The Eye Opener - Day 8 Edition

Murdoch guides his team to finalwith impressive win over Canada

Scottish skip David Murdoch (left) was on his game again Friday in the /2 play-off game against Canada. Later it was handshakes all around following a 7-5 win.

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Saturday, April 11, 2009 2

”They put morepressure on us than

we put on them.We found it hard tomake good shots.”

— Canadian skip Kevin Martin onhis 7-5 loss to Scotland

Canadian skip Kevin Martinwas often baffled by the iceagainst the Scots. At times,he had to turn away whenthings didnʼt turn out his way.

Is Team Invincible no longer? Is this aGenuine David on the verge of slayingcurling’s Goliath?

Scotland’s David Murdoch moved 66 percent down the path to killing the beast andwinning the Ford World men’s curling cham-pionship on Friday at the Coliseum, defeat-ing Canada’s Kevin Martin for the secondstraight night.

The 7-5 decision propelled Scotland toSunday’s 7:30 p.m. champion final for thesecond straight year while Martin, who won10 in a row in the round-robin preliminarybut has lost the last two, tumbled into today’ssemi-final at 4 p.m.

Martin last lost two in a row at the CanadaCup last month but nobody remembers thelast time his team lost three straight, to oneteam or a bunch.

“We’ll see them again Sunday,” saidMurdoch later. “No doubt. They’ll be in thefinal for sure. They’re the world champs.

They’ll be cranked up for us next time.“Three in a row? Well, it’d be hard to

believe. It would be just one of those amaz-ing things to win the gold-medal game andbeat the best team in the world three times ina row. We’re going to be trying hard for thatand hopefully it happens.

Martin has some difficulty believe theweight on his rocks in the second end and theScots rapped him for three. Then they stole asingle and a 4-1 edge in the fourth after a blankthird when Martin was short on another draw.

The Canadians pulled within one pointthree more times but a tenacious Murdochwouldn’t let his foe close the deal.

“They put more pressure on us than we puton them,” assessed Martin. “We found ithard to make good shots. So, hats off tothem, they made us make more tough onesand it’s just hard to do that.”

Said Murdoch:“We’ve tried to model ourselves at com-

peting on the same level as these guys.“Playing the same type of game as Kevin

plays and Glenn Howard, that’s why wespend so much time practising and training

hard and coming over here to play in bon-spiels. You really have to tough it out. There’llbe ends where you’re aligned well but there’llbe ends when you’re going to be in troubleand you have to make those big shots to bailout. If not you’re losing some big ends.”

Murdoch executed such a rock in the sev-enth end, executing a bailout double to restbetween two Martin counters and take awaya potential multiple count with the Canuckskip in possession of the hammer.

“I think we called a good tactical gameagainst them but they’re tough to playagainst. They never let up,” said the Scottishskip, who directed Ewan MacDonald, PeterSmith and Euan Byers.

“Maybe they’re not used to being downevery game. They’ve won so many gameshere where the got up early. They haven’tdone that against us.”

Martin tonight will play the winner of thismorning’s sudden-death Page Three-Fourplayoff involving Norway and Switzerland.

Favourites to advance in afternoontiebreakers, Ulsrud and his team were backin form in hammering John Shuster’s

Americans from Duluth, Minn., 10-2.Stoeckli had more difficulty in his quest

for a sixth straight victory. But his Baselteam scored three in the fourth end againstveteran Andy Kapp of Germany to erase atwo-point deficit, then assumed completecontrol with another triple-count in the sev-enth end en route to an 8-7 duke.

Tied heading for home with the hammer,Switzerland’s last-rock dispenser avoided aguard and executed a takeout with the lastrock which remaining in the rings for thewinning point.

All four teams had completed the round-robin portion of the world men’s champi-onship with 7-and-4 records. But Ulsrud’steam had shown signs of cracking in the lategoing while the Swiss had been coming onstrong from a slow start.

“That is Team Norway for you,” saidUlsrud with a grin. “You never know whatyou’re going to get. You get mediocre, likeyesterday, or get a game like today when thewhole team makes everything.”

Goliath rocked againBy LARRY WOOD

Eye Opener Editor

Scottish David fells giant again to reach final

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The Wood file

Once again, activity at this latest FordWorlds indicates a longstanding andmassive problem facing the game of

curling.All together now . . . “The game’s too

long”!Both the world and national administra-

tions have been trying to address the issue forsome time with little success. Wheels havebeen spinning in neutral. But word is they’llbe put in blinding motion once the 2010Winter Olympics are history.

There seems to be agreement on fixed tim-ing. That is, three hours should be more thanample time to complete a 10-end curlinggame. Anybody disagree?

