Screw you curling. Rated PG-13 (language)

Parental Warning: This Blog may contain language considered inappropriate for sailors and young children. Reader discretion is advised.

Screw you Curling!!!

No seriously. Screw you. I practice, I play, I say nice things about you...and you pay me back with a season like the one that just ended? C’mon.

Well I say SCREW YOU! (My middle fingers on both hands are fully extended and directed at my computer screen).

For the second year in a row, my team went into the regionals as the top seed. And for the 2^nd year in a row, we are not going to provincials. Not even close. We were just awful. I was awful. Well, maybe not awful, but just bad enough to lose three games and be knocked out in the C-Final.

Once again – with all due respect to the teams that beat us – we pretty much beat ourselves. It’s like we forgot how to win.

In our first loss, it was a goofy steal of two against Max Dufresne.

In our second loss, it was a steal of 3 to start the game against us, and then after a solid 5 ends, we gave up a retarded 4-banger in the 7^th end to Kevin Golberg.

In our 3^rd loss, we started by giving up an easy 4 (it should have been 5) in the 1^st end to Steeve Gagnon.

So we are out. Very out. My competitive season ends unceremoniously on January 8^th.

So I say again; screw you curling!

 I am done with you this year. You can kiss my badly-beaten 40 year-old-toe-tucking arse.

I used to say nice things about you – I used to defend you when people laughed at you. I used to say – “Curling is not as goofy as it looks – It’s actually fun and cool!”

When people laugh at you on TV   - I used to say “It’s really a great TV sport when you take the time to understand the game!”  Well no more. I will now join in those who mock you.  

When people say it is a sport for old people – I will nod in agreement.

When the assholes on Sports talk radio complain about the amount of curling coverage on TV – I will call in and agree with them. “More poker on TSN!” I will say.

At least for a little while.

***

Okay – enough bad news about me. How about some good news:

Felix Asselin, Marc-Alexandre Dion, Lewis South, and Sami Guimond-Jaber from Glenmore won the Quebec Junior provincials this weekend in Val d’Or.

This is a feel-good story: these are good kids. They play in the club. They are well-coached by Benoit Forget, who deserves a lot of the credit, both for their curling and their attitude.

Best of luck in Nappanee, Ontario at junior Nationals.

For those who have read my post from last week – these guys are a case study about how to integrate juniors into a curling club. Felix and Sami play front end in the Glenmore A-ladder for Lawren Steventon (who I believe went to a Brier 30 or 40 years ago). They play good games, and learn some curling smarts from an able veteran and learn some maturity in the process.  

***

The Skins game was on TSN this weekend. I only caught bits and pieces (was busy losing, as described earlier) - but from what I saw it was good TV. Koe made an “easy” triple take-out TV shot to win. Also - I have to say I got a bit of sick pleasure watching Glenn Howard play as badly as I did this weekend.

Rumour has it they are changing the format next year, with fan voting to select an all-star team to play. I say thank God – this event needs some fresh ideas.

Oh - 1 more thing. I know Casino Rama is a nice sponsor – but I got a little sick of the commercial with all the people with their arms up in the air supposedly celebrating their casino winning.

Seems to me they need to do a commercial with a bunch of people with their empty pockets hanging out to show both sides: (sadly, this is also the way we look in our team picture this year)

That and they kept showing the add for the Slide-and-Serve Meatloaf tray. I have enjoyed my mother's and wife's meatloaf out of a conventional pan my entire life (and have never once seen anything as disgusting looking as the meatloaf you see at the beginning of this video) and - yet I must have one. Damn you marketers!

Watch the commercial here: and it comes with a free slice-and serve knife!!!

http://youtu.be/niYQdLmWacw

Lego Construction and Elf Open-pit Mining

My apologies for taking too a while to blog over the holidays. I was busy - mostly putting together the endless piles of lego and Playmobile that my kids received for Christmas. Below is the Lego Ninja Fire Temple, and my son.

As a result, I am now a Lego God. I am thinking of adding a Lego room in my house. No I don't mean I am going to designate a room to store toys, I am actually going to build an extension on my house out of Lego. I think it would be awesome. Now I only need to find the instructions.

