Al Forsythe

Editor’s note: Al was well known to Island curlers.  His daughter, Colleen Soltermann, and her husband Joerg are members of the Cornwall Curling Club. Al had taken part in the April “Meltdown” bonspiel in Crapaud, and attended a number of PEI Curling Association events, including its inaugural Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2007.

Obituary: http://www.inmemoriam.ca/announcement-156969-Al-Forsythe.html

Tribute: Forsythe remembered as grassroots volunteer who pitched in where needed

PEI’s Brett Gallant rink is 1 and 2, while the Sarah Clow rink is 0-3 following two days of play at the CIS/CCA University Championships in Edmonton.

Gallant lost his opener 9-6 to undefeated Alberta, beat Victoria 9-7,  and lost to Western 7-6 in an extra end.

Clow lost her first game 6-4 to Concordia, dropped a 9-2 decision to Wilfred Laurier, and lost 10-2 to Waterloo,

Round robin play continues through Saturday morning, with semis in the afternoon, and the finals on Sunday morning.

The winning teams from this event will represent Canada at the 2011 FISU World Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey, January 27 to February 6th, 2011.

The Clow rink, who were UPEI’s women’s entrants last year as well, includes Christina Hennessey at third, Whitney Young at second, and Courtney Moore as lead. Coach is Angela Hodgson.

The Gallant team, who are also reigning PEI junior men’s champions, includes third Adam Casey, second Anson Carmody, and lead Alex MacFadyen. Their coach for this event is Tristan Chisholm. Casey and Carmody were on last year’s UPEI team, while MacFadyen was on the team from St. Francis Xavier.

By Larry Wood, Tankard Times Editor (CCA)

HALIFAX, March 11 – For the first time since the last time Glenn Howard of Ontario won the Tim Hortons Brier (2007), the playoff field emerged cut and dried from the round-robin preliminary.

When Brad Gushue’s boys from The Rock made short work of fading Quebec rookie Serge Reid 8-2 during Thursday night’s final draw at the Metro Centre, the Fab Four were in concrete and playoff positions locked up.

Heading into the Page-system showdown, undefeated Howard will tangle with unsung Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie Friday at 7:30 p.m. with the winner advancing to the championship final on Sunday at 8 p.m. and the loser dropping into Saturday’s semi-final at 7:30 p.m.

Then on Saturday at 12 noon, Gushue will collide with Kevin Koe of Edmonton in a sudden-death playoff of 8-and-3 teams with the winner moving to the eventide semi.

When Coldwater’s Howard capped an 11-win string with a tight 7-6 decision over Koe on the closing shift, it dropped the Edmonton team to third place and left the surging but idle Northern Ontario crew (9-and-2) with the extra playoff life alongside Howard and his unit of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill.

Howard was required to wield the hammer in the final end. Koe attempted a tight tap-and-roll behind partial cover in the four-foot with his last rock but the stone hit thin and rolled out of contention.

“We made it tough on ourselves,” said Koe. “I may have thrown the last one a bit soft and it over-curled. A nose hit was useless and I was going to make sure I got some kind of roll.  It’s too bad, I would have liked to leave him having to make something to win. He’d probably make it, he made just about everything out there, but it would have been a better way to lose.”

No all-Ontario final match ever has been staged at the Brier. In fact, no all-Ontario Page One-Two game has transpired in the past, although the Ontario teams finished one-two in the 1990 round robin and finished tied with B.C. and Manitoba for top spot in 1993.

By coincidence, the second-place finisher in 1990 was skipped by Jacobs’s uncle, Al Harnden, who lost the semi-final.

Gushue’s victory earned his inconsistent Newfoundlanders the last playoff berth and eliminated Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg, who missed the playoff round for the third time in eight Brier appearances.

So what was the Ontario key to an undefeated rampage through the week’s round robin?

“I think reading the ice and the reading the weight well has been an advantage for us this week,” Howard was saying.
“It’s never been quite the same, game in and game out, and we’ve been able to adjust. It’s like going to a different golf course every day, putting on different greens. Conditions are great but you just have to read it that day. I think we did a great job of that.

“We all did it as a team, too. It’s not just me. The guys picked up on all the nuances of the ice and the speed and you need that.”

Howard said he’s seen more missed draw shots this week than in previous Briers.

