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

Second Game and Opening Ceremony

Our second game was against Nova Scotia on sheet 1. We had 2nd practice and yellow rocks again (an oddity of the schedule: we have 2nd practice and yellow rocks for our games 1-3 and 1st practice and red rocks for games 4-6). The Nova Scotia team did their draw to the button, but the red "Eye on the Hog" lights came on. It stopped in the back 8-foot but didn't count do to the hog line violation. Kevin did our draw, needing to hit paint. Just to make sure, he covered the pin to secure the hammer for the game.

We put the pressure on right away lying 2 guarded in the top 8-foot with the Nova Scotia team trying run backs until the skip's last rock where he tried a wide draw to the 4-foot. He was a few inches light so Greg had a draw for 3, which he made. Good start! We played a solid 2nd end but the Nova Scotia skip made to great shots for a skip's deuce. Our 3rd event was another good one and Greg made a hit a roll for 4 and we played strong defence from there to win 10-5 after 6 ends. It was a good team game with all 4 of us played better than the morning draw. The ice held up better, although there were still a few picks. We're looking forward to Day 2! Follow the scores at The Dominion Curls. There is also a live video feed of sheet 2 as well.

One nice thing about the schedule is that both the men and women from each province play the same opposition province back-to-back, on the same sheet, with the same rocks. This allows for some provincial teamwork where the men and women can discuss the ice and the rocks between draws.

Here's an interview with Greg. Look closely to see the Movember moustache.

We had our fans out in full force on Tuesday. Greg, Curtis and Kevin's parents are all here watching, and Jordan's Mom is coming on Thursday. In addition, Nathan Small (third for Pat Ferris' team who we played in the Ontario final) was in town skiing and watched as well. It's great hearing all the support from back home as well! Anyone who wants to send an email to the team and have it posted at the club can send it to buttons@thedominion.ca and put Team Ontario Men in the subject line.

Last night was the opening ceremonies and the big team photo. Here's a video:

-Jordan

The "Shoe Incident"!

Yesterday was finally game day here at The Dominion. Our first game was against Nunavut and we had 2nd practice. Just as they were finishing their 1st practice, I walked back to the change room to get my broom and it felt like my gripper had slipped off my slider shoe. I looked down to fix it, only to realize it was a whole lot worse than that. The sole of the shoe had come off!

There was a few chaotic moments as Kevin and I tried to figure out what to do since practice was starting and the game was 5 minutes away. The Dominion volunteers had several ideas (borrow some one's shoe, get it repaired right away, just play with it, get a pair from the pro shop, etc). I was worried about having a shoe to play with at all, but I was also worried about having to use a totally different shoe and slider!

Up stepped Tom McKay (volunteer and member of the spare pool) who has a pair black and white Asham Slams in my size! I tried it on and it fit nicely, and the best part is that I could take off his Velcro sliders and put mine on. All this took 4 minutes and I was on the ice to throw one practice rock and sweep our draw to the button. The shoe fit so well I didn't notice it all game (any missed shots were all me!).

After the game I chatted with ice maker Bill Duck, who I know from back home in Toronto, and he said he's repaired similar problems in the past. So I was off to Rona with our driver Johnathan to get a tube of Shoe Goo and Bill went to work. I played our 2nd game against Nova Scotia with Tom's loaner shoe and he generously offered to let me use it all week if necessary. I'm hoping my shoe is fixed up for today's game but it's great to see so much support from the volunteers! Thanks to Tom and Bill!!

-Jordan

PS: Just so no one thinks poorly of Asham shoes, this pair is well past their best before date. A new pair of shoes will be on my Christmas list this year!