***

Let the Second Season begin.

This weekend I start the process of trying to reach the Brier. Western Quebec Regional playdowns start Friday at Glenmore Curling Club, and conclude Sunday Afternoon.

For those unfamiliar with how competitive curling works – there are really 2 seasons:

·         Season 1: Cash Season: where the teams play each other in tournaments trying to win money. Finishing in 2^nd a 3^rd place here is good – as you still win a fair amount of money.

·         Season 2: Playdown Season: Where everyone tries to win one big prize: A trip to the Brier. There is no 2^nd place.

There is actually a 3rd season - Team Change Season, which officially starts 1 minute after your team has been eliminated from Season 2, or sometimes even before. However, very little curling actually happens during season 3.

I love the Playdown process. When I started in competitive men’s curling in Montreal back in the early 90’s, playdowns used to consist of 80 or so teams playing down to send 3 or 4 teams to Provincials in a triple knockout. EIGHTY teams – just in Montreal.

I won the Montreal A qualifier in 1994 (I think) by winning SEVEN games in a row. Seven! To qualify through the C-section, Montreal teams usually had to play 12 or 13 games, over 9 or 10 days, in 9 or 10 different clubs. Playdowns were an insane test of curling and endurance. And I loved it. It was crazy, it was draining, but man it was fun.

But the playdowns are not what they used to be. This weekend, 12 teams will compete to send 4 to provincials to represent Western Quebec. In Eastern Quebec, 8 teams will play to send another 4 teams. (4 teams are already qualified through points: Menard, Reid, Desjardins and Ferland). So in the entire province, 24 teams are attempting to qualify to go to the Brier. Fifteen years ago, this number was well over a hundred. (Make no mistake - having fewer teams does not make it easier - all 12 teams are tough - there is no such thing as an easy game in playdowns).

This is not only a Quebec phenomenon. Other provinces are seeing similar declines in competitive participation. Women’s Curling is even more of a tragic tale. Curling Quebec will struggle to find eight women’s teams to play in provincials this year.

So why the decline? Where has everybody gone? Why does competitive curling appear to be in such decline?

The answer is not simple. In theory, curling should be benefitting from increased TV exposure and Olympic coverage. I also do not believe that participation levels in curling have declined as rapidly as the number of teams playing competitively.

I have 2 theories to explain the decline:

Theory 1: The good teams are too good

The fact is that there are only 5 or 6 teams that could conceivably win the province. So why should anyone else even try? So why would anyone take a week off of work to go to Quebec provincials in order to fill out the field, or waste $300 to play 3 or 4 games in the Regionals?

I hear this from a lot of teams as their excuse for not playing in playdowns, but to be honest – the same was true 20 years ago, and yet over a hundred teams tried out. Admittedly, it used to cost $100 to play in regionals, but I am not convinced that dropping the price would increase participation.

Theory 2:  Demographics:

Curling is getting older. The last 20 years have seen an exodus of people in their 20s and 30s from the game. Clubs have done a poor job of keeping junior curling alive, and in integrating juniors into adult curling once they grow up. Also, it is just not easy for people in their 20’s and 30’s to curl. We all have jobs, and mortgages, and kids, and whatever - that make it impractical to commit to curling competitively.

Participation is still high in Seniors curling in Quebec and Canada.

So what do we need to do?

1.       To deal with Theory 1: The Club Series: Curling Quebec has actually taken a very intelligent approach to this problem. They are spending a lot of time and $$$ supporting “Club Series” events, aimed at providing Club-level curlers with competitions where they have a chance of winning. The Dominion has created a National Championship for Club Curlers, and word is spreading about just how good thsi event is.

2.       To Deal with theory 2: Rebuild the base:  Support junior curling. And not only competitive junior curling. Junior curling needs to be fun, and not only for the 1 team per club playing competitively. Clubs need to be social clubs for juniors, more than just another activity that they play between 9-11 Saturday mornings. If your Club does not have a solid junior program – then shame on you. A lot of clubs have a difficult time finding volounteers to run a junior program. If this is the case - then hire poeple. Hire kids who are just out of juniors -who can animate and teach the younger kids.