A lot of people, including some of thosepast greats who were mingling with theMoncton masses last weekend, fail to under-stand why these games drag on and on whilethe hour hand spins. Back in the days of theRichardsons and Northcotts, 12-end gameswere played in less than two-and-one-halfhours.

There was a lot of banging involved in theRichardson strategy, indeed that of mostSaskatchewan teams because ofthe straight, keen club ice thatstill prevails in wheatie precincts.That produced quicker play andshorter games.

But it wasn’t the case withNorthcott in Alberta. He and hisprime nemesis Hector Gervais ofEdmonton were junkmasters, ex-traordinaire. From the first end on,there wasn’t a rock dropped shortof the rings that either skip would-n’t immediately duck behind.

And still they played a dozenends and still they wrapped it upcloser to two hours than three. Onice that was totally unpredictable comparedto the easy-to-read current frozen surfaces oftoday.

All right, so the game has evolved andmore complexities have been entered into theequation.

Icemaking is far more important nowadaysand maintaining good ice takes time. Someeven are wont to suggest the ice is too good— hence there are far more shots availablefor the making, hence there are far more de-cisions to make on every shot.

“No matter where you put your rock,” saysHans Wuthrich, the headmaster of the freezeat the Coliseum this week, “you’re never safeany more. We make the ice too good. Dou-

ble-raise takeouts are commonplace. They’relike open hits used to be.

“Some say we should make the icetougher, like it used to be. But, of course, wecan’t do that.”

Television has boosted the game no-endand, at the same time, slowed the pacewith between-end advertising. Andtelevision wants more advertisingspots and shorter games, to boot.

More and more new countries aretaking up the game and when thegreenhorns reach this world champi-onship level it shows. If they wereable, some of these teams would takea timeout in advance of every teeheaddecision, to say nothing of every shot.

The nabobs figured the installationof time clocks would solve this co-nundrum but there’s not much evi-dence to suggest the tickers have

been effective. Maybe if time-outs wereabolished or drastically reduced or down-time rather than playing-time was clocked, itmight help.

Patti Wuthrich, wife of the aforementionedfreezemaster, conducted a study a few yearsago in Manitoba; not on time employed forcurling but time wasted during curlinggames. The results, unavailable here, werefrightening.

“I think there are numerous ways to reacha three-hour package,” says Canadian Curl-ing Association CEO Greg Stremlaw. “Andreducing the length of the game to eight endsisn’t one of them.”

Stremlaw points out that the paying cus-

tomer in the arena merits abundant consider-ation here and eight-end games in no way ad-dresses the wants or needs of the fans.

“That Wednesday-morning draw paints apretty clear picture of everything that’d bewrong with reducing to eight ends,” Strem-law says.

On that particular shift, three of the fourmatches were conceded in six ends. Andthose Wednesday-morning ticket-buyerswere in grave danger of being ripped off.

Only the Chinese, the most plodding of thedozen teams at play in the Coliseum, savedthe situation by extending their debate withDenmark to 11 ends. This game endured formore than 60 minutes after all other combat-ants had departed the premises.

So what kind of scary would this present ifcurling suddenly was reduced to eight ends?A lot of games could be decided in four. Infact, quite of few games on the Slam circuitare conceded that early. Try selling that kindof abridgement to the live fan. It wouldn’t belong before it would make total sense to re-duce live venues and book all competitionsinto over-sized TV studios.

But enough of eight ends. This curmudg-eon has been harping against the possibilityfor years and the change apparently is nocloser to transpiring.

As Greg Stremlaw says, there are other av-enues to pursue. There have to be.

The obvious first move might be dumpingtimeouts. The second obvious move might beto reduce the time allotted for playing a game.

Some suggest the FGZ has taken all thesuspense out of lead rocks, dictating that the

choices of shots for a lead have been reducedto a precious few. And if TV dropped in itscommercials while the leads were throwing,it would eliminate teams standing around inthe arena twiddling their collective thumbsbetween ends.

“Yup, either the first one in the rings andthe second one on top or corner guard andsecond one around,” says Wuthrich. “Butwhat about the first guy playing those shots?He’d never be on TV. He wouldn’t be veryhappy about that.”

TV people say they don’t want to disturb“the integrity of the game” by eliminatinglead rocks. So officials say the idea is a non-starter.

“It’s a vicious circle,” says Wuthrich. “Thereason we had to go to a free guard zone wasice conditions were not made for good play.If we had never ever had that ice problemwe’d never ever have needed to go to anFGZ. But on today’s ice, I don’t think youneed the FGZ any more. Skips will go be-hind guards because the ice curls enough tomake it feasible. And that would open upplay for the leads again.”

