Le Skipper a Drawé en Tabarnouche ce soir!

Best Night So Far at the Scotties

Thursday night provided some great shot-making, some reason to cheer for the hometown fans and some atmosphere in the Maurice Richard Arena.

Val Sweeting and Chelsea Carey played a very entertaining game that came down to last shot. Carey missed a runback by a hair to give Sweeting the win, but left the fans puzzled as to why she did not play an easier, 4-foot double runback on the other side of the sheet. Time was a huge factor in this one; with both teams making some strange last-end calls likely the result of only having less than a minute left of time on the clock before throwing their last rocks. There were a lot of rocks in play and many trick angles to consider in very little time.

Quebec provided the week’s largest crowd with something to cheer about. They beat Ontario in a well played game to finish off the week at 2-9, tied for last place with terminally cute Sarah Koltun from the Yukon. (I am told that Yukon will play the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and PEI (?) in the relegation round last year. From what I understand, Quebec has avoided the relegation round because they are using the average record over the last 3 years to determine the teams that are relegated. Phew!) It was fun to see them playing well in front of an appreciative crowd.

This was by far the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd of the week (over 2500 according to the attendence numbers). Curling Quebec held a past champions night to honor all the players that ever represented Quebec at the Scotties. Great Idea! They all wore their blue jackets, and sat together in the crowd. It also made for a good crowd afterwards in the HeartStop Lounge. I think they should also have invited Quebec’s past Brier participants. It is rather unlikely that Quebec will ever host a Brier again, so it would have been nice to get everyone out for the party!

Playoff Picture Set

Playoffs start tonight, with the Homanator taking on Chelsea Carey in the 1-2 game, while Sweeting takes on Lawton in the 3-4 game tomorrow afternoon. Go and watch! The 4 teams that have qualified have been making great shots all week and putting up some monstrously high stats. If we can duplicate the atmosphere from Thursday night for the playoffs, we should be in for a great weekend.

Curling en Francais SVP

I was at home this morning pretending to work this morning, while watching the game on RDS2 with Marie-France Larouche replacing Guy in the commentator’s booth. She did a great job, but I had to laugh every time she went to say “hack weight”, and instead corrected herself with the proper French terminology: “pésenteur  bloc de départ”, and had to say “pierre avec effet extérieur” instead of outturn. I curl with three rather unilingual French guys, and we have never used any of the terms she uses.  I am all for making the sport more accessible to the Francophone community in Quebec, but I think it might be time for the Office de la Langue Française to accept “Hack” and “Drawer” (as in “le skip  a drawé en tabarnouche ce soir”) as legitimate French terms. While they are at it, they can ad “Birdie” instead of “oiselet” when covering golf!!!

On a Personal Note:

I finished 2^nd in the Karaoke contest at the HeartStop with an alcohol-fueled,  stirring rendition of “Burning Love” by Elvis. For my effort I won $50, some hair-care products (that should come in handy) and a bag full of Scotties paper products; such as toilet paper, tissue and Scott towels. Here is Quebec lead Pam Nugent with my trophy! I am told there is a video of the song, which mercifully has not been put on-line anywhere. Woo hoo!

Why are all the teams the same color as Saskatchewan's jackets?

So far, the big story at the Scotties has been the flu, or food poisoning, or the plague, or whatever has been passed around more than a cold sore at the Brier patch.

Here is a pic of me at the Scotties – Day 4:

Definitely worst job this week: hotel cleaning lady at the Westin! Almost every sheet has a 5th player on the ice, and Saskatchewan and BC have had to play with 3 players. The Quebec second just left their game after the 5th end, looking a lovely shade of Saskatchewan green. The players are in full sanitizing mode, no more shaking hands or sharing lip gloss in the locker room. I actually saw someone Purell her rock before throwing.

As for the actual curling, Homan seems to be back to her juggernaut form from last year, tearing through the competition only slightly less violently than the flu. Val Sweeting has looked good as well. If Saskatchewan can manage to keep finding 3 or 4 people healthy enough to curl, they are looking good for a playoff spot as well.

Feel good story of the week is definitely the Koltun team from the Territories, who have quickly become the crowd favorites (apart from Quebec of course). They are all younger than my sliding broom, and cuter than an internet cat video. You have to cheer for them.

There will be an interesting battle at the bottom as teams fight to not fall into the bottom 2, as these provinces will have to face RELEGATION. This means that they will have to return home and tell all of their peers that as a result of their bad week, next year’s winner will have to play a pre-Scotties playdown in order to get into the tournament. Not an enviable position. I am hoping Quebec can pull a few wins out in the next few games to avoid that pressure at the end of the week!