As I have said before - curling is in danger of becoming like the luge - a quirky Olympic sport that only a few weird people actually try. 

Quebec Junior Provincials:

Quebec Junior Provincials are going on this weekend in balmy Val d’Or (temperature at 8PM last night: minus 26).

In case you are not up on your Quebec geography, Val d’Or is located about a few hours North of, well nowhere. It is a few kilometres South of Santa’s North Pole toy production facility. Fortunately, elves who are not qualified as toymakers for Santa can find employment working as miners in Val d’Or’s open-pit gold mines (see below), or as hunting and fishing guides.  

Favorites:

Boys: Felix Asselin from Glenmore, Jean-Benoit Milot and Jeff Stewart from Valleyfield – who should have won last year.

Girls: Roxanne Perron from Quebec, and possibly Allison and L isaDavies from Glenmore. Lisa plays in the Glenmore ladder with Tom Wharry, so she has learned how to drink Labatt 50 and to how to win curling games. Both will serve her well.

Two tickets to the gun show

Twas the blog before Christmas...

First of all; please excuse my lack of blogging for the last couple of weeks. I could make up a lame excuse about being busy with pregnant wife/kids/holidays whatever...but the truth is I just did not feel like it.

The season competitive cash season was long and not particularly fruitful this year...the team account finished well in the red. And we definitely lost some extremely frustrating and disappointing games. When things are not going well, competitive curling almost feels like a job.

To sum up our season - we had some good moments, but we lost 3 C-qualifiers, which all together total about $10,000 worth of defeats. But more importantly, we lost games that we should not have lost. If we had lost to teams curling 100%, it would somehow feel a little less painful. But that is not how we lost. We lost by making mistakes - by choosing the wrong shot, by missing the wrong shot, by miscalling line. With all due respect to the teams that beat us: we beat ourselves. 

So, in short, I needed a couple of weeks to not think about competitive curling - to not think about the fact that we now have to play down in a very tough west regional playdown to get to provincials - to not think about what we need to do different next time we step on the ice to keep from defeating ourselves.

So I tried to remember that curling is fun. I played some ladder games in the club. I practiced. I remembered why I love this game so much. I made some shots, I missed some shots. We won some games, we had some drinks. It is good to remember that curling is about making shots, at whatever level you play at. There is an understated elegance to a perfectly executed curling shot; it feeds the ego with a sense of accomplishment. I think this is why the “On purpose” CCA commercial works so well. It just feels good to make shots.

I believe it was Pitbull (an honorary member of Team Fournier), who while providing backup vocals to Enrique Iglesias, so wisely stated: “You gonna like how it feels”.

Oh Pitbull, will you ever cease to provide us with your eternal wisdom?

 ***

So what has been going in the curling world since I last blogged?

First of all, Jean Michel qualified in the Grand Slam. For those who do not follow curling that closely, let me tell you that this is HUGE. The Slam features a who’s who in World Curling. And JM proved that he belonged there, losing a tight game on a measure to eventual winner Mike McEwen of Winnipeg in the 1/4 finals. This is a great result for these guys, who now are by far the favourites heading into Quebec provincials this year.  (by the way - shame on the CBC who missed the opportunity to show the McEwen-Menard game, instead of yet another Stoughton/Martin game).

Joëlle Sabourin also had a big win. She is playing 2^nd for Jennifer Jones, filling in for Jill Officer while she is in the family way. They won the Canada Cup of Curling – a big CCA event that features most of the top teams in the country.

And it’s always nice to see Joëlle on TV. And check out those biceps! Christmas gift suggestion: 2 tickets to the gun show!

***

5 rocks?

Other big news in curling is the 5-rock rule. The Grand Slam experimented with the 5-rock free guard zone, meaning that the team with the hammer gets to put a 2^nd unremovable guard up if they so choose.