Adds Jack MacDuff of Moncton, the firstfabled Newfoundlander to win a Brier, circa1976:

“I don’t know a curler who’d want to playlead under the current setup. It’s really athankless position.”

So do we toughen up the ice, experimentwith scrapping the FGZ, dump timeouts,squeeze the clock?

Whatever the fix, one constant remainswithout it. All together now . . .

EDITOR Larry WoodASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave KomoskyINFO-CURL QUOTIDIEN: Normand LegerPHOTOGRAPHER Mike Burns Jr.PUBLISHED BY: The Times&Transcript

6 Saturday, April 11 2009

LARRYWOOD

Lengthy discussions by players over the next shot are stretching games to the max.


Host committee

It began with a flourish — an opening cer-emonies that may have set a new standardfor curling events in the country.

And it will end the same way on Sunday, ithas been promised, with a feast for the eyesand ears.

In between, except for one huge hiccup,the 2009 Ford World men’s curling champi-onship in Moncton will go down as one ofthe best international curling events on sev-eral levels.

“Had it not been for an 80-degree day onthe first day of play,” says event chairmanJim Lockyer, “it would have been flawless.”

Indeed, from an organizing aspect, to at-tendance, to the grace and courtesy of the500 volunteers, these Worlds will be remem-bered for a long time.

“Very satisfying,” says Lockyer, a law pro-fessor at the Universite´ de Moncton, whotook over the position 21 months ago and ranhis ship with clocklike precision. “Wewanted this to be a memorable event, and bySunday we’ll be there. I’ve received goodfeedback from just about everybody I’vebumped into as I walked the rink and thePatch. And I was heartened by the fact evenmembers of the media joined in and said thiswas really and truly and outstanding event.”

Still, it was hard to avoid the one bumpalong the road. After Friday’s spectacularopening ceremonies — a gala event of musicand dance at the Coliseum, attended by a fullcrowd of 6,000 — the first day of competi-

tionon Saturday turned into a potential disaster asa warm spring day outside turned the Coli-seum into a hot house and the ice a frostygoo. For a few nervous hours, there was aquestion of how — or even if — the problemcould be solved.

But it was solved, anxiety was soothed, andthe rest of the week carried on beautifully.

Lockyer admitted it was a tense time, es-pecially since the event was just getting offthe ground.

“Everyone was concerned,” he says. “Thesituation presented a challenge. We needed tomake some changes in the dehumidificationprocess in the building. But we approachedthe city and the city said ‘what do you need,what’s it going to take and how soon can wefix it?’

“So within eight hours, we had the entirebuilding stabilized. From then on it, it’s beenflawless.

“The actual fact is even though it was ahot day outside, and quite hot inside, the tem-perature had not yet started to affect the ice.We weren’t far away, but it didn’t.”

Lockyer, naturally, would rather talk aboutall the good things that happened this week,

and there was many of them.He starts with the volunteers, who he said

were the backbone of the event.“Our volunteers have been essentially:

‘Can do, will do, what’s it going to take, andlet’s get at it,” he says. “They are a statementabout Greater Moncton and what it wants toproject to the national and international stage.It was a privilege to get to know these volun-teers.”

The opening ceremonies, meanwhile, willbe talked about in these parts for a long time.

“We presented something in the order of a$1-million show on a budget of about$54,000,” he says. “So we broke even, inlarge measure because virtually all the per-formers donated their time. They wanted tobe here. In terms of performance, therewasn’t one that wasn’t absolutely superb.”

Lockyer says he wanted to put on a spec-tacular opening ceremonies for two reasons.

“It’s the 50th anniversary of the world menand we knew it had to be something special,”he says. “We wanted to start the champi-onship off with a full house, because the morepeople you get in, many may come back.

“The president of the WCT is from Monc-ton and we wanted to do something for LesHarrison,” he adds. “He brought the champi-onship here and we wanted to make himproud of what this community could do.”

The Moncton event also received an unex-pected bonus. Prime Minister StephenHarper was in town for a major announce-ment with the provincial premier, and made aguest appearance on Wednesday.

Lockyer tipped his hat to the MP.“I have to give him full marks,” he says.

“He came in, spent time talking to curlers,getting photos, giving autographs. He madehimself available. It was great for the cham-pionship, great for curling.”

Lockyer says his job was simplified by thetremendous support he received from hisown committee and the Canadian CurlingAssociation.

“At no particular time were we submergedin the job,” he says. “There was an orderlyprogression throughout. The CCA providedjust a great team, doing a lot of the thingsthat a host committee cannot do, like fund-raising and national publicity. That took ahuge amount of things off our plate.”