So how is Montreal doing so far as a host?

Well, hit and miss. The site is awesome, the ice is awesome, the crowds have been okay. The HeartStop Lounge has been fun. And we have fans in Morph suits:

However, the concessions stands have been a bit shaky. I am sitting in the only arena in Quebec where I can’t buy a hot dog or a poutine. I was unaware that you could call yourself an arena if you don’t sell poutine. The local rink in the park sells poutine. The churches sell poutine.  How can the Quebec Scotties not have poutine available in the stands?

And did I mention we can’t buy beer in the arena. Really. I believe I have never watched a live curling game without alcohol. It is a strange experience. I saw Dan Gregoire walking around the crowd looking lost. I barely recognized him without a beer in his hands.

The Scotties Starts Today!!!

It has been a long time coming. I have been curling in Montreal for almost 30 years, and we have never hosted either of Canada's major curling championships, the Brier or the Scotties.   

So let’s answer some of the questions from the average fan on the street about the Scotties:

1. Why is it called the Scotties?

The tournament is named for the tissue paper brand, owned by Krueger Paper, that has been a generous sponsor of the tournament since before I started curling. Appropriate that the main sponsor is a tissue company, as there is usually crying following the finals, by both the winning and losing teams.

2. Its being held in Montréal. Really? There is curling in Montréal? Who knew?

Yes Montréal. The land of strip bars, poutine and les Canadiens can host a major national curling event.

The Montréal and Quebec curling world is evolving from an English-dominated sport 20-30 years ago to a much more bilingual if not francophone curling community. This will be a good test to see if Montreal can support a national championship, and might provide a much-needed boost to the Quebec curling scene. I think everyone is holding their breath, hoping that Maurice Richard Arena will not seem cavernous. I am somewhat optimistic; pretty much everyone I know in the curling world around here is going, at least for a draw or 2. The local organizers will be hoping for a few early-week wins from the Quebec Team to put some more arses in seats.

I have seen a lot in the English media – but my Saturday La Presse did not dedicate a single drop of ink to the event (although they did pick up some articles on-line). I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the hockey-obsessed Journal de Montreal will publish an in-depth analysis of the Sept-Iles – Rouyn Noranda junior hockey game from last night, but might have a brief fluff piece on the Scotties at best. SIGH.

3. Who are the favorites? Tell me about the teams.

Defending Champ Rachel Homan (Team Canada) is surely the odds-on favorite to win. They curled like cyborgs last year sent back from the future to destroy Jennifer Jones, and have been curling a ton in the build-up to the Olympic Qualifying. But she has not played well of late, and looked to be suffering a bit of a crisis of confidence at the Olympic Trials. She seems to be fighting her outturn, which was her bread and butter last year. Her team is often considered to be rather robotic. They are all business on the ice. The over-under for the amount of time Rachel will smile is at 7 for the week.

Chelsea Carey (Man) and Val Sweeting (Alta) are both strong young teams that had their coming out parties at the Olympic Trials. I would expect to see them in the playoffs.  

Stephanie Lawton (Sask) is one of the few “veteran” teams in this young field. Heather Smith (NS)  also has some recent playoff experience. Andrea Crawford from NB has also performed well at the national level.

The BC and Ontario teams are young as well, a few years out of junior, and the team from the Territories are still in junior, they competed at the Junior National Championship few weeks ago in NS.

I am guessing that about half the field was not even born when I started curling. Okay I feel old now.

4. Is the local Quebec Team any good?

Allison has a good solid team. I think they will have to play over their heads to be in playoff contention, but who knows maybe the home field advantage will give them a boost. Go Team Quebec! I am sure the local organizers will be cheering hard, as a home team will draw fans.

5. Who is going to win?

What am I psychic? The team that plays the best. (Tough to bet against Homan though without Jenny Jones in the field)

6. Why should I pay money to go and watch curling?

The curling will be excellent. The atmosphere at live curling is usually a lot of fun.

A national curling championship is a rather unique event: it provides a rare opportunity to meet people from all over the country, and curlers and curling fans tend to be a very accessible, friendly bunch.

Curling is also about the after-party. There is a conveniently located “HeartStop Lounge”, basically a big temporary bar located across the parking lot from the venue. They will have live bands, music and booze during and after the game. Your access to the site gives you access to the bar as well!!! (which is good – because I have heard a nasty rumour that they will not be selling beer in the arena)

Also, (how do I put this to not get in trouble with my wife), this is also one of the youngest Scotties by my memory, meaning the average age is probably in the mid twenties…oh what the Hell I will just say it – there are a lot of hot curlers to watch, if that sort of thing appeals to you. I of course will only be watching the curling.