The big impact of this is a team with a lead will have a more difficult time peeling out a game, as the opposition is guaranteed at least 2 guards per end if they choose. I think it will reward teams that can make runbacks and freezes.

Predictably, at the Grand Slam it amounted to a lot more rocks in play and some more offensive curling – which is all good news as far as I am concerned. It definitely makes it harder to play defence, but here is a bold prediction: the best teams will find a way to win with this rule as well, just like they did with the 4-rock rule.

Suggestion to all curling clubs: play the last round of your league with the 5-rock rule this year – it is surely coming soon – and it will give everyone something to talk about.

***

So what is next?

Regional playdowns are set for Jan 6-7-8 at Glenmore and I believe Etchemin. This year's participation is at an all time low (which I will talk about in a later blog) - with 12 teams at Glenmore and 8 at Etchemin, playing for 4 spots in each region. The low particpation does not make it any easier for us; the West playdown features 12 pretty strong teams (if you include us!).   

***

A very Merry Christmas to all of my loyal readers.

I will surely blog after the holidays as we head into regional playdowns and then provincials. In the meantime, wish us luck! Or more importantly, wish us fun.

Screw you Charlevoix part deux - featuring Pitbull

Back from Charlevoix...and looking forward to over a month off from competitive curling.

Once again - Charlevoix provided me with disappointing results - lost the C-qualifier to Serge Reid in a very disappointing and frustrating game. We gave up a brutal steal of 4 in an end that looked very promising, and quickly turned into a nightmare.
So I say again - SCREW YOU CHARLEVOIX.

I won't go as far as to say that I will never go back, because, deep down, I know I will.

***

Speaking of frustration  - I was thinking about this...
Is there any sport that can match curling in terms of sheer ability to frustrate you?
Golf can be frustrating  - and I have wanted to fling a putter or two in my life - but for my money - curling wins hands down. I think its because the difference between glorious success and complete failure is so small:
A takeout that ticks a guard by 1mm is completely useless - but if it gets by it is a perfect shot...
Golf seems far less arbitrary.

***

Johnny the Hammer Chow (aka Terence Yip) was in Charlevoix this year. He stars in a cool ad campaign that the CCA has come up with to try to get people curling...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150416846229065

Apparently these are also available in French  - and we will be seeing more of these...


***

Charlevoix was surprisingly won by Brad Gallant from PEI. This is poetic justice for all of us that made fun of Eddie Mackenzie, the horrid 1-10 PEI team from last year's Brier. I think we got the Islanders mad at us...Gallant knocked off Brad Gushue in the finals.

***

Here is some random venting. To all tournament organizers out there:  First of all - thanks for all of your hard work - BUT
CAN YOU PLEASE REMEMBER THAT SOME OF US HAVE JOBS!!!

Every spiel we play in now seems to start earlier and earlier. Charlevoix started teams at 7:30am Thursday this year. More than half of the teams were out by Friday night - Saturday morning at the latest. Only four teams play Sunday.
I did not study the open draw - but I hear it was just as awful.

I like curling - but if every spiel costs everyone 2+ days of vacation - then don't be surprised that participation is down. Charlevoix has been getting away with it because they do so many things right - but I heard a lot of complaining this year.

I seem to remember a few years ago, curling was an activity that you could play on weekends.

***

Curling on TV.

A new era is starting in Quebec this week. RDS2 will begin broadcasting curling - and lots of it. RDS2 is set to broadcast over 100 games this year (I did not know there were more than 100 games to watch)
The Canada Cup kicks off this weekend, and will feature the usual suspects curling for cash this weekend - and RDS will cover the semis and finals.

This is a new opportunity for curling in Quebec - where the sport is - let's admit it - in rapid decline.

While the Olympics have given curling a great deal of exposure in the last decade - this exposure has not translated into participation. Curling needs a boost. And a bunch of people watching on TV has potential.

Here is hoping that Guy Hemmings and whoever else broadcasts the game can add colour and excitement to draw in viewers - and to convince them that they should try this sport.