First Game

Squeaked out the first win against Nunavut this morning.  Great group of guys and we had a fantastic game to kick off the week.  I got to throw the draw to the button for hammer (The Dominion asks that each team member throw at least one throughout the week), so after watching my opposing second, Lee,  drop it on the back four, I tossed mine to the back twelve and we go first.  We ended up tied going into the 8th and Balsy made a nice double to close it out.  There were missed shots on both sides, for sure, but everyone's still getting used to the ice.  It was a bit disappointing out there with probably 8-10 picks through the game and a huge drop in speed after the 5 minute 4th end break.  The curl seemed to pick up throughout the game as well which kind of left us playing on a different sheet every end.  Hopefully we start getting used to it and make more and more shots each game.  It'll be nice to see an end come together as opposed to feeling like we're chasing all the time.  Regardless, it's great to start with a win and now I'm anxious to get back out there and go again.  This time maybe we can avoid the pre-game equipment issues and all get out for our 5 minute practice.  Jordan will elaborate on that I'm sure.  We'll see what happens at 4:45 against Nova Scotia.

Game day!

We have our first game this morning at 10:00 am Vancouver time against Nunavut. We then against Nova Scotia at 4:45 pm. I can't wait to get out there! Follow the scores at The Dominion Curls. Our blog also made it into The Dominion Daily newsletter!

Last night was the Opening Banquet at the Richmond Curling Club. We rocked our team pinks! We were seated with the Alberta women's team and the evening was a good time. The format was buffet with each table being called up one-by-one. The last table called won the money cups each team had filled to start. Sure enough, table 21 was last picked... that's us. We decided to buy a round of drinks and donate the rest of the money back to the BC Paraplegic Association. The dinner buffet had a good selection and the speeches were a nice mix of humour and substance (although they were a little long by the end). After the speeches, the place cleared out surprisingly quick and we ended up "closing the place down" (don't worry, it was only 10:30 pm!).

Ontario Men and Alberta Women (L-R: Lead-Skip)

Bring on the games!
-Jordan

Practice and Shoot Out

So we got 45 mintues of practice earlier today on 3 different sheets.  After which we threw our shoot out which will be used to break ties after the round robin.  It was great to get out there and see what it's doing, but we were the last group to practice so it felt like the ice was probably breaking down by the time we got to throw.  There were lots of comments about how fast it was and the 4.5 feet of curl they were getting, but that was not our experience.  We saw it running maybe 24 seconds and were taking just off the 4 foot to get to the button.  I guess we'll see how it is tomorrow morning in our first round robin game against Nunavut.  I'm expecting the faster, swingier stuff though.

Shoot out was disappointing.  9 points out of a possible 20.  Better go win some games now.

-Curtis

First Night at the Cannery

So we arrived in Richmond and made it to the hotel without issue.  We were greeted properly with a few beers on ice and Kevin, true to form, picked up some rum and Pepsi at the airport and we got right into it.  Jordan took off to visit his grandparents-in-law leaving Kevin and I to represent the team at the ice breaker event.  Which also left us the team drink tickets and name tags.  There may or may not be several people who think I'm Jordan Keon and a sloppy drunk.  I was a mess this morning, but breakfast helped and we get to hit the ice this afternoon for some practice which usually cures what breakfast and a shower can't.  Kevin is still moving slowly and I have to leave it at that.  Not sure if I want to go back to bed or hit the bar with Balsy who arrived about an hour ago... I'll let you know later what I decided and whether or not I regret it.

-Curtis

We have arrived

Kevin, Curtis and I arrived yesterday around 1:30 pm. We flew in with the Team Ontario women and the Team Quebec men (Kevin knows their skip). Also on our flight were organizers from next year's Dominion at Scarboro G&CC. We had a smooth flight, got checked into our hotel and were welcomed with a bucket of beer! Last night was the "Ice Breaker" event, which Curtis and Kevin attended (I'm sure Curtis has a few good stories, and Kevin wasn't too happy to be awake for breakfast this morning!). Jordan went to dinner at his wife Catie's aunt and uncle's house in Delta, BC along with her grandparents. Dinner was great and it works really nicely that this event is in the Vancouver area so I could visit.

The weather here is cool (1-10 deg Celsius) and it's supposed to rain the whole week. Typical Vancouver weather! Here's a shot from my hotel room this morning:

Greg arrived this morning after his successful weekend at the WCT Sun Life Classic Bonspiel in Brantford (losing the quarter-finals last night). Today we have team registration at noon, the team meeting at 12:30 pm and our team practice at 2:40 pm. We have our Team Based Draw Scoring System at the end of practice, where we all draw the button and our combined score is used for potential tie-breaker seeding at the end of the week, and for tied draws prior to each game. Tonight we have the Opening Banquet where we'll be dressing in our nice pinks! The games start tomorrow at 10:00 am against Nunavut.