Lockyer says the Moncton event should bea financial success.

“Attendance has been good all along,” hesays. “We anticipate we’ll hit our targets inthe coming weekend. And the Patch has donewell. We’re pleased with everything.”

The Worlds will produce an economicspinoff of between $12-15 million for Monc-ton, and Lockyer says that’s important as thecity moves forward.

“We’re trying to trying to position thiscommunity for a new Metro Centre — a10,00-to-12,000-seat arena,” he says. “That’sanother reason this event had to be success-ful. We have the 2010 world junior track andfield championships in here next year —3,000 athletes, 178 countries for 2 1/2 weeks.We feel with that event, and our event beingsuccessful, we'll be in a position to go, withcredibility, to various funding sources tobuild a new arena.

“And once we’ve done that, we’d love tohave the worlds again.”

By DAVE KOMOSKYEye Opener Associate Editor

ChairmanJim Lockyer

put on atremendous

show forMonctonthis year.

Host city, 2010

Swift Current organizers are selling anearly respite from winter when the FordWorld Women’s Curling Championship

holds forth in their precinct next March.“The ranchlands of southwestern

Saskatchewan are one of the most beautifulparts of this country,” says host-committeeco-chair Barbara Walter.

“We have a unique area. By the last weekof March (20-28) it will be spring. We havemuch milder winters than the rest ofSaskatchewan.”

Walter — “I tell everybody that if I had an‘s’ on the end of my name I’d make waymore money” — and co-chair Bryan Tallonare heading up a group of committee execschecking out the Ford Worlds in Moncton.

Next year, the women’s event that playedVernon, B.C., a year ago will return toCanada while the men’s championshipmoves to Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Walter says the Women’s Worlds will bestaged in a 2,500-seat arena, home of theSwift Current Broncos of the WesternHockey League.

“Our arena underwent a $15-million reno-vation in 2007,” she adds.

“We’ll hold the whole show under oneroof. The Patch will be in our curling club.And it’s part of the arena complex, too.”

If the event matches last year’s at Vernonthe Swift Current organizers will be morethan happy. Competition was skin tight atVernon, something apart from what’s beenon display at the Coliseum .

“We’re a year away and we haven’t naileddown all our plans,” says Walter, “but we’llhave some other interesting events tied inwith the championship.”

Among other things, a Grand TransoceanicMatch is planned at a curling club in asmaller town nearby.

“But several area clubs have shown inter-est in hosting international visitors and we’rehoping to organize something like more ex-pansive.

“They did that when the Silver Broom wasin Regina years ago. I recall that my home-town, Weyburn, hosted the Swiss. I know mymother cooked breakfast for a large contin-gent of Swiss people.”

Swift Current, a city of 17,000 with anarea draw of 55,000, is a real hotbed of curl-

ing, Walter says.“We had the provincial women’s champi-

onship at the end of January and we turnedpeople away three nights in a row. We soldout.

“We’ve hosted the national mixed (1993)and juniors (1982) and lots of provincialevents so we have an experienced crew ofpeople organizing curling events.”

Known affectionately in some quarters asSpeedy Creek, Walter’s home city is the

same size as Yorkton, site of the Canada Cuplast month.

“We were there learning how to set up aPatch,” Walter says. “We also were in Cal-gary for the Brier, primarily for ticket promo-tion. But the Moncton committee has beenabsolutely wonderful. We’ve learned a wholelot about hosting an international event here.The people have been so generous with theirtime and all their knowledge about this.”

Enthusiasm, meanwhile, is rampant back

home.“The community is really excited because

it’s the first time we’ve ever hosted an inter-national event. This is a really big deal for us.People want to be part of it.”

Walter’s committee has had no difficultyrecruiting volunteers, of which 350 to 400will be required.

Tickets for the Ford Women’s Worlds wenton sale at the beginning of March.

“We were optimistic,” says Walter of ticketsales that began at the beginning of March.

“But sales have been much better than weexpected. This thing will sell out before itstarts. We’ve been telling folks, if they wantto be sure of participation, they better buynow.”

And not only that. There are only 16 hotelsand four B&Bs in town.

Would-be visitors also should think aboutbooking their accommodation early.

By LARRY WOODEye Opener Editor

Barbara Walter and co-chair BryanTallon are heading up a group of SwiftCurrent committee executives check-ing out the Ford Worlds in Moncton.


Info-curl quotidien10 Saturday, April 11, 2009

Le président de la Fédération mondiale decurling, Les Harrison de Moncton, ne pourraitêtre plus heureux en voyant l’action et surtoutle travail des membres du comité organisateurde ce Championnat mondial de curling mas-culin Ford au Colisée de Moncton.