The art however lies in getting people to join, not just try. Curling Clubs are very good at setting up "Come try curling for a day" events, but are notoriously bad at converting trials into memberships. It is easy to get people in the door - but clubs are not set up to get them to stay.
Too often - new members get thrown into crappy leagues on crappy teams with people who suck at curling, and are left to try to figure out the game for themselves. Not only that - if somebody walks into a curling club now - they will likely be told that the leagues have already started for the year, so come back in September.
(I am speaking in generalities of course - some clubs integrate new members very well).

So tip for curling clubs - don't try to organize "Come try Curling" days until you have seriously thought about how to seal the deal. Curling on TV presents a real opportunity to grow our sport. Let's not screw it up!

***

Okay - not related to curling at all...
Why is it that every song you hear these days is featuring Pitbull? Who is this Pitbull? Where did he come from?
I was watching TV with my daughter - and I swear I saw Barney the Dinosaur - featuring Pitbull.

So from now on - our team is no longer Team Fournier - we are now Team Fournier featuring Pitbull. I will get him do do a little rap before we start each game.

"Yo - all you mother F&?&*ers on the curling sheet -
Took me all season to get my life unstuck-
Now Team Fourniers gonna run over you like a Tonka Truck."

You stay classy, Charlevoix

Yes, I am curling in Charlevoix this weekend. For those of you who are regular readers of my blog, after a humbling 1-3 performance in last year’s event, I wrote “Screw you Charlevoix” and vowed never to return to the place that has brought me so little success in recent years.

Well, like a strung-out junkie returning to his dealer for another hit, I am back for more. Hit me one more time Charlevoix.

The unavoidable truth is that Charlevoix is simply the best spiel in Quebec. We start Thursday morning against Dan Petryk, an affable dentist from Calgary. Should be fun.

And of course- we will hear from my favourite band in the world, the 2-person band that plays the party every year at the Curling club. They do not speak a word of English – but bravely perform a mostly English set of songs, often mangling the words.

Classics from the past:

From ACDC: “She was a fax machine, she kept her motor clean...

From the Black-Eyed Peas: “Tonight gonna be a good night”

This year I am expecting:

 “Hive got fashion in my pants hand I hate afraid to schewitt - Hi m’sexy and Hi know it” by the Black Eyed Peas

And of course “Honda Floor” by JLo

***

When did I become an old curler.

This week I will be playing in Charlevoix, and on Thursday I turn 40.

For years – I always felt like a young kid in the curling world. I always felt like I was just out of juniors – throwing big takeouts and challenging the old guys. But somewhere along the line I became an old guy.   I still feel like I curl the same, if not better than when I was 30, or 20. My wavy Stoughton-esque hair used to billow behind me as I effortlessly threw peels, whereas today I find myself wearing hats to keep my head warm.  I fully expect to have to start rubbing Tiger Balm or some other vile-smelling cream on my joints to continue toe-tucking in the next few years.

I am definitely smarter than I was then, although it does not seem to help me win that many more games. Maybe being young and foolish has its advantages on a curling sheet as well. Oh well, here’s hoping my forties bring me as much pleasure and fun as I’ve had curling up ‘til now.   

***

I curled in Brantford this weekend in the Sun Life Classic. It was a great spiel, and a fun experience. I just wish I would have curled a bit better. We lost 3 out of 4, and were out by Saturday night.

Strange set of winners on the men’s side – despite all the big names present the finals featured two underdog European sides. The spiel was eventually won by Niklas Edin from Sweden, a great guy who does not let his lack of English language skills limit his ability to hit on women. I remember not too long ago you would look forward to playing the European teams, as they were an easy win. But no more.

***

While our curling was not top notch – Brantford did provide a great reminder of what makes competitive curling great. Saturday night I shared drinks, laughs and fun with people from Saskatchewan, Sweden, Minnesota, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Newfoundland and all places in between. While there are a few assholes in every group, for the most part competitive curlers are fun, nice people.

***

 Our drive up to Brantford sucked. We got caught behind an accident on the 401 in Trenton, and spent almost 4 hours not moving on the highway. It was only made liveable by the fact that we watched Anchorman – the Legend of Ron Burgundy on my laptop while waiting . You stay classy San Diego.