-Jordan

Our path to Richmond

In this post I'll detail how we managed to qualify for The 2011 Dominion in Richmond.

2009/10 Season

Our team started curling in the Richmond Hill Curling Club Monday Men's League in the 2009/10 season. As a new team, we started in the 'C' division. By the end of the season we moved up to the 'A' division and qualified for the Dominion Club Championship playoffs with the second most points. In the playoff final, we played Dennis Moretto who had finished first overall in points. It was a close game but we came out on top and were Richmond Hill Curling Club Champions in our first season together!

In early 2010 we played in the Goldline TCA Men's Bonspiel. We were a 5-man team with Mike Maddin as Greg was also playing in the OCA Regionals and Challenge Round. We make it to the Championship Game but lost a close one to Adam Beck, finishing with a 7-1 record. As Club Champions, we played in the 2010 Dominion Zones at the Granite Club. We had high hopes, but losses to Tom Worth and Bob Stoll sent us home with a 2-2 record prior to making the playoff round.


2010/11 Season

We curled together again last season. We stayed in the 'A' division all season and finished first in points. In The Dominion Club Championship playoffs playoff semi-final, we were playing former Brier competitor Jim Anderson and we managed to win an "old time" curling game by the score of 2-1! We were tied 1-1 coming home and made our draw for the win. In the playoff final, we played John Rumney and again managed to come out on top to defend our Richmond Hill Curling Club Championship!

Out team again played in the Goldline TCA Men's Bonspiel in early 2011. And again we were a 5-man team, this time with Ian Gabel. We had a great week and made the Championship Game once again. This time, we came out on top against Ian Fleming to finish with an 8-0 record.


2011 Dominion Zones

The 2011 Dominion Zones were once again held at the Granite Club in Toronto from October 21-23. There were 18 teams in the zone with 2 teams qualifying for the Provincial Championship. We had a bye to start and our first game was against Ian MacLellan. We started slow but finished strong to win that game. We won our next game against Kuuter to make it to the 'A' playoff qualifier game. On Sunday morning we played Vito Cosentino in the qualifier. It was an early game, and our skipped "decided" to sleep in and miss the practice and first 1.5 ends! Jordan managed to draw the pin to start with hammer and he scored a skipper's deuce in the first end before Greg took over midway through the second end. Greg must have still been half asleep since we ended up having to steal the last 2 ends to win! But a win is a win and we qualified for the playoff game. Our playoff was against Bob Garvin. We scored a big end early and hung on to win and qualify for the Ontario Dominion Provincials! Rob Kavals from High Park was the other qualifier from our zone. Kudos to the Granite Club for their great ice.


2011 Dominion Provincials

The 2011 Dominion Ontario Provincials were held at the Acton and Milton Curling Clubs from October 28-30. The format is 2 pools of 5 teams playing a round robin. The top 2 in each pool qualify for the playoffs, which are a semi-final and final. In our pool were Pat Ferris from Grimsby, Dayna Deruelle from Brampton, Paul Bourne from Pembroke and Dave Mann from London. The ice was curling at both clubs and super fast all weekend at Milton which made for exciting games.

Our Friday night games were at Milton. Our first game was against Pat Ferris.We started slow giving up 2 steals to start the game but we picked it up and be 1-up coming home with hammer, and we held the lead to win. Pat had a strong team and we figure we could run into them again in the playoffs. Up next was Dayna Deruelle. We stole a few of the middle ends and put the game away with a 3 in the 7th to win 7-2. It was a good start to go 2-0 on Friday.

The Saturday games were at Acton. We were lucky to have the morning bye and we played Paul Bourne in our next game. We scored 3 in the first and kept the pressure on to secure a 9-3 win after 6. With that win we clinched first in our pool but going 4-0 was important to secure first end hammer throughout the playoffs. Our last round robin game was against Dave Mann. We stole a couple 2s in the middle ends and won 8-3 to finish the round robin at 4-0. Saturday night was the dinner/dance at the Milton Curling Club, and we had some food and drinks and watch Pat Ferris win a tie-breaker over Paul Bourne to finish second in our pool.