“It’s sort of shocking,” he said. “Usually, at this level, you don’t see so much of that. I think I’ve seen more draws missed this year than the last three or four. I think it’s a matter of the ice changing here and there. Every Brier is like this and the more experience you get on this type of ice the better off you are. I mean, you put another 1,000 people in the arena and it changes things. You never know. You have to learn to recognize it.”

The Northern Ontario team, riding an eight-game winning streak, bombarded Reid’s Quebeckers 9-3 in the afternoon and stunning a sloppy Gushue 8-4 in the morning.

Said Gushue in the wake of his evening rout:  “It’s nice to be in the playoffs, not the position we hoped for, but now we have an opportunity over the next three days to see if we can pull it off. We’re going to have to win three tough games against three tough opponents. But we’ve done that to win events before.”

In fact, no team ever has won the Brier after qualifying for the Page Three-Four playoff.

“Eventually someone’s got to do it,” he said. “Maybe it will be us this time. It’s overdue.”

At the finish behind the leaders, Manitoba was 7-and-4, Quebec was 5-and-6 after losing its last four games, Saskatchewan and British Columbia were 4-and-7, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. were 3-and-8 and the Territories team won once in 11 matches.

PEI’s youngest curling champions will be crowned thisweekend (March 12-14)  at the KFC Provincial Age 12 and Under championships, which  take place at the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton.  There will be two new champions this year, as some members of the two-time defending boys champion Tyler Smith rink from Cornwall, and last year’s girls champs, the Jenny McLean foursome from the Silver Fox, have graduated from the age category. The seven boys teams entered have been divided into two pools, and will play a round robin, as will the three team girls division.

Round robin play (6 end games) goes Friday March 12 at 1:30, 4:30, and 7:30 pm, and wraps up with the noon Saturday draw. Playoff draws go at 2 (tiebreaker game, if needed), 4 and 7 on Saturday, with the girls final at 7. The boys playoff round continues on Sunday at 1 pm, with the final at 4.

Here is the round robin draw:

Draw One Friday March 12, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Devin Schut vs Cameron Jenkins, Laura Gillis vs Kayla Schut, Cameron MacKay vs Alex MacFadyen

Draw Two Friday March 12, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Brookes Roche vs Cameron MacKay, Dillon Vincent vs Devin Schut, Owen Collier vs Cameron Jenkins

Draw Three Friday March 12, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Dillon Vincent vs Owen Collier, Brookes Roche vs Alex MacFadyen, Megan Ching vs Kayla Schut

Draw Four: Saturday March 13, 2010 at 12 Noon
Laura Gillis vs Megan Ching, Devin Schut vs Owen Collier, Dillon Vincent vs Cameron Jenkins

Complete draw, and results available at peicurling.com/12andunder

Boys team rosters (skip to lead, fifth, coach, club)

Owen Collier, John Campbell, Dawson Chatman, Milo Ryan, coaches Steve Ryan/Rachel Collier, Montague
Cameron Jenkins, Spencer Stetson,  Jonathan Cann,  Andrew Stetson, coach  Robert Jenkins,  Charlottetown
Devin Schut, Spencer Matheson, Logan Lewis, Mitchell Schut, Jonathan Schut, Cornwall
Alex MacFadyen, Matthew MacDonald, James Dalton, Parker MacFadyen, coach David MacFadyen, Silver Fox
Dillon Vincent,  Jacob Wilkins,  Alex Ramsay,  Dave Williams, coach Rick Hardy,  Western 
Brooks Roche,  Dylan Lowery, Ryan Lowery, Darian Rice, coach Cody Dixon, Montague
Cameron MacKay, Donald Dewolfe,  Carter Worth,  Avery Wells,  fifth Alexander MacKay, coach Geoff Scutt, Cornwall

Girls team rosters (skip to lead, coach, club)

Megan Ching, Rachel O’Connor, Lauren Lenentine, Breanne Burgoyne, coach Sara MacRae,  Cornwall
Kayla Schut, Laurel Parsons, Kaleigh Peters-Ellis, Sarah Parsons, coaches Dario Zannier/Phyllis Stretch, Crapaud
Laura Gillis,  Emma-Jean Griffin,  Hailey Wilson,  Karlei Lewis,  coach Norma-Jean Griffin,  Western

By Larry Wood, Tankard Times Editor (CCA)

HALIFAX, March 10 – Winner of 52-and-counting Tim Hortons Brier games over five renewals, Glenn Howard and his team of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill assured Ontario on Wednesday night of playoff activity for the fifth straight year.

