Big TV Numbers for Scotties

While the bronze medal game may be a pain in the butt for the curlers, the volunteers and officials (not to mention the TSN crew), it appears the fans don’t mind. At least those sitting at home on their couches.

TV ratings from the match between Jennifer Jones and Marie-France Larouche drew 633,000 viewers a very strong number for TSN.

The final was even more impressive. It garnered an audience of 1,003,000 viewers that witnessed Heather Nedohin and her Alberta rink win the title. That's massive.

When someone in your office asks why there’s so much curling on TV at this time of year, you now have an answer. 

On Booing Jones

There’s a wonderful piece by Paul Wiecek in the Freep today about the seeming legions of Jennifer Jones haters. For some reason, Jones has become Enemy No. 1 with many curling fans who show their displeasure by booing her, posting harsh comments in places such as Curlingzone.com and lashing out notes on newspaper web sites.

For the life of me, I’ve never understood this.

Yes, Jones along with Dawn Askin and Jill Officer (It wasn’t JUST Jones who made this decision) decided to part ways with Cathy Overton-Clapham after a successful season. They had an eye on the future and decided on this move.

In any other sport, this would have been an accepted as part of the business. You make changes in hopes of getting better (hence the rabid appeal on days such as today, Trade Deadline Day). They aren’t always popular but they are done. But in curling, for some reason, everyone is expected to play nice. It doesn’t matter if you lose, win or tie – you just stay with the team.

That doesn’t mean that Cathy O doesn’t have a right to be upset or hold a grudge – it’s easy to see her side of things – or that folks can’t like and dislike whomever they want. It’s just that to put a black hat on Jones and continually stab her, to me, just doesn’t make sense. If the Cathy O dumping is the only reason people dislike Jones, isn’t it time to get over it?

Jones is an immensely private person but I got to know her well during the 2010 Olympics when she sat beside me on the media bench. She was working for Yahoo.ca and spending 13 days and 14 hours a day beside someone gives you some insight into their make up.

Last year, in preparation for the Scotties, I did a lengthy interview with her and shortly after that, she called me and asked if there was one topic we discussed in passing that could be left out of the story. 

Because it wasn’t really relevant to anything I was writing about, I agreed. During the course of the week at the Scotties, she thanked me and confided in me several times about a few things, and I came to see how tough it was for her to be on the receiving end of the harsh comments and the boos that rained down at the Charlottetown Civic Centre, especially during the game against Manitoba and in the final.

If this was a professional team and you’d paid good money to come and see it play (i.e. the Leafs or Habs), then boo all you want. But these people are just regular folks who work jobs and curl for fun and a little bit of spending money.

And really. . . booing in curling?

This year, although I wasn’t there, it seems some took delight in watching the Jones team crumble

Jones, to me, is an exceptional individual, someone who has managed to combine a career with curling. Not many people – male or female – have done that at the level she’s at career-wise. She also does a lot to give back to the sport, hosting clinics, signing autographs, talking with young players.

Perhaps this is the price that has to be paid for curling moving into bigger arenas and the athletes becoming bigger celebrities. I just have a hard time understanding people’s rationale for this harsh and mean-spirited action against someone as talented and good-natured as ones. 

Slips and falls

The most interesting news of the Scotties last night came in the game between Jennifer Jones and Amber Holland, specifically the unfortunate fall by Jill Officer.

Al Cameron has the interesting angle of whether or not Amber Holland should have let the burned rock stand, i.e., say that it would have hit and stuck, or do what she did and remove it, taking the two-point steal. We know now that she chose to remove the burned rock from play. I have to admit, I would have done the same and I'd guess that Jennifer Jones would have too if the situation were reversed.

I still have trouble remembering that there are two options. I grew up playing that whenever you burned a rock, it came off and so most of the time, I don't even think about the second option. I know the rule was put in there to protect against intentional burning, but I'd say whenever there's a burned stone, I'm going to remove it. Also, you never really know how the burned rock would have finished, although in this specific case it appears it would have stayed for shot.

Paul Wiecek has the details of the game but this incident got me to thinking about the most notable slips and falls in curling.

Of course the biggest is undoubtedly the one by Bob Labonte, the American player who, thinking his side had won the world championship, jumped in celebration and booted a stone. That led to an extra end and Orest Meleschuk of Canada ended up wininng (what’s often overlooked is the incorrect ruling provided by the official, one Doug Maxwell!).

There was also a slip by Dan Petryk at the (I believe) 1991 Brier in Hamilton. I remember he cleared out about four rocks but to be honest, I can’t recall if he actually burned the stone. But the next morning in the Tankard Times, the shot of the day featured a chalk-type outline of Petryk’s sprawled body on the ice.

Anyone else have any others that spring to mind?