Harrison a dit avoir participé à plusieurschampionnats mondiaux et à trois Jeuxolympiques, mais que sa fierté demeure le faitd’avoir pu présenter le championnat mondialdans sa ville de Moncton avec ses amis.

« Ce Championnat mondial a certainementplacé Moncton sur la carte du curling, a ditHarrison lors d’une pause cette semaine. Le faitque nous diffusons en Europe, en Asie et auxÉtats-Unis à travers la télévision donne beaucoupde publicité à Moncton. Il y a déjà 29 ans que leBalai d’argent Air Canada a été présenté ici et devoir les gens au Colisée cette semaine pour unautre championnat mondial est formidable. »

Harrison a rappelé que c’est en 2003 que luiet trois autres personnes de la région ont ren-contré l’Association canadienne de curlingafin d’attirer à Moncton une compétition d’en-vergure, comme le championnat canadien

féminin. Cependant suivant certaines à déci-sions entourant ce championnat, Harrison adécidé de tourner son attention vers le mondi-al en raison du 50e anniversaire.

« J’ai consulté les autres envoyant que nousn’avions pas de réponse au sujet du tournoides femmes et je leur ai suggéré le champi-onnat mondial. C’est alors que nous sommesretournés voir l’association canadienne pourleur demander leur appui pour présenter lechampionnat et le reste est de l’histoire. Il afallu ensuite trouver un comité organisateur etJim Lockyer a été choisi comme président.Nous sommes témoins de l’un des meilleurstournois mondial ici à Moncton et aucundélégué des autres pays n’a eu de plainte. Il ya des gens qui assistent à ce tournoi depuis 20ans et ils sont émerveillés. »

Harrison a rappelé le succès des cérémoniesd’ouverture et des nombreux commentairespositifs qu’il reçoit encore de la part des spec-tateurs. « J’en ai vu plusieurs et c’est lemeilleur jusqu’à présent. Tous les bénévolesfont un travail exceptionnel. »

Harrison est dans la première année d’un

mandat de deux ans à la tête de la Fédérationmondiale de curling. Il dit qu’il voyage beau-coup et qu’il devra décider s’il soumettra sa can-didature pour un autre mandat de deux ans lorsdu championnat à Cortina, Italie, en avril 2010.

« J’aime bien ce travail, mais c’est exigentet je ne sais pas si je vais continuer ou non. Jepars pour la Nouvelle-Zélande suivant cechampionnat. Je dois ajouter que l’équipe duCanada fait très bien et que c’est une machinebien huilée même si elle a remporté le cham-pionnat du monde l’an dernier. »

Ancien joueur de curling, Harrisons’adonne aux activités de ce sport depuis1960. Il n’a plus le temps de jouer à son clubBeaver, cependant il participe au Monctonianen novembre de chaque année et il a remportéce tournoi pour la première fois en 2008, soità sa 34e participation. Il a été président duBeaver Curling Club, a siégé à l’Associationde curling du Nouveau-Brunswick, areprésenté le NB au sein de l’Associationcanadienne et ensuite représenté le Canada àla Fédération mondiale. Il est président decelle-ci depuis trois ans.

Les spectateurs au Colisée de Moncton cettesemaine auront vu que la majorité des équipes avaientdes gens qui prenaient en vidéo tous les matches deleur équipe du Championnat mondial de curling mas-culin Ford.

Brian MacWilliams, le physiothérapeute de sa for-mation, s’est occupé de la vidéo de l’équipe améri-caine cette semaine et il a regardé les matches à tra-vers la lentille de la caméra.

« Nous prenons la vidéo pour deux raisons, a-t-ilmentionné. Nous pouvons alors analyser la perform-ance des joueurs lors de la partie, voir comment ilsglissent sur la surface de la glace et également étudierles techniques utilisées lors de la rencontre. Nouspouvons aussi réviser nos stratégies et tactiques enplus de pouvoir bien voir le jeu de nos opposantsdans de telle ou telle situation. Je m’en sers égale-ment pour analyser la performance des joueursblessés et je peux mieux adapter les traitements aubesoin. »

L’équipe américaine est assez jeune et les joueurssont de Duluth, au Minnesota. Le plus âgé est le pre-

mier, John Benton à 39 ans. Les autres ont 25 (secondJeff Isaacson et troisième Jason Smith) et 27 ans, leskip John Shuster. Cette formation a perdu contre 10-2 contre la Norvège lors de la partie de bris d’égalitévendredi après-midi. Ces également cette formationqui représentera les États-Unis aux Jeux olympiquesde Vancouver en 2010.