Extending its current win skein to nine games at the Metro Centre with an 8-4 conquest of Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton, who skipped the team that derailed Ontario a year ago in Calgary, Howard clinched a berth in the Page One-Two playoff on Friday night.

That game provides an extra playoff life. The winner heads directly to Sunday’s 8 p.m. championship final while the loser drops to the Saturday night (7:30 p.m.) semi-final.

It was a critical day for Howard, who earlier disposed of another possible threat in Brad Gushue of Newfoundland/Labrador. That was a 9-5 thrashing on the morning shift.

Gushue then rebounded to defeat Stoughton 5-3 in the afternoon. It was a duplicate of the result in the same building five years ago when Gushue defeated Stoughton in the final of the 2005 Olympic trials to earn a trip to the Torino Games and a subsequent gold-medal haul.

While Howard was prevailing, Gushue (7-and-2) splitting and Stoughton (5-and-4) plummeting, Alberta’s Kevin Koe won twice and installed himself as a promising bet to face Howard in the Page One-Two.

With each team drawn twice in Thursday’s final round-robin docket of three draws, here’s how the contenders will wrap it up:

Ontario (9-and-0): 3 p.m. Territories (1-8), 7:30 p.m. Alberta (7-2).
Alberta (7-and-2): 10:30 a.m. Territories (1-8), 7:30 p.m. Ontario (9-0).
Newfoundland/Lab. (7-and-2): 10:30 a.m. Northern Ontario (7-and-2), 7:30 p.m. Quebec (5-and-4).
Northern Ontario (7-and-2): 10:30 a.m. Newfoundland/Labrador (7-and-2), 3 p.m. Quebec (5-and-4).
Manitoba (5-and-4): 10:30 a.m. Nova Scotia (2-and-7), 3 p.m. Saskatchewan (4-and-5).
Quebec (5-and-4) 3 p.m. Northern Ontario (7-and-2), 7:30 p.m. Newfoundland/Labrador (7-and-2).

Howard slammed four on the board in the first end Wednesday night against Stoughton and the Manitobans failed to recover, although they did battle back to within a point.

“That was characteristic of that Manitoba team,” said Howard. “They weren’t quite on their game but they keep coming back at you. We were leaking oil for a time there after getting the four but finally we got the pressure back on him.”

Howard said his team will keep playing every game as though it could be the last one.  “We’ll go out and play as well as we possibly can against the Territories and Alberta. Like I’ve been saying all week, we want to win every game. That’s the goal and that hasn’t changed with a 9-and-0 record. We never sit back.”

Moaned Stoughton, “No one’s making many shots so you get your rump kicked. We aren’t putting eight shots together at all.
“It’s one of those days. You get as much out of this game as you put into it so I guess we haven’t put enough into it.”

Third Kevin Park struggled with shooting percentages in the 60s in both games.  “When I don’t make my shots, then Jeff’s shots will be twice as difficult,” he said.

Park added Manitoba has put itself in the same position it was in last year at Calgary, having to hope for two wins on the last day and then advancing from a tiebreaker. The team eventually wound up in the final.

In other Wednesday night matches, Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie (7-and-2) forged into the top four by edging Rod MacDonald (1-and-8) of Prince Edward Island 7-6 on last rock, Saskatchewan’s Darrell McKee (4-and-5) hammered Jamie Koe (1-and-8) of the Territories 13-4, and New Brunswick’s James Grattan (3-and-6) halted a win famine by upending Quebec’s Serge Reid 7-2.

The loss kept Reid (5-and-4) from moving ahead of Manitoba to a position one game shy of the top four places.

Larry Wood, Tankard Times Editor (CCA)

HALIFAX, March 9, 2010 —Suddenly, but not surprisingly, it’s box cars at the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by Monsanto.

The wide division of the field never has happened this early. Six teams are in, six teams are playing for their reputations.

With four games remaining for each of the 12 teams in the Brier round robin at the Metro Centre, the field of contenders has been halved. Six teams are 5-and-2 or better. Six are 2-and-5 or worse.