Btw - my Movember moustache currently looks very Ron Burgundy-like.

***

The other Quebec teams also fared pretty poorly in Brantford, JM Menard was out on Saturday, as was Marie-France Larouche. But fortunately, this provided an opportunity for Eric Sylvain (Jean-Michel’s 2^nd) to put on an indescribable display of dancing prowess in the hospitality room at the hotel. Jean-Michel is in serious danger of losing Eric to the next edition of So You Think You Can Dance Canada.  Let’s hope the tryouts don’t conflict with Provincials.

***

The Dominion kicks off this week in Richmond Hill, BC. Good luck to all participants.

The Dominion is quickly becoming the most talked about event in Canada. It is a national competition for club level curlers - a sort of Amateur Championship. It is a great reminder of what curling should be about. It’s social, it’s fun and it is a sport for everyone.

Circuit Wrap-up, Numbers on Jackets and Super Mario!

I am just coming off another glamorous weekend of curling - this time at Glenmore for the Quebec Curling tour championships.

On the men's side - (and the seniors) - the event serves as a preview of men's provincials. The same teams will inevitable clash at provincials 2 months from now - so the Circuit serves as an advanced scouting of what provincials will look like.

It was a rather draining weekend - we somehow managed to lose the right combination of games so as to have to play 9 games between Thursday night and Sunday afternoon - before losing a tight game in the semi-finals to eventual winner JM Menard.
Today I have a sexy 2-pack-a-day smoker voice, I feel like crap , and I didn't even have to sweep anything for more than 6 feet. Imagine how bad my front end must feel.

So here are some random notes and observations from the event:

* JM Ménard has not lost a lot of games this year. They again won a tournament undefeated. They are playing very, very well and seem to be focused on becoming a top Canadian team. They will face a good test in Brantford next weekend - at the Sun Life Classic - where they will face the top teams in Canada.

* Simon Dupuis lost the final - somehow managing to sneak into the finals with some bizarre comebacks in both the 1/4 finals and semi-finals. He was down 3 playing the last end against Francois Roberge in the semis, and somehow managed to pull off an ugly victory. sadly the final was an ass-kicking - it lasted about as long as one of Simon's smoke breaks- not surprising given that it was their 10th game in the tournament! It looked like they just ran out of gas.

* Not a great weekend for Serge Reid, Team Hemmings and Robert Desjardins, all surprisingly eliminated before the playoffs. Surprise of the weekend was JF Royer from TMR - who qualified B-side before they managed to pull defeat from the jaws of victory in the 1/4 finals against Dupuis.

* On the women's side, Kim Mastine beat Laura Thomas in the finals. Surprising run by Laura. A good win for Kim who was having a rough season so far.

* In Seniors - Robbie MacLean looked kinda dominant  -winning without seemingly having a close game.

***
Speaking of seniors, they were especially grumpy this weekend. They are complaining to Curling Quebec about the fact that there are no longer money spots at Seniors Provincials...(the 12 teams at Provincials will be the 12 teams that win their respective regional qualifiers). I think they definitely have a point. I am guessing that CQ might rethink this for next season.

***

Off to Brantford Ontario this weekend for the Sun Life Classic!

Can't wait. Our 9 game curling marathon this weekend will definitely have prepared us well...still need to be a bit more consistent.

The draw is available at http://www.sunlifeclassic.com/ and actually looks pretty cool.

***

Numbers on jackets.
Possibly the lamest trend in curling these days is to put numbers on curling jackets. It is actually a requirement now to curl in a Grand Slam event that your team have names AND numbers on the backs of their shirts and jackets. Not sure if the World Curling Tour thinks that this will lead to people actually confusing curlers with athletes...
But my team is jumping on the numbers bandwagon - our jackets are in the shop as we speak getting numbered.
For my countless fans - I will now be number 21, in case you were planning on having it tattooed on a body part, shaving it into the side of your head or planning on buying a Team Fournier jersey for your loved one for Christmas.