Une fois de retour à la maison, l’équipe va com-mencer à réviser les vidéos des matchs parce queplusieurs des équipes présentes à Moncton cettesemaine seront à Vancouver en février prochain.

L’entraîneur Brian Simonson fera une étude desvidéos afin de préparer l’équipe pour les Jeuxolympiques. Il va analyser la performance de ses pro-tégés en plus d’étudier les tactiques et jeux desopposants pour mieux jouer à Vancouver.

« Les joueurs aiment bien se revoir sur la vidéoparce que plus de 80 pour cent des gens apprennenten voyant, a ajouté MacWilliams. Ils ont ensuite lachance de corriger des techniques et des jeux. Je saisque ce travail aura une grosse influence sur le jeu denotre équipe à Vancouver.

Les Harrison heureux que le 50e dumondial soit présenté à Moncton.

Brian MacWilliams avec sa caméra vidéo lors du match dʼhier.

ParNormandLéger

La vidéo influence le jeu de l’équipe américaine

Moncton se dévoile au monde


Don’t take that shot, kids!The exuberance of youth will be se-

verely curtailed at all future world juniorevents after the World Curling Federation votedthis week to ban all alcohol consumption.

Late-night and late-week hijinks that havemarred several events overthe years — most recentlyat the junior men’s in Van-couver last month — willno longer be tolerated.

Unlike events such as theFord Worlds here in Monc-ton, the junior champi-onships do not have aKeith’s Patch which servesas the official watering holefor curlers and fans.

But since many of the juniors are legally oldenough to drink, they can go out to bars and bringbooze back to their rooms and to their under-ageteammates.

“Some of the countries, like Canada, which hashad problems in the past with minors, laid downthe law and said there will be no alcohol at theirevents,” explained Les Harrison of Moncton, pres-ident of the World Curling Federation.

Canada cracked down in the mid-Nineties.“In European countries they’re used to drinking

at a much younger age, however some of those18-, 19-year-olds are not handling it well whenthey really want to party,” said Harrison. “We onlyhave had issues after the main competitions areover and we get to Thursday night, Friday night,Saturday night and what else do those eliminatedhave to do but party?”

Big problems reared their heads in Vancouver.There was heavy drinking by many members ofteams and someone yanked a hotel fire alarm inthe middle of the night.

Harrison said this week that teams fromCanada, the U.S., Japan, China and Korea be-haved at Vancouver while others did not.

The ban, which also includes the Pacific juniorcurling championships and the European juniorcurling challenge was difficult to sell to somemember countries, Harrison said.

“We made an impassioned plea to all of ourmembers and they were never in agreement withthat over the years but they see our problems and,finally, they said, ‘do it’. So we’ve got the greenlight.”

He said a decision on the penalties for thoseplayers caught drinking has not been made but itcould involve fines, suspensions or even playersbeing sent home immediately following a viola-tion.

John Morris, Team Canada’s third at the FordWorlds, cut a wide swath of his own on the partycircuit while winning two gold medals at theWorld Juniors in 1998 and 1999.

“When we went to the Juniors we certainly hada good time and that’s sort of how we grew upcurling with the likes of Eddie Werenich and NeilHarrison,” recalled Morris. “One of my favouritequotes from Neil is, ‘Toronto curlers drink, drawand win’.”

But Morris, who did adhere to the no-alcoholban when he was playing Canadian juniors, saidthe move at the world level makes sense.

“If I was making the rules I probably wouldn’tallow drinking for juniors until the last banquetand if they wanted to let loose and have a goodtime there, that would be it.”

But the Canadian Curling Association foundthat allowing any drinking at the junior eventsproved disastrous and the WCF move is longoverdue.

“We started the move back in the late 1980sand I think it culminated in 1993 when about 15people, including coaches, were suspended for ayear because of alcohol,” said Warren Hansen, di-rector of Event Operations for the CCA.

“It was then that we decided it was not going tobe tolerated and since that point it has not been anissue,” he added.

Shawn Adams of Bridgewater, N.S. won the1993 Canadian junior title but was stripped of thechampionship because of alcohol violations afterthe victory. Adams and his teammates were oflegal drinking age but junior rules stipulated nodrinking during the event. It cost the Nova Scotiaskip a scheduled chance to represent Canada at theWorlds the next year.

Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud has his doubts thatthe ban at the World Juniors will work.

“It’s good for very young curlers but I thinkit’s going to be tough for them when you’ve gotguys 18, 19 or 20 who want to party,” Ulsrudsaid.

“Some parties involving alcohol get out of con-trol. I’ve been there, done that, myself.