Meanwhile, the lowly home team from Halifax managed some meagre consolation on Tuesday, notching one of only eight six-enders recorded at the Brier since the event reduced its length of games to 10 ends in 1977. None, however, involved a winless team at mid-week defeating a favourite of the ilk of Alberta’s Kevin Koe.

It transpired during the 10th draw of the 81st Canadian championship Tuesday afternoon, in the fifth end. Going in, Alberta was 4-and-1, Nova Scotia was 0-and-5.

Strangely thereafter, Fitzner-LeBlanc and his team of Stuart MacLean, Kent Smith and Phil Crowell had to hang on by its fingernails to finally record a wild 13-8 victory in nine ends over Kevin Koe of Edmonton.

However, Koe and his troops rebounded Tuesday night to stun Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton 7-2 and pull even with a 5-2 record.

Joining that pair at 5-2 were Quebec’s surprising rookie Serge Reid of Jonquière and Northern Ontario’s youthful Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie.

“We had to bear down and bring some of these teams back to us,” said Koe. “We knew we had to play better. We’d been struggling. Hopefully this will give us a boost.”

Said Stoughton, who tumbled behind 6-1 after six ends, “That was a stinker. I had an open hit and whiffed it, then I was four feet light on a draw for a deuce. When you get down you have to make them all and we weren’t making them. It was strictly poor execution.”

Each of them trailed leader Glenn Howard of Ontario (7-and-0) by two games and second-place Brad Gushue of Newfoundland/Labrador (6-and-1) by one game. Howard and Gushue met in the 2007 Brier final with the former emerging the winner.

Jacobs defeated Jeff Richard (2-5) of British Columbia 7-3 Tuesday night. Gushue stopped James Grattan (2-5) of New Brunswick 8-3.

In a match of also-rans, the Territories, with skip Jamie Koe on the absentee list, drubbed the Nova Scotians 7-2.

“We’ve been operating under the radar, which is exactly what I’ve been hoping for,” said Jacobs. “We’re an underdog for sure, so it’s a nice feeling. My guys have been making it easy for me so far. Now we have to limit the mistakes and hope to take advantage of the mistake or two you get from the big teams.”

The Soo crew has only Gushue and Quebec to play among the contending teams.

In Wednesday morning’s opening round, Howard and Gushue collide in a major clash while Alberta faces Quebec. Among the also-rans, it’s Saskatchewan’s Darrell McKee facing B.C.’s Richard and Nova Scotia going against P.E.I.

HALIFAX, March 9, 2010 (CCA) — How often do they notch six-enders at the Brier?

That’s a count of six in one end? How about seven times, since the Brier game went to a playoff format in 1980.  Oh, and Prince Edward Island stole one seven-ender during that span, too.

But nobody remembers a winless team like Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc’s Nova Scotians hammering Alberta with a big six points.  It transpired during the 10th draw of the 81st Canadian championship at the Metro Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

Going in, Alberta was 4-and-1, homestanding Nova Scotia was 0-and-5.  Strangely thereafter, Fitzner-LeBlanc and his team of Stuart MacLean, Kent Smith and Phil Crowell had to hang on by its fingernails to finally record a wild 13-8 victory in nine ends over Kevin Koe of Edmonton.

“We got up early with some good play,” explained the Nova Scotia skip, “took a 5-0 lead and they got a deuce back won a great shot by Koe. So we just decided we wanted to keep the zeroes off the board and find away to score. He was very aggressive, trying to get back into it, Stuart and I made doubles and he rubbed on his last one. So it was a half-rock in for six.”

Then what happened? Did complacency set in?

“I wouldn’t like to think so but it certainly may have appeared that way,” said Fitzner-LeBlanc.  “We were focused, I think. They played a solid second half and when you’re playing one of the top teams in the world, which is what they are, it’s tough to match them shot-for-shot. But a win’s a win, the scoreboard doesn’t take pictures, and we’re happy.”

Prince Edward Island’s Peter Gallant posted the last six-ender recorded at the Brier, clubbing Nova Scotia’s Brian Rafuse 13-3 in 2008 at Winnipeg.

There have been six other six-enders scored since 1980 with Randy Ferbey of Alberta (2004), Wayne Middaugh of Ontario (2001), Russ Howard of Ontario (1987), Larry Pineau of Northern Ontario (1987), Al Delmage of The Territories (1987) and Ed Lukowich of Alberta (1984) posting the big ends.