The playoffs on Sunday were back at Milton. We were up against Nathan Martin, who finished second in the other pool. The other semi-final was Ferris against the other pool winner, Travis Fanset. We had a wild game as the score line shows:

Nathan Martin	0	3	0	2	0	2	1	0	-	-	-	8
Greg Balsdon	2	0	4	0	2	0	0	1	-	-	-	9

Greg made a draw to the 4-foot to win and send us to the finals in a rematch against Pat Ferris. The finals were anti-climactic (which was fine by us!) as we started with a 3 and stole another 3 to take an early 6-0 lead. We ended up winning 9-1 after 5 ends and we were Provincials Champions! Next stop: Richmond. We can't wait!

-Jordan

Heading to Richmond

Well Jordan got us off to a good start. Even though he made my bio the most boring. Before we get to Richmond, I want to reaffirm a point that Jordan made in a curlingzone post. This event is absolutely the highlight of my season. I started curling at Richmond Hill in 1993 when I was 7 and won my first zone patch I think in 2002 when I was 16. It was a school boy's zone patch with my older brother, Nick.

My curling career has been pretty consistent until now. I've played a lot of OCA competitions over the last 18 years and only been past the zone level 4-5 times. Jordan and I made the OCA Challenge provincials in 2010 with our brothers, Nick and Mike (I think we ended up 2-3 in that, one of the Keons will correct me quickly if that's wrong) and the 2011 Dominion provincial was just the second provincial level playdown of my career. Some people have been saying our team doesn't belong in the Dominion National competition because of our skip, which kind of led to a short debate on "what is a club curler". Bob Weeks blogged about it, and again, there was the curlingzone thread Jordan posted in. I think in those debates though, there was something missed.

Through juniors, I watched a lot of players parachute out of different clubs in order to put in teams with the best curlers they could find, regardless of geography. I always played with the people I loved playing with - my brother and the Jones brothers, Ryan and Sean. For like 10 years, through little rocks, bantams and juniors, the four of us curled together in whatever we could. We lost a lot of zone/bonspiel/league games to a lot of the same guys. Elite curling is about winning almost above all else (like any sport), and club curling is about having a good time. To suggest these two are mutually exclusive doesn't make any sense, and I'm sure lots of people reading this believe that you often need the latter in order to achieve the former. I've been a club curler my whole life, and have had a lot of good times because of it. I know there are many curlers out there with the same mindset, and that's exactly what the Dominion is all about.

Now you can enter a team with all your friends (whether they're known across the province, or not known at all) in some club league, win a few games, and be on the path to a national championship. It's a fantastic event that really focuses on what curling has been for me throughout my life - a good time. That part of it was evident at the Ontario provincials. Every team we ran into seemed to share a cohesiveness you just don't see on the tour. Sure, there are lots of teams who play regularly on the OCT that get along great, but they'll probably all agree that they play together and have a good time together because they win. If they stop winning, they move on. That's what's prudent on the OCT and in elite curling/sports in general.

We formed our team through chance, and kept it together because we had a good time. Some people have said we represent the exact problem that The Dominion Curling Club Championship was trying to work around. No "club curling" team wants to enter a zone where they will run into the likes of Greg Balsdon and be eliminated without ever having a chance. I don't remember hearing any of this last year when two teams at the zones beat us and we were eliminated. This year, I remember crossing my fingers hoping we didn't draw Trevor Wall in our first game of the zone. I don't really know what it feels like to be part of the obvious favourite team going into a zone, but I imagine it doesn't involve crossing your fingers hoping to avoid somebody. Regardless of what anyone says, we earned our way here and are well within the spirit of The Dominion Curling Club Nationals.

All of that being said, I am happy to note that there have been many more supporters of The Dominion eligibility rules than nay sayers. The criticism has come from a limited few, and I think most people understand the intent of The Dominion and support the way they've gone about it.  Personally, I hope this never goes away and I hope every club in the province (if not nation) takes full advantage of it by sending a representative to their zone playdown. Anyway, mostly all I can think about right now is getting to Richmond, figuring out the ice, and making a bunch of shots. But before that, finding a beer store.  Or an LCBBC. Wherever they sell booze in BC. This week is going to be a good time.