This is Mike Fournier Reporting for Muppet News - no wait The Curling News!

The Scotties will be starting next week in my home town of Montreal. I get to cover the event as a member of the media, blogging for The Curling News. (Must remember to not blog under the influence). I will try to follow the lead of my favorite journalist:

I am guessing that the organizing committee and the entire Montreal curling world are pretty much holding their breath right now, hoping that people will come and see the event.

It is being held at the Maurice Richard Arena, next to the Olympic Stadium is the East End of Montreal. The big question on people’s mind is: will anyone show up?

I am sure the traveling curling crowd and the local curling fan base will guarantee at least a few thousand in the crowd, but I am struggling to see where the rest of the crowd will come from.

Montreal curling is in a state of decline, but there are good news stories and signs of hope. Three or four curling clubs are doing relatively well in terms of membership and participation (including my own), 4-5 more are doing “okay”, and the rest are suffering. Many clubs know that their days are numbered; some are artificially kept alive by the municipality that owns or runs them. 

So the question is: how many people will come out and support the event? The challenge that Montreal will face in drawing fans is mainly one of distraction. Unlike a lot of smaller cities that usually host the Scotties, Montreal has a lot going on, and the media here do not give a flying@##?& about curling. So just getting the word out that the event is happening is a monstrous challenge. The English media is a little easier to penetrate, but they speak to a relatively small audience. The hockey and boxing-obsessed French sports media in Montreal will likely not devote much effort to covering the Scotties, although I hope I am wrong. I am sure RDS (the French TSN) will be on sight, unlike their usual studio-bound coverage where Guy talks over the TSN feed. God help us if Michel Therrien gets fired the week of the Scotties – you would not hear a peep about curling anywhere except my blog!

The week will provide us an opportunity to see how good Curling Quebec and the CCA will be at creating some excitement in the French media. So far, I have seen some easy to overlook ads in the French papers, and my Facebook always seems to tell me about the event in the ads section (I assume this is because I “liked” curling or something similar). But I am curious to see how the local media is brought into the event. Hopefully they will get the morning shows out to try, and promote the event through media activity. The National Mixed at TMR a few years ago was a much-smaller scale success, with a decent number of attendees and some well-planned media activity. 

If you are in Montreal – go watch some games! Experience the atmosphere of a National Championship. You will not be disappointed! You Gotta be There!  (and if you need a place to crash, I have an air mattress in my attic!)

 ***

My blog before Christmas “What the Olympics have done to Competitive Curling” has certainly generated a lot of discussion. I even got a response from Nolan Thiessen – lead for Team Koe. Here is the link.

www.teamkoe.ca

Just want to clarify:

I do not begrudge the top teams in Canada for reaping the rewards. I know how much hard work and sacrifice is involved in competing at that level. But I still maintain that curling cannot just be about 10 teams – and resources should be spent accordingly.

And please do not get me started on the Continental Cup. That was just painful to watch. I am a diehard curling fan – and I was at Provincials with lots of time to kill between draws and nothing else to watch – but it was PAINFUL. I don’t care if it is another 25 hours of curling coverage on TV. I don’t begrudge the teams that played in it – hell if the CCA offered to fly me to Vegas for a 5-day party, I would say Viva Las Vegas, pull out my Elvis suit and hit the strip faster than you can say “Hit Me again Mr. Dealer!”, even if I had to curl mixed doubles with Rachel Homan. But I say again – it WAS PAINFUL.

I admit I am not always in the know, and if anyone wants to correct me - please do, but I have heard from "people" that the Continental Cup and the Canada Cup cost the CCA money. Not sure if the move to Vegas helped, but I am assuming not. I still find it hard to believe that this is the best way to promote the growth of the sport – or even the development of the elite. I just don’t get it.

***

As I post this blog, my buddy and Mixed bromance partner Greg Balsdon is 6-1 at the Ontario Tankard – and playing Glenn Howard this afternoon.  GO BALLSY!!! I think I will put my Balsdon shirt on around the house today.

Curling depression - and my unrequited love for a sliding broom.

Communique from my basement:

 


I have not left my house in days. Since our crushing last rock defeat against JM Menard in the semi-final of the Quebec Provincial Curling Championship, I have not left my basement.  I have not shaved. I have not showered. I have not changed out of my curling pants.

I simply walk around in circles, muttering “out-turn double, I don’t think my rock can go through that hole without taking out one of his” over and over again. I don’t sleep. When I do drift off, I am almost immediately shaken awake by the haunting image of JM’s rock sliding across the house, but not out. I have become a collection of nervous tics and tremors. I am a wreck.