Current Island lead Andrew Robinson skipped P.E.I. to the only seven-ender in recent Brier history, and a steal of seven to boot,  at Saskatoon in 2000. Robinson’s victim was Shawn Adams of Nova Scotia.

“We were down so we had to gamble and we didn’t make our shots,” explained Koe. “You can’t play just to keep the score close, you try to get back into it and it didn’t go our way. You get down three in the first end, it’s tough to come back against anyone.”

In other Tuesday afternoon games, frontrunner Glenn Howard of Ontario stretched his winning streak to seven games with a 9-5 victory over fading Darrell McKee of Saskatchewan (2-5) while Brad Gushue of Newfoundland/Labrador broke open a tight-fit with four in the eighth end and defeated Jeff Richard of British Columbia (2-4) by 7-5.

With the win, Gushue pulled even with idle Manitoba at 5-and-1. Alberta’s loss dropped the Koe team to 4-and-2, a half-game behind Serge Reid’s surprise Quebec entry, which won its fifth game against two losses with an 8-7 extra-end win over Rod MacDonald of Prince Edward Island.

On Tuesday morning, Glenn Howard’s foursome from Coldwater, Ont., stayed perfect (6-0) by clobbering Prince Edward Island (1-5) by an 8-2 count. Jeff Stoughton’s Manitobans (5-1) kept pace by running up a 10-3 score on the winless Territories (0-6).

In today’s 11th draw, which got underway at 7:30 p.m., Alberta collides with Jeff Stoughton of Manitoba in the feature match. Elsewhere, Newfoundland/Labrador takes on New Brunswick, Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs (4-and-2) tackles B.C. and Nova Scotia goes against the winless Territories team that will be without skip Jamie Koe, who will write a chartered accountant’s exam at St. Mary’s University.

The 2010 CIS / CCA University Curling Championships – presented by The Dominion – will be held March 10-14 at the Saville Sports Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, with 14 men’s and 12 women’s teams taking part. Opening draw is 9 pm on Wednesday.

 The winning teams from this event will represent Canada at the 2011 FISU World Universiade in Erzurum, Turkey, January 27 to February 6th, 2011.

Last year’s UPEI women’s entry, skipped by Sarah Clow is back this year, with Christina Hennessey at third, Whitney Young joining the team at second, and Courtney Moore as lead. Coach is Angela Hodgson,

The UPEI men’s team, who are also reigning PEI junior men’s champions, is the rink of Brett Gallant, Adam Casey, Anson Carmody, and Alex MacFadyen. Their coach for this event is Tristan Chisholm. Casey and Carmody were on last year’s UPEI team, while MacFadyen was on the team from St. Francis Xavier.

Website: http://www.curling.ca/content/Championships/2010university.asp

The Big Four are still the Big Four…so far

By Larry Wood
Tankard Times Editor

HALIFAX, March 8, 2010 — Going in, the experts were calling them the Brier’s Big Four.

Three days and eight draws later, they still are the Big Four —Ontario at 5-and-0, Manitoba, Alberta and Newfoundland/Labrador at 4-and-1.

So how easy was this Tim Hortons Brier, presented by Monsanto, at the Metro Centre to handicap?

“There’s a long way to go,” said St. John’s skip Brad Gushue by way of a warning on Monday night. “A lot of big teams still have to play one another and a couple of others aren’t out of it, either.”

Nevertheless, the preliminary round robin barely is at the halfway mark Tuesday morning during Draw Nine with eight more draws to follow.

Glenn Howard and his favoured Coldwater crew extended its winning streak to five Monday night with a 9-3 runaway from winless Nova Scotia skipped by Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc. Earlier in the day, Howard and his team of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill defeated New Brunswick’s James Grattan 7-4.

“We’re good!” exclaimed Howard afterward, slightly understating the case.

“I was a little ticked off in the first end, I threw one that didn’t curl quite enough and he stole one,” said the Ontario skip. “But he (Fitzner-LeBlanc) gave it right back in the next end, threw it a little wide and we got two and after that we pretty well controlled it.”

Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton, who suffered his lone defeat Saturday night (to Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario) stretched Manitoba’s win skein to three by doubling Quebec’s Brier rookie Serge Reid by a 6-3 score in the afternoon. It was the only match of the day for the Bison Boys.

