadian Juniors. The scores — David Kakuktinniq’s team from Rankin Inlet (third Jamie Airut, second Darren Makkigak, lead Arthur Siksik, coach Kevin Bussey) bowed 14-2 to Saskatchewan’s Brady Scharback (Saskatoon) while 13-year-old Sadie Pinksen and her team from Iqaluit (third Christianne West, second Katie Chislett Manning, lead Emily-Grace Matthews, coach Lynn Kreviazuk) fell 17-3 to Alberta’s Karynn Flory (Edmonton) — didn’t diminish the achievement.

“Coming into this, we were realistic in our expectations,” said Bussey, who also serves as president of the Nunavut Curling Association. “Kudos to the sport of curling because I don’t think any other sport in the world would allow guys who are new to the sport to compete with the world’s best. Our teams are just ecstatic about coming here. It’s a treaty experience, and a lot of people back in Nunavut appreciate the experience as well. To see the kids competing with all the other provinces and territories is just awesome.”

Both Nunavut skips came off the ice with smiles on their face after making their final shots of the game to score a single point before shaking hands with their opponents.

“I was really happy to make the shot,” said Pinksen, who made a draw to the four-foot with her last shot of the game. “I think we all did our best and we’ll do it again in our next game.

“It felt pretty good,” added Kakuktinniq, 19, after his hit-and-stick for a single. “And it feels good to represent  Nunavut. We just want to have fun and improve as much as we can.”

In other opening-round games junior men’s games, Ontario’s Aaron Squires (St. Thomas, Ont.) shaded Alberta’s Thomas Scoffin (Edmonton) 5-4, Mitch Young of the Yukon (Whitehorse) downed Prince Edward Island’s Tyler Smith (Cornwall) 10-3, Nova Scotia’s Stuart Thompson (Halifax) got by Northern Ontario’s Matthew Roberts (Thunder Bay) 7-3, Manitoba’s Matt Dunstone (Winnipeg) was a 12-0 winner over the Northwest Territories’ Daniel Murray (Yellowknife) and New Brunswick’s Josh Barry (Fredericton) knocked off Newfoundland/Labrador’s Adam Boland (Gander) 10-6.

In the other women’s openers, B.C.’s Corryn Brown (Kamloops) beat Saskatchewan’s Jessica Hanson (Saskatoon) 7-5, Newfoundland/Labrador’s Carolyn Suley (St. John’s) got by New Brunswick’s Jessica Daigle (Fredericton) 7-5, Manitoba’s Shannon Birchard (Winnipeg) was a 9-6 winner over Northern Ontario’s Tirzah Keffer (Thunder Bay) and Ontario’s Jamie Sinclair (Manotick) beat Carina McKay-Saturnino of the Northwest Territories (Inuvik) 18-1.

Cathy O taking a break

Cathy O is taking a break from the game she loves.

Paul Wiecek has the story of how one of Winnipeg's favourites has told her team she won't be back next year. But she wouldn't say her career is over.

"I wouldn't call it retirement, exactly. Maybe I will spare next year. That could be fun."

Overton-Clapham's team of Jenna Loder, Ashley Howard and Breanne Meakin earned $3,000 on the World Curling Tour and missed the playoffs at the Manitoba playdowns. 

Creative solutions to raising money

Curling clubs are always on the lookout for more money and some are getting ingenious in how they do that.

Out in Estevan, the club has sold the name rights in a lucrative deal that will bring the facility a quarter million over 10 years.

Yup, just like the Air Canada Centre or GM Place, the Estevan Curling Club is now the Power Dodge Curling Centre.

You can read the story here.