I miss the Mixed.
There, I said it.
After winning the Mixed for the past two seasons, and having two extremely fun
runs at Mixed Nationals, I am sitting out the Mixed this year. The season has
been long and taxing on my family. My wife needed to carry a picture around of
me in November to remember what I look like. My kids started telling their
classmates that there Dad was overseas in the military (it made for a better
story than “off Curling in Val d’Or”).
So I have decided to
sit this one out. And I am glad that I did. The fact that it would have meant yet
another 6+ hour drive to a provincial also made it a little easier to say no,
as well as the fact that my men’s team will be happy to have me a bit more available
next fall.
But I miss it.
The Mixed is awesome.
I frankly do not understand why more curlers do not try to win the Mixed. It
leads to an awesome National championship, the curling is competitive and the atmosphere
is more social. And it’s real curling, unlike that bizarre mini-putt game that is
Mixed Doubles (which is also going on this weekend in Ottawa).
The lack of
participation has by no means made it easy to win, and this year’s Quebec field
is as strong as I have seen, with a number of Brier reps and champions competing for the title.
My bold prediction for
the week: Tom Wharry sneaks past the bigger names to earn a well-deserved trip
to a National.
Here is my Team pic, for Old Times sake. Sniff.
***
PAY UP!!!
Okay. You all have
been reading my blog for free all year. And there are a lot of you! You all
tell me how much you enjoy it. Well now it’s time to PAY UP!!! As a former boss
of mine once said: “There is no such thing as a Free Lunch, and if there were
it would be a taxable benefit anyway.”
On the 29th
of March, I will be curling in Kurling for Kids, a charity bonspiel held every
year across Montreal curling clubs to benefit The Montreal Children’s Hospital
and l’Hôpital Ste-Justine. This is a first class event, and for anyone who has
ever had to take their children to either of these two fine hospitals knows,
this is an extremely worthy cause.
My favorite part of
the tournament every year is when Stan Fong (the uber-organizer of the event at
Glenmore) weeps like a little girl while speaking at the dinner.
Seriously, this is a
superbly run event that has raised over a quarter million last year. It is also
a supremely fun and uplifting day. And this is way better way to spend money than to give it to the CCA!!!
CLICK HERE:
So Sponsor me!!!! No
amount is too small. $10, $50, $100!!! You can choose to support the event by
buying raffle tickets (with some seriously awesome prizes) from me, either in
person or on-line. But nobody I sell to ever wins – you are probably better off
with an income tax receipt!!!
***
There are an endless stream
of rumours about teams breaking up and new teams in the works in both men’s and
women’s curling. The dust has not yet settled, but expect some big
announcements in the week to come. I will not report on any of the rumours that
I have heard. Instead I am going to make up teams that SHOULD exist, if only
for our entertainment:
- Jonathan Mead will
move to Quebec and play with me, BJ Neufeld and Jacques Dufresne on the
All-Bald Toe-Tucking All Stars. Mert Thompset will be our honorary 5th
man, and we will accept an application from Johnny Stewart if he is willing to
shave his remaining hair.
- Jamie Koe / Rob Ford
/ Justin Bieber and Paul Flemming on Team Drunken Bender. Team goals for the
year will be to remember where they parked the car.
- Me, Pauline Marois, PKP, and Bernard
Drainville: Team Quebec – with a bye directly to the World Championship! No
need to play in the Brier – we are a Nation! Probably the only way I will ever
get to play in a World Championship. It will however be difficult for me to
learn the proper French curling terminology. “Visez ma
brosse avec un pésenteur bloc de départ”. Ah Tabernouche.
- On the women’s side:
Anna Sidorova, Carmen Schaefer, Margarita Fomina (2nd on Sidorova’s
team) and the 3rd from team Sweden, for no reason other than the
team photo shoot.
- Laycock and Wang
need to form a Mixed Doubles team. I will
say no more.
(ed note: please excuse the political reference in the blog. Please note that if you do want to talk politics - the chat section of my blog is NOT the place to do so.)
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