The Regional playdowns are going on this weekend at Glenmore
and Dolbeau to determine the last 6 qualifiers for Quebec Men’s Provincials,
and amazingly I am not there!!!
My team qualified via the cash we won this year, finishing a
close second in the province behind Jean-Michel. (we were only about 20,000$ behind
them). Robert Desjardins has qualified via cash as well, and Steven Munroe won
the Circuit Provincial spot a few weeks ago.
I cannot tell you how ridiculously
happy I am to not be driving 7 hours alone in my car to Dolbeau to play an
extremely tough triple knockout regional the weekend before Christmas.
The final 6 will be determined in 2 regional playdowns that
are usually brutal weekends of curling. The draws can be found via the Curling
Quebec Website. Here is a link: http://www.curling.ca/quebecscores/#/
My picks (Although playdowns never work out as predicted):
East: Ferly, Richard and Robichaud. Maybe Caron.
West: Gagnon, Doyon and Wharry.
I would say the West is a big tossup – lots of teams can be
in the mix: Benoit (with the Trepannier brothers), Kennerknect, Max Dufresne
and others can easily provide a few upsets.
Also interesting: Felix Asselin with Lawren Steventon
playing 3rd, Possibly the only Junior-Masters combination team in the
history of the Quebec tankard. They will
be tough to beat playing on their home ice.
To tank or not to tank – that is the question.
Here is a hypothetical situation:
You are signed up in a round robin bonspiel. You have won
your first two games, and are assured of qualifying for the playoffs. You are
the last game to be played. You look at the draw, and realize that if you lose,
you fall into an easier section of the draw, and have a better chance of
winning the tournament. The team you are playing is eliminated from the playoffs
either way.
So do you tank the game?
In case you have not guessed, this situation happened
recently in a non-hypothetical way, to a team I will not name here. I will say
that the team in question lost the game where they were heavily favored, and
made some ridiculously bad calls and threw some very bad rocks in doing so. I
will not go as far as to say they tanked the game, but to those watching, it
was an entertaining spectacle, with one team trying to win and the other trying
to lose without appearing as if they were trying to lose. At very least, it was
a very strange game, with some very weird calls and one of the funniest
measures I have ever seen.
So is it wrong to lose on purpose? I am not sure. I can honestly
say that I have never tanked a game. It is just not in my DNA to do so. But was
the skip is question wrong for throwing the game? Or was it just intelligent
draw management….like giving the other team a point in the seventh end to keep
the hammer in 8. Honestly – I am not sure. If I had been in his spot, how
motivated would I have been to win? How would that have affected my
concentration? What if the other team had caught on to what was happening and just
decided to shake? I think this is not as clear cut as many make it out to be.
Anyway – feel free to comment below. Curious to get some
opinions on this. But if you name names – I will delete your comment!!!
Lesson to be learned here: Never run a round robin where one
game is played after all the other games are completed! This is why FIFA
starting playing the final 2 games of its round robin stage of the World Cup
simultaneously.
Where are all the women gone?
The Scotties playdowns are also this weekend. In an exciting
turn of events, 6 teams filled out the form, and qualify directly for
provincials.
6 teams. Out of all the curling clubs, out of all the female
curlers in Quebec, only 6 teams decided it was worthwhile trying out. Wow.
Where is everybody? I know a lot of competitive curlers have
dropped out because of pregnancy, families, life, etc. I guess the question is
why do women stop curling when they have families, whereas men seem to keep
playing? (not that the number of men’s teams is not also in decline!)
So how do we get more teams out? Should we offer free daycare
during the provincials? Should curling clubs make more of an effort to be more
family friendly? (like offering free babysitting during certain leagues – which
some clubs in the West already do).
Not sure what the solution is– but the lack of teams
reflects badly on the sport. The six teams that have signed up are all working
hard and practicing, but they would all benefit from having more local
competition to make them better.
