The Stunning Finish

After going 7-0 through the round robin and semi-final, and personally playing my best game in the semis, I was confident going into the final. I think it was the worst game of the week for all four of us. Credit to Team Alberta. They recognized they had us on the ropes early in every end and played their game perfectly, putting more pressure on us with every rock. I think it was the first game where we got outplayed at the lead position, and then I certainly was no help and it was downhill from there. Again, congratulations to Team Alberta for a great week, finishing with a 7-1 record and achieving a hard-earned, well-deserved National title at The Dominion Curling Club Championship.

At this time I just want to thank everyone who was involved in making this week so fantastic. The spirit of competition, comraderie, and sportsmanship is almost overwhelming through the entire bonspiel. The Dominion is an incredible sponsor that puts on a first class event for club curlers across the country. I'm extremely grateful to them and the huge group of great people who made it all happen. Bill Duck and his ice crew provided us with consistent ice from start to finish, truly allowing the curlers to showcase all the shots in their repertoires. From officials to organizers, media, bartenders (why do we never give these guys/girls specific shoutouts?), and of course competitors, this event is full of the most humble, classy and selfless curlers and curling fans from across Canada. I'm truly proud and honoured that I was able to be a part of it.

A specific congratulations to Lee Brenton (second for the Nunavut men) and Leah Bishop (lead for the NWT ladies) on being voted the Most Sportsmanlike players of the week. I had the pleasure of playing Lee and getting to know him, and he easily stood out in my mind as the guy for this award. He's a true competitor, loves the sport of curling, and treats everyone he meets with respect and kindness. It was his amazing sense of humour and sweet cowboy hats that set him apart from the crowd and earned him this award.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to know Leah as well, but I was able to talk to her at the airport on the way home and she reiterated a feeling that she expressed in her acceptance speech for the award, which I'm sure so many of us were feeling as well - she was just incredibly happy to be able to participate in The Dominion Curling Club Nationals. Even after just a short conversation, it was easy to see she possessed the same qualities that made Lee the obvious choice for the men's award.

Another congratulations/thank you to Steve Bragg, vice for Newfoundland. Steve was selected to keep a blog of the players' experience at the Championship (you can find his posts intermingled with the other notes in the facebook group), and delivered a speech at the closing banquet that well represented my feelings for sure, and probably all of the players there. You couldn't have selected a better man for the job, and again I'm really glad I had the chance to curl against Steve and get to know him and his teammates a little bit. He and his team also had a great week, losing the semi-final to the eventual champions.

I think that's enough for this novel. If I keep going, we might be here for another week as I re-live every minute. At least every minute that still exists in my memory. The Saskatchewan guys did their best to make sure there weren't many of those. Speaking of which, I'll also thank Saskatchewan second Ian Schindler for exchanging shirts with me. I'll wear the SK green with pride... some day. I'm not curling a lot this year so I can't really promise anything. I really hope I'll be able to experience something like this again in my lifetime, and thank you to everyone who has been following us and supporting us on our mission.

-Curtis

Into the final!

We won our semi-final game against Northern Ontario 6-4 to setup the final game against Alberta, who squeaked out a final over Newfoundland/Labrador by taking 3 in the 8th end. Since our record in the round robin was 6-0 and Alberta was 5-1, we get the hammer for the final game. They chose yellow, so we get red. The game is at 2:00 pm PST (5:00 pm EST), and will streaming live online and the scores will be updated end by end.

Here is Greg's interview following the round robin:

And here is Greg's interview following the semi-final:

One more game to go!

-Jordan

Round Robin Wrap Up

We won our game this afternoon against Saskatchewan.  We kind of had a slow start, losing the hammer draw and giving up two in the first, but we kept it together and got a good 5th end going.  We got a bunch of rocks in play and the Saskatchewan skip, Brad Bibby, made a phenomenal freeze into a pocket in the top of the four.  All we could do was hit one off the side of the four and remove one of our own rocks to try to open up a hit with our last rock.  That left one lonely Saskatchewan rock in the top four, right next to our shot rock.  Brad guarded his rock perfectly but Balsy slashed a rock from the other side of the sheet to double them out and score 4.  Incredible shot.  We hung on from there (despite another flashed peel by yours truly) and clinched our semi-final spot.

Newfoundland squeaked out a win over PEI by scoring 3 in the 8th which eliminated the Saskatchewan boys despite an impressive 4-2 record.  Newfoundland is into the semis at 5-1.

In the other pool, Alberta finished first with a win over Manitoba who was sent to a tiebreaker with Northern Ontario.  Northern Ontario won through to the semis so we'll see them on the ice tomorrow morning at 9am in an all Ontario showdown.   Every game is do or die right now, ask me if I'm nervous.  First challenge is getting some sleep!