“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thingbut I think it will be hard to keep that rule. It’sgoing to be tough for them because people like tohave a good time.”

(Graveland is a Canadian Press sportswriter)

By BILL GRAVELANDSpecial to the Eye Opener

GRAVELAND

WCF adopts zero tolerance policy on rowdies

Juniors slappedwith booze ban

SM8489

• 17 minutes de lÀéroport International de Moncton

• 2 kms de plage sablée

• 24 acres de terrains paysagés

• Patio sur le toit avec jacuzzis

• Belvédère et endroits pour pique-niques

• Piscines dèau minérale intérieure et extérieure

• Terrain de tennis

• Bonne, buanderie et concierge

• Boutique & Spa

• Grand balcon privé

Venez voir nos roches

et plage sablée

Navette quotidienne pour visiter

le complex et modèle

19 minutes du Colisée de Moncton

Visiter notre cabine au niveau de la cantine pour plus dìnformation • 532-0025

Coucher de soleil actuel sur notre plage


Autograph SessionProudly sponsored by Hansen Signs

Former world champions and the 12participating teams have been available forautographs in The Patch throughout theweek. Today, 10 of the 12 teams will be onhand. Bring your camera for a lasting me-mento.

Schedule:TODAY

2-3 p.m.All participating teams except

the semi-finalists

W LCanada (Martin) 10 2Scotland (Murdoch) 9 3*SUI (Stoeckli) 8 4*Norway (Ulsrud) 8 4

———USA (Shuster) 7 5Germany (Kapp) 7 5Denmark (Schmidt) 5 6France (Dufour) 4 7China (Wang) 4 7Japan (Morozumi) 3 8Czech Rep. (Snitil) 3 8Finland (Kiiskinen) 1 10* — Won tiebreakers

FRIDAYTIEBREAKERS

3 p.m.

Norway (Ulsrud) 210 220 3xx x — 10USA (Shuster) 001 001 0xx x — 2

NOR S P % USA S P %Vad Petersson 13 43 83 Benton 14 53 95Svae 14 49 88 Isaacson 14 41 73Nergaard 14 53 95 Smith 14 42 75Ulsrud 14 56 100 Shuster 14 33 59TEAM 55 201 91 TEAM 56 169 75

Germany (Kapp) 201 002 011 0 — 7SUI (Stoeckli) 010 300 300 1 — 8

GER S P % SUI S P %Kempf 20 69 86 Struebin 20 73 91Hoehne 20 70 88 Eggler 20 71 89Lang 20 67 84 Hauser 22 68 77Kapp 19 60 79 Stoeckli 21 63 75TEAM 79 266 84 TEAM 80 272 85

ONE-TWO GAME7:30 p.m.

Canada (Martin) 100 020 101 0 — 5Scotland (Murdoch) 030 101 010 1 — 7

CAN S P % B.C. S P %Hebert 20 77 96 Byers 20 78 98Kennedy 20 65 81 Smith 20 53 66Morris 20 63 79 MacDonald20 71 89Martin 19 55 72 Murdoch 20 64 80TEAM 79 260 82 TEAM 80 266 83

STANDINGS

LINESCORES

TODAY

10 a.m.PAGE 3/4 PLAYOFF

Norway(Thomas Ulsrud)

vs.Switzerland

(Ralph Stoeckli)Winner advances tosemi-final, loser to

bronze-medal gameSEMI-FINAL

4 p.m.Canada

(Kevin Martin)vs.

Winner 3/4 game(Winner advances

to final, loser tobronze-medal

game)

SUNDAY

BRONZE MEDAL1 p.m.FINAL

7:30 p.m.Scotland

(David Murdoch)vs.

Winner ofsemi-final

DRAWSCHEDULE

Germanyʼs skip Andy Kapp goes horizontal as he watches his stone.


WorldsFrom Page 3

Conceded after seven ends with Ulsrud scoredat 100 per cent on his boulders, Norway hadpummelled the Yanks with a 3-0 spot in two endstwo additional deuces and a closing three. TheNorwegians outcurled the U.S. 91 to 75 and skipShuster was scored at 59 per cent.

“I mucked it up in the first end,” said Shuster.“I noticed he didn’t miss but we didn’t make himthrow any tough shots. It was a lousy way to endthe week but we’ll remember we made a tiebreakerat the Worlds playing our C or D game.”

Ulsrud seemed confused by his own team’sturnaround after a bad game on Thursday.

“I wish I knew why we’re mediocre one day andwe feel we can beat anybody the next,” said Ulsrud,a tanning salon operator from Oslo.