***

Thanks to those of you who entered my "favorite curler for a laptop contest"...

And the winner is:

Andrew Ouellette!
Andrew is an all-around nice guy and longtime curler at Lachine Curling Club, who actually taught me how to curl on my first time on the ice - some 26 years ago.
I will get in touch with Andrew this week about claiming his prize.
Thanks again to the folks at HP for this generous giveaway.

Big thanks to those who entered. There were some interesting choices:

I especially enjoyed the Dale Ness flatulence story. Few in Quebec competitive curling have not experienced Dale's ability to change the momentum in a game by producing a think, green gaseous cloud that makes concentration and shot making impossible.
Strangely, the only person to have matched Dale's intestinal prowess over the years is a prominent competitive female curler (who shall remain nameless) - who took pride in making opposing teams suffer.

***
My moustache is only 2 weeks old - and I already want to shave it. It is getting itchy, bushy, it smells like the chili I ate yesterday and my wife no longer wants to touch me. So far I have been told that I look like a pedophile, a Nazi, Dupont et Dupont (from Tintin), a French police inspector and my personal favorite:
Super Mario if Super Mario was also bald. (although it is hard to tell if he is not really bald - he always wears a hat in the video game.)

So you need to give generously to make this hardship worthwhile!!!

To donate - follow this link:
http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1855326/

You even get a tax receipt for your generosity. its very easy - a few clicks and done!

Free Laptops and 70s Porn Star Moustaches

Busy weekends of curling these days...While Team Fournier has been taking some time off, there has been lots of curling.

Grand Slam – World Cup of Curling

The first Grand Slam was this weekend, with Glenn Howard beating John Epping in the finals. It was a great run by Team Epping – who I boldly predicted would have a big year.

There was some interesting TV – I enjoyed the McEwen-Howard quarter-final on Saturday afternoon.

For those of you who missed it – McEwen was one-down playing 8 with last rock. On McEwen’s last rock – he was faced with a choice: a really tough in-off on a rock 6 inches from the boards for 2 points and the win – or a simple draw to the 4-foot to force an extra end.

I think McEwen is the only big team in the world that would have tried shot A. He tried it, just missed it – and lost. Most wise older curlers would surely make the easy draw and take their chances in the extra end...but McEwen is so sure that he will make everything that he tried a seemingly low % shot for the win.

So what was he thinking? Was he sure that Howard would beat him in the extra end? Or was he sure that he would make a really tough in-off?

Who knows – but you have to respect a guy that goes for the big shot – even if he ends up looking like Tin Cup sometimes.

***

Crappy Moustaches:

It’s November, so that means it’s time for many male (and sadly a few female) curlers to grow some tragic facial hair in support for Prostate Cancer research in the increasingly popular Movember movement.

I too have joined this trend, as evidenced here:

I believe I either look like a bus driver, or a 70’s porn star. Not sure which one is better.

Sadly, I am growing this to support a former club mate and friend at Lachine who I recently found out is fighting the big C. He is one of the most positive and optimistic guys I have ever had the pleasure of curling with – and I am sure he will fight this fight the same way.

So give generously...here is the link:

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/1855326/

***

Free laptop for one of my readers!

The good folks at HP have donated a free laptop for me to give away to one of my readers! As I mentioned last week – they are sponsoring Team Gushue, and are throwing some love my way as a result of my ever increasing on-line blogger popularity.

Here it is:

 HP Notebook

So – if you want to win a notebook – here is what I need you to do:

Post a comment here or on my Facebook Link saying who your favourite curler is (past or present) and why.

Example: “Eve Muirhead is my favourite curler because of the way she holds her bagpipes”. Or “Hec Gervais is my favourite curler because of his kick-ass sideburns and because he was the Gentle Giant”. Be creative. The contest is open for one week.

I will randomly pick a winner from entries.

Special consideration will not be given for those who shower me with free drinks – although you are welcome to try.

(To my mother: please do not enter the contest by saying that Mike Fournier is your favourite curler)

Thanks to HP for this cool giveaway – and keep sponsoring curling teams and curling in general!