Last Round Robin Game

We're heading into our last round robin game against Saskatchewan today at 12:30pm PST.  Last night's game against PEI was a well curled battle with us maintaining control and closing it out with a 2 point lead in the 8th.  I have to correct myself on my previous post where I said that win clinched us a playoff spot.  With Newfoundland at one loss, Saskatchewan could beat us and force a tie breaker.  So we have to go win another one before anything is decided.  As always, I'm chomping at the bit.

We had the men's pub night last night which was a great time.  Delicious beer at the Granville Island brewery and then an excellent spread at the Cactus Club Cafe.  Kevin tried to send a few pints over to Team Saskatchewan to tip the scales a bit, but they were onto us.  Clever Saskatchewanians.  I'll be honest the details of the evening are a little foggy right now.  I might write more about this as they come back to me later in the day.  For now I'm going to focus on making the playoffs.

Morning Bye

Each team gets one bye draw through the week, and luckily enough our was scheduled for Thursday morning. I just checked the scores and see that Newfoundland/Labrador just beat Saskatchewan in our pool. That makes things interesting, because there's a possibility of 4-2 not being good enough for tie-breakers. It also means we probably need to go 6-0 to avoid tie-breakers since our pre-event shoot-out score was so weak! Tonight we play PEI and tomorrow afternoon we play Saskatchewan to finish the round robin.

Since we have the morning bye I thought I'd take a moment to thank a few people back home. To Tiffany, Jackie and Amy, the guys are missing you. To my wife Catie and my boys Fionn and Maddox, I'm missing you and I'll see you in a few days. Fionn has his first Aurora Tigers hockey game today, so good luck! A big thanks to our club, the Richmond Hill Curling Club. Thanks for Dave Porter and the board of directors, Dave Thomas the club manager and to all the members for the support and kind words this week. To all of our family and friends, thanks for the support! And finally to The Dominion and all the volunteers for putting on a first class event. Everyone here is having a blast and we all hope this event thrives and continue for years (and decades) to come.

Greg has some "work" to do today. He's the Monday Men's section head at the Richmond Hill Curling Club and our first draw ended this week, so he needs to get the results calculated and send out the next draw so all the men know what time to show up on Monday night!

Curtis did an interview for an article in the Liberal newspaper in Richmond Hill. Check it out.

To follow up on the "Shoe Incident", Bill Duck worked some magic and I was able to use my own slider shoe for both games yesterday. Thanks again to Tom for use of his shoe on Tuesday. I really lucked out in that whole situation.

-Jordan

We're Rolling

Our 4th game against Quebec was our best yet and included one of the coolest ends I have ever seen in curling, let alone participated in.  I had the shot of the game for about 5 minutes until Balsy stepped up and topped it with both of his in the 4th end.  He's a jerk.  He made a WILD triple through a tiny port (the same port I went through with my "shot of the game") to leave us lying 5, but the Quebec skip came back and over buried a draw to cut us down to one, and no clean shot to get them out of there.  After a bit of discussion about drawing for two or trying the tap back even though we didn't think it was possible, Jordan pointed out to Greg that we could come in off one of our own wide ones to get the Quebec rock out and take five.  I swear I saw Balsy start to salivate and he practically sprinted down the ice to throw it.  I love it when he gets excited about those shots, they're made before he throws them.  It was pretty thin, so one of the tougher in-offs we see in curling, but like I said, it was made before he threw it and we took 5.  It was one of those ends I wish was filmed somehow, I could probably watch it over and over.

We celebrated our victory (and undefeated records) with the Ontario ladies who are also winning their pool at 4-0, and once again we closed down the hotel bar.  Quelle surprise.  The bye this morning was clutch so I'm well rested and ready for PEI this afternoon.  A win will clinch a playoff spot so that's the goal.  As usual I'm anxious to get out there again and keep making shots.  Kevin has been perfect all week, the top end guys are their usual selves making sure my misses are cleaned up properly, and I'm throwing the rock better every game so we're having fun out there.  Can't wait to go again at 4:45pm PST.

-Curtis

Third Game

We put together another pretty good game against Newfoundland this afternoon.  We put together a good end in the third (took about 10 minutes and a timeout off our clock) and scored four and we were able to hang onto it.  They were good shooters and we had some great curling conversation afterwards.

On a more personal note, I think this was my best game so far and it still included a flashed peel.  Let's hope things keep improving through the week.  Big game tonight against Quebec, I can't wait.

-Curtis