“I need to find that answer.”But he said his Norwegians are brimming with

confidence now.“We still have a pretty good shot at this,” he

added. “We play Switzerland a lot in Europe. Weknow each other pretty well.”

Stoeckli agreed.“Norway is a really good team,” he said. “It

will be a tough game but we know we can beatthem.”

Stoeckli, whose team is directed by secondplayer Markus Eggler, the 1992 world champion

skip, said “stupid mistakes” cost Germany.“That kept us in the game early, actually,” he

said. “They were all over us for a while.”Martin insisted that his team was throwing

well enough to win any game. But lead BenHebert told Allen Cameron of CanWest News hethought the loss was “embarrassing”.

“That’s the worst game I think we’ve playedas a team since I’ve been on the team,” Hebertallowed. “We never have ever played as bad likethat as a team. And it’s not just that we playedbad. We got zero breaks. And they curled goodenough that they actually didn’t need thebreaks.”

Martin said “it’s tough to get results out there”. “It’s tough to play an offensive game. Maybe

we have to come back and play a little more de-fensively on that ice and just stay close.

“I mean, I threw one I thought was light and itwent to the back line, then I threw anotheragainst the one in the four-foot in the fourth andcame up light. Same weight, but the rocks endedup eight feet difference in weight and three feetdifferent in line.

“Maybe I’m just not accurate any more,” headded, laughing.

“It’s frustrating when you can’t figure out theice and what’s going on. No question about that.But I don’t think we’re in big trouble.

“And at least I’ve been consistent this week.I’ve said it when we were winning 10 in a rowthat it was tricky out there. Now we’ve lost acouple and it still is. At least I’m consistent.”

SM8587

Thank Youto the 2009 World Men’s Curling Championship

Friends Sponsors

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Two iconic trophies, joined in name andlargely forgotten for decades, may begetting a new lease on life.

The Air Canada Silver Broom trophies —yes, there are two of them — have been res-cued from obscurity and have come togetherto be put on display at the Ford Worlds inMoncton this week.

And if curling officials have anything to sayabout it, they will take their proper place aspermanent memorabilia from a glorious age ininternational curling.

“Ideally, they should be part of a permanentcollection and on display every year at theworld championship,” says Warren Hansen,director of Event Operations for the CanadianCurling Association. “They should really be-long in the hands of the World Curling Feder-ation.”

The circuitous route the two trophies took tocome to Moncton this week is a story of perse-verance on behalf of several people who discov-

ered the artifacts — both neglected and hiddenaway, thousands of miles from one another.

The original Silver Broom trophy was firstawarded in 1968 when Air Canada took oversponsorship of the world men’s curling champi-onship, but it was a rather crude piece of workand was replaced by more a sophisticated versionafter the 1979 season. The second trophy wasawarded from 1980 to ’85, after which it was re-tired when Air Canada dropped its sponsorship.

But after that, they just disappeared into themist, until a concerted effort was launched re-cently to track them down.

Winnipegger Jamie Hay is responsible for res-cuing one of the trophies. Hay, who used to workfor Air Canada, knew as early as 1994 that a tro-phy resided in a Switzerland curling club becausefriends had been there and sent him a picture.

The trophy, the first one introduced, hadbeen in the hands of Tony Schoen, the formerpublic relations director of Air Canada who re-tired to Switzerland. He displayed the trophyfirst in his restaurant, and then the local curlingclub where the picture was taken.

Four years later, Hay was contacted by an

Air Canada vice-president who was lookingfor memorabilia for a company museum. Haytold the VP of his friend’s discovery inSwitzerland and urged the airline to try andreacquire the trophy. Later, the VP’s assistantcalled Hay to inform him that the trophy hadbeen discovered in a Montreal warehouse.

The airline shelved plans for the museum,and when Hay was contacted about what to dowith the trophy, he had it shipped to Winnipeg.However, on delivery Hay noticed it wasn’t theSilver Broom Trophy he had seen in the pho-tograph. It turned out he had the second trophy.

Hay kept the trophy at home, bringing it outoccasionally over the nine years since to showto friends and family.

“I had it in my basement for a long time, butI absolutely thought that was the wrong placefor it,” Hay told the Winnipeg Free Press. “Ididn’t want the responsibility.”

Schoen, meanwhile, retired to Victoria withthe original and kept it in his basement. That’swhere it was discovered last summer and, fol-lowing Schoen’s death, arrangements were madewith his widow to have the trophy retrieved.

Silver Brooms dusted off, displayed

The Silver Broom trophies on display.

By DAVE KOMOSKYEye Opener Associate Editor

SM8490


The Eye Opener - Day 8 Edition

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