-Curtis

About our team

It's only a few more days until we're on the plane heading to Richmond, BC for the The Dominion Curling Club Championship! We're going to be blogging while we're there, keeping anyone who's interested up-to-date on the event and our experience while we're there, both on and off the ice. With this first blog entry I thought I would introduce our team. We are Greg Balsdon (skip), Jordan Keon (third), Curtis Samoy (second) and Kevin Roberts (lead), and we curl in the Monday Men's League at the Richmond Hill Curling Club in Richmond Hill, Ontario. We won the 2011 Ontario Championship for The Dominion and are all looking forward to representing the red, white and black at the Canadian Championships! This is the first time wearing the provincials uniforms for all 4 of us.

To begin, I'll point you to Team of the Week - The Ontario Men's Team from The Dominion Curling Club Championship Facebook page. It has some notes about us and our team photo after winning the Ontario provincial final. I especially like the quick story of how our team was formed (courtesy of our second, Curtis)! Let me give a few more details on that. Curtis and Jordan had been curling together in Men's club curling for several years. Prior to the 2009/10 curling season, their skip (Mike Maddin) and lead (Trevor Talbott) both decided to take the year off so they were looking for a couple of players. They knew Kevin Roberts was "the nicest guy in the club" (and coincidentally was also looking for a team) so he signed on to play lead. Greg had moved a few blocks from the curling club that summer and was looking to curl at the club, so it was good timing that lead him to take over at skip.

We've been curling together for over 2 years now and the team gets along well both on and off the ice. We've managed to win the Richmond Hill Curling Club Championship for the past two season. Our team also won the Toronto Curling Association Goldline TCA Men's Bonspiel last year. That was a big relief for Jordan and Curtis, who had lost the final game in the bonspiel 2 of the previous 4 years. During the summer months we play slo-pitch in a coed league. Jordan's the player/coach, Kevin's the pitcher, Curtis took this summer off and Greg took his place as the star left fielder. We don't have as much success on the ball diamond as we do on the ice!

After winning the 2011 Goldline TCA Men's Bonspiel

Team Members

Greg's double arm back swing!

Greg Balsdon: Greg is the team skip and the most noted curler on the team. He is the one competitive and club curler on our team, as defined in The Dominion eligibility rules (more on that in another blog). His other curling accomplishments include runner-up at the 2011 Ontario Men's Tankard, several victories on the OCT and Youth Provincials Championships. Greg is a Golf Pro and lives in Richmond Hill with his fiancee, Amy. Greg runs the Monday Men's League at the Richmond Hill Curling Club.

Jordan in the house

Jordan Keon: Jordan started curling in university and immediately fell in love with the game. His other curling accomplishments include twice winning the Toronto Curling Associate Mixed Bonspiel in 2006 with his wife, Caitlin, and Ryan & Jen Werenich and again in 2010 with Ryan & Jen and Jayne Flinn Burton (Caitlin was pregnant at the time) and winning the 2010 OCT Minor Cashspiel. Jordan is a software architect and lives in Aurora with his wife and two boys, Fionn and Maddox. Jordan runs the Tuesday Mixed League at the Richmond Hill Curling Club.

Greg & Curtis at the RHCC Shillelagh

Curtis Samoy: Curtis is the youngest player on the team. His other curling accomplishments include winning the 2010 OCT Minor Cashspiel. Curtis is a Systems Developer at Morneau Shepell and lives in Toronto with his girlfriend, Jackie. Curtis ran the Monday Men's League at the Richmond Hill Curling Club prior to Greg taking over this season.

Kevin (far left) with a big smile at the RHCC Shillelagh

Kevin Roberts: Kevin is the oldest player on the team, and he's the perfect lead: he always puts his rock in the top 4 and never complains about carrying the broom bag or buying the beer! His other curling accomplishments representing Texas at the USA National Championship. Kevin works in sales for Pepsi and currently lives in Unionville. Kevin is marrying his fiancee, Tiffany in 2011.


That's all for now,
-Jordan