 ***

This is the best video of the week so far and shows why Donna “Spinner” Spencer is one of the best. She put together this great piece on the Scotties skips and how they try to maintain their voices throughout the loud week. It’s quite interesting to hear the extent they go to – humidifiers, lozenges. Hey, they should talk to Russ!

***

How about this? ESPN did a piece on the recent U.S. championships and bought into the lure of the game, although they did throw in a few cute shots. 

About 1,000 of those fans, plus a few curious neophytes, showed up over the weekend for the USA Nationals, which took place in the bustling metropolis of Aston, Pa., population 16,000. (Apparently Indianapolis was still busy cleaning up from the Super Bowl.)

Handicapping the field at the Scotties

As the Scotties Tournament of Hearts gets underway in Red Deer, home of Billy Bob’s and the Screaming Russ shooter, the pundits have put in their picks as to who they think will be holding the trophy at week’s end.

Paul Wiecek of the Winnipeg Free Press chose Jennifer Jones.

Jim Bender of the Winnipeg Sun selected Jennifer Jones.

Al Cameron of the Calgary Herald selected Jennifer Jones.

Murray McCormick of the Regina Leader-Post picks Jennifer Jones (over Amber Holland, just to avoid the ugly mob protests outside L-P offices).

In a Tweet, Guy Hemmings said that Marie-France Larouche would make the playoffs.

For what it’s worth, here are my picks:

The Favourite

• Jennifer Jones, MAN. Too much experience, too much talent for this field. Wonder if she’ll finally make it easy on herself this time and avoid the tiebreakers. Doubt it. 

Fighting for the Playoffs

• Heather Nedohin, ALTA. I think some have underestimated this team and the fact the skip has been away for a while. They’re good, very good.
• Kelly Scott, BC. May not be at it as hard as she once was but she can still make some shots. Look out if she gets on a roll and likes the ice.
• Heather Smith-Dacey, NS. They will have to fire on all cylinders as they did last year but they are more than capable.

Outside Looking In

• Amber Holland, CAN. Hasn’t had a very good year and I’m not sure they’ll be able to get the wheels turning in time. Still my favourite skip to interview and always the nicest player on the ice.
• Michelle Englot, SASK. A good team but not enough fuel in the engine for this one, I don’t think.

Dark Horses

• Tracy Horgan, ONT. Not only did she hold off Rachel Homan to win Ontario, but also Sherry Middaugh, the top team in the land heading into the playdowns. Still they have such little experience at this level, it would be surprise to see them in the playoffs.
• Marie-France Larouche, QUE. A very good team that will surprise a few.

Also

PEI, TERR, NB, N&L. I always hope for a good story from one of these types of teams, such as the PEI women of a couple of years ago. Here’s hoping. 

MIssing the big one

In case you missed it, this is a tremendous story on the losing side of big shots. Al Cameron (in an early bid for the 2012 Scotty Harper Award), talks to many skips about missing big shots and the resulting hangover. It’s a must-read with quotes from many of the best who've all missed their share of big shots. Including, of course, Cheryl Bernard. 

“But the thing about that loss, from what I know about me as a person, is it just spurred me on to get better,” said Bernard. “I mean, I took 100 per cent responsibility for losing that (gold) medal. . . . The only thing that has let me sleep at night and not hang myself is that I threw those shots the best that I could.”

Hey, he even digs up Joe Gurowka's name!

***

Only in Saskatchewan could you get a story about a football-playing politician wrapped up with a curling theme. Here’s MurrayMcCormick’s story on Gene Makowksy.

“Any person who does what he does in the community makes people love him more on the field,’’ said Amber Holland.

***

I know we all want to encourage mainstream US media to cover the American curling championships, but I still had to laugh at this report. Here’s the opening:

Defending champion Pete Fenson of Bemidji, Minn., rebounded from losing earlier Friday to score three times in the 10th end and eliminate John Shuster of Duluth 8-5 in a men’s semifinal of the 2012 USA Curling National Championships on Friday night at Aston, Pa.

Scored three times in the 10^th? Hmmmm. . .

****

While we’re at it, the headline writer on this story might want to make a second try. Nodohin?

 ***

And while it’s been a while since Heather Nedohin has been at a Scotties, it’s been two decades since Kim Dolan made the trip. In fact last year, she was the volunteer chairperson of the Scotties in Charlottetown. Afun story about Dolan and her teammates (who happens to own my favourite pub in PEI, the Olde Dublin.)

Jacobs' eight (with video) and other eights

Brad Jacobs won his third straight Northern Ontario title in a big way. In the semi-finals against Tim Phillips, Jacobs did the remarkable, scoring an eight-ender en route to a 14-3 win.