I lay on my couch, covered in chip crumbs and empty beer cans, waiting for the memory to fade, waiting for the anguish to subside. I contemplate whacking myself in the forehead with my 8-ender brush “Brad Heidt-style”, hoping to induce some form of curling amnesia that could exorcise the last few days out of my brain. I have written a song to express my mood. 

***

But seriously, I don’t know if it’s because I’m older and grizzled, but I just don’t feel that bad. Despite my loss, my kids were still happy to see me, and I seem to have realized pretty quickly that life does go on, despite a gut-wrenching defeat at the hands of JM, who will again represent Quebec at this year’s Brier in March in Kamloops. Shit Happens.

It would be easy to hate curling. But the fact is it is hard to hate a game that can stir up so much emotion and drama. As cliché as it sounds, there is always next year. But thanks to all who have reached out to me in support! I am okay. Really.

***

It was a compelling week of curling and drama in Val d’Or, with Allison Ross winning the Scotties over Kim Mastine, and JM defeating Phil Lemay in a seemingly unexciting Tankard final. Some quick highlights:

• Allison is a very deserving champion. They were the class of the field, and clearly outplayed Kim Mastine in the final. They work harder than any team in Quebec, and it shows in how well they execute. I am hoping she can improve on her Scotties showing from last year.
• A good run from Kim,although they seemed to falter in the end. They will be back.
• An impressive Bronze medal for Roxanne Perron, who showed she had a lot of game, defeating the 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the round robin. She would have found herself in the final if not for a late-week loss to the local team with only one win on the week. This looks like a promising team for years to come. Plus, they have a great coach!
• Tough loss for Eve Belisle in her last game to be eliminated. She came up a foot short on an extra-end draw against Ross to make semis.
• Lemay has become the Buffalo Bills of Quebec curling, losing 3 finals in a row. You have to feel bad for them, they beat Menard 2out 3 times, but not at the right time. Phil played a simple, hard-hitting style of curling that was especially effective when he had a lead. I did not stay for the final (as I was driving back from Val d’Or alone in my car replaying the last end in my head for seven hours), but I hear it was never really close. An early 4 sealed JM’s return to the Brier.
• Not many rumours as to who is sticking together or breaking apart next year (or at least I was not aware of them!), but I am guessing you will see some changes in the teams that finished out of the playoffs.   
• Great job by the organizers in Val d’Or. The club, the facilities, the volunteers, the ice, the committee, the officials, were all second to none. Despite the long drive, everyone seemed to have a great time. Val d'Or itself seemed especially hospitable; the temperature never fell to the -20 I was expecting.
• Denis Robichaud is my new favorite team. Denis and his team are relatively new curlers (most are still eligible for Colts, meaning less than 5 years!), but they played great all week. They beat Reid and Desjardins, and came within a hair of beating JM. More importantly, they reminded us just how much fun the game is. They showed up to almost every draw where they were not playing, and created a wild atmosphere behind the glass, singing, gambling and cheering every shot. One of them even played “Scotland the Brave” on a harmonica. Curling in Quebec needs 10 more teams like this. And I am in love with the 3^rd’s sliding broom. He is a toe-tucker and uses an old corn-broom taped up a- la Mike McEwen. No way should a guy with less than 5 years of curling experience have a sliding broom that cool. I am jealous. JF – if you are reading this – please post a picture of the broom in the comments section below.
• Lots of discussion about the qualifying format for next year, but I will talk about that in a later blog.

(edit: here is the sliding boom in question with its owner. awesome!)

All in all, a fun week. Some final thoughts.

We need to find a way to webstream these games. The curling is too good to not be seen by the entire Quebec curling world. I know this has been tried and failed in the past, but I know the cost of streaming has dropped substantially in the last few years. This is a great event; it should be the marquee event of Quebec curling, yet nobody sees it. The people at CurlingZone.com are web streaming crappy cashspiels from all over Canada. If they can do it, why can’t we. BTW, the provincial finals in 6 or 7 other provinces are broadcast on Regional Rogers Sportsnet channels. 

Quebec curling also needs a better storyteller. Seems to me you used to be able to at least read a report on the games, to give some indication to fans elsewhere what is going on. (especially when the event is in Val d’Or). We feign outrage at the lack of media coverage of our sport, yet we can’t even be bothered to post some media coverage on the Curling Quebec website or Facebook page? What about a press release? Anything? I think somebody tweeted some pics, but that was as far as it got. If we are looking to get corporate sponsors involved, shouldn't we at least appear to be interested in our own sport?  

Anyway, enough blogging I need to get back to my secluded depression.