Later that evening, he knocked off Mike Jakubo in the final to earn his tickets for the Brier.

Now I’ve curled and covered curling for some 30 years and have never seen a real, live eight-ender. The only other one I can remember in competitive circles was Kelly Scott’s at the 2006 Players Championship.

In the video of the game, you can see how the eight sneaks up a bit on Tim Phillips. If you advance the video below to 3:18, you'll see the last two shots. Phillips actually makes the eight possible by missing his last rock and opening up his lone counter in the rings. Jacobs doesn't miss with his last one and the eight is recorded. 

Watch live streaming video from soocurlerslive at livestream.com

Above is a screen shot of the final eight Jacobs's rocks on the rings. 


One of the best near eight-ender stories in the Brier came back in the 1936 edition. While playing against a much weaker PEI team, Ken Watson had a chance to score eight, but while sweeping a stone, an ash from lead Charlie Kerr’s cigar fell onto the ice (yes, he was smoking while sweeping) in front of the stone causing it to stop. The team ended up hanging a seven.

Still, the greatest eight-ender story I've heard was Kim Gellard's junior team that recorded back-to-back eight-enders -- yup, 16 points in two ends -- in high school play. 

I get asked a lot if the eight-ender is like a hole-in-one in golf and the answer is clearly no. While both require an element of luck, in golf, there’s no one trying to stop your ball from going in the hole. In curling, you not only have to make eight great shots, but hope the other team misses a lot.

On three occasions, as a knee-sliding club player, I’ve had all eight rocks in the house and failed to score. The closest I’ve come to hanging eight actually came in a major league game many years ago against the great Ed Werenich. We had seven rocks in the rings and last rock. The Wrench had his final shot to play and despite the right call being a draw, there was no way he was giving up eight so he threw a hit, and received a chorus of boos from everyone else on the ice. I think we eventually scored five.

***

The King is dead. Long live the King.

Jeff Stoughton, defending champion of the Tim Hortons Brier, won’t be back this year after getting dusted in the Manitoba playdowns. As PaulWiecek reports, the champs simply weren’t good enough.

"It's disappointing just because we didn't play that well. I think that's the toughest thing to take," said Stoughton. "We didn't play good enough to win and we got what we deserved...

The final will be between Mike McEwen – playing his third straight provincial final – and the winner of the semi between Rob Fowler and Willie Lyburn.

You’d have to give the edge to McEwen who has been just about the best team in the world this year. But then again, no one expected Stoughton to lose either. Still, I really like the McEwen team, how hard it works, how much they love the game and flat-out good they are. If they get through the final, I'd make them my favourites to win the Brier. 

***

  

In Alberta, it’s looking like a championship will be decided between the two Kevins – Martin and Koe. Martin stayed alive in the Page Playoffs on Saturday and must get past Brock Virtue on Sunday morning to get to the final, where Koe is awaiting the victor.

Al Cameron has the wrap-up.

***

Glenn Howard will play for his seventh consecutive Ontario championship at The Dominion Tankard in Stratford but he almost dropped into the semi-final.

Howard needed to steal singles in the 10^th and 11^th ends to hold of Peter Corner. The Toronto Star has a brief recap.

N+L curling lacking

What’s going on with Newfoundland and Labrador curling? According to this article by Robin Short, there are very few teams entering the playdowns, especially any from out of town.

So this is where curling finds itself: its premier event, the Labatt Tankard men’s championship, attracts six teams to Labrador city for the provincial final and all but two are from the host club. We realize venturing to Labrador is pricey, but two outside teams?
Last month, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts women’s championship was staged and all five teams competing were St. John’s-based rinks.

As Short points out, five years after Brad Gushue won the Olympic gold, there’s not much to show in the way of development.

If only this were the only province where this was happening.

***

Two of the big guns in provincial championships are in trouble. This morning, Jeff Stoughton and Kevin Martin are down to their last lives in the provincials. First up, Stoughton, who lost a game at the provincial finals in Manitoba for the first time in two years. That’s a rare occurance, indeed, as Paul Wiecek points out and puts Stoughton in a tough spot.

And, of course, you can cue the defending champion-Team Canada stories if he loses.

And Kevin Martin dropped his contest last night to Brock Virtue, pushing into the C event. The Edmonton Journal’s Chris O’Leary has thestory with some very honest Martin quotes.

"I think you're safe to say, in the end, that we couldn't make a thing. But I guess it's a team effort, so that's a good thing; we were all bad," Martin said. "I don't know what to say. That was embarrassing, to play   like that. We have to pick it up a notch, that's for sure."

***

Here’s an interesting snippet from the Philadelphia Daily News about the upcoming U.S. men’s national championships in the City of Brotherly Love that seems to focus on, um, spandex and Cheryl Bernard.