“They seemed a little inexperienced, a couple of questionable calls here and there,” said Stoughton of his foe from Saguenay country. “But they throw pretty good so they deserve to be here.”

The Quebeckers (3-2) proved that on the night shift, scoring a 10th-end deuce for an 8-7 decision against British Columbia’s Jeff Richard.

“We wanted to take away his easy draw for two but my guard over-curled,” said Richard of his last rock in the 10th end. “They played better than us, though, and deserved to win the game.”

Reid paints his team “an underdog” and said “that helps us”.  Teams don’t know us but we know them,” he said. “We can play with every team here.”

He had the tying point stashed in the four-foot and when Richard left him an avenue, he drew the last rock to the middle circle for the winning pair.

The B.C. skip was far hotter in the morning when he directed a 7-5 victory over Alberta’s Kevin Koe.

Newfie’s Gushue rebounded from a Sunday night loss to Alberta’s Koe and turned in a pair of Monday successes — 10-3 over the Bluenosers in the morning and 7-3 over Rod MacDonald’s Prince Edward Islanders (1-4) on the late shift.  PEI won their first game of the competition in the afternoon draw, a 9-3 drubbing of Jamie Koe’s winless Territories team from Yellowknife. PEI play Ontario and Quebec in the first two draws on Tuesday.

“We were strong in the second half of that last game,” said Gushue, “and that’s a good building block going into the next games.”

Alberta bounced back at night to throttle Darrell McKee of Saskatchewan 9-5 with three-enders in the sixth and eighth panels. A cross-rings double-kill from Koe for the initial triple was the game’s turning point.

“That shot is our bread and butter,” Koe said. “To miss that one would have left him (McKee) with a steal and a two-point lead. It would have been deflating to lose two in one day.”

HALIFAX — The opposition’s ability to generate big ends proved costly for P.E.I., which lost its first three games at the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier over the weekend.

The Charlottetown Curling Club’s Robert Campbell rink beat their clubmates, the Bill Hope foursome by an 8-3 score this evening to win the M&M Meat Shops Provincial Mixed Curling Championship at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. Campbell, and his team of Rebecca Jean MacPhee, Robbie Doherty, and Jackie Reid, grabbed an early 5-1 lead with a triple in the second end, and a deuce in the fourth, and held on for the win.

The Campbell squad had won the A section of the double-knockout competition with an 11-5 victory over Hope, whose team includes his wife Sandy, along with David Murphy and Shelley Ebbett. Campbell then suffered his only loss in the event, losing a B section qualifier to the Eddie MacKenzie rink, also from Charlottetown, by a 6-4 score. Hope won his B qualifier 7-4 over clubmate Jody Jackson, who had advanced to that game by eliminating defending champion Kyle Stevenson, by an 8-5 score, on Saturday night. Hope then beat MacKenzie 8-3 in the B final to set up the championship game against Campbell.

Campbell is an eight-time provincial men’s winner, but his only other PEI Mixed title was in back in 1988, when he went on to win the 1989 Canadian championship. His team at that time included Angela Roberts, and Mark and Kathy O’Rourke.

The Robert Campbell rink will now advance to the 2011 Canadian Mixed, at the Morris Curling Club in Morris, Manitoba, November 20-27, 2010.

Larry Wood
Tankard Times Editor

HALIFAX, March 7 – Ontario’s Glenn Howard moved to the front of the Tim Hortons Brier pack at the Metro Centre on Sunday afternoon, concluding a sweep of its day’s assignments with a tight 7-6 victory over Jeff Richard of British Columbia.

The less-experienced Kelowna team gave up deuces in the fourth and sixth ends and couldn’t recover but still had Howard looking at a pair in the 10th end when he went down for his last shot, an open draw to the four-foot ring. 

Howard executed the shot perfectly to extend Ontario’s record to 3-and-0.
Brad Gushue’s St. John’s team and Kevin Koe of Edmonton remained the only other unbeaten skips in the field — Gushue hammered Darrell McKee’s Saskatchewan troops from Saskatoon by an 11-5 score while Koe and his Albertans dumped Rod MacDonald of P.E.I. 9-4.

Alberta and Newfoundland/Labrador collide in tonight’s feature hookup at 7:30 p.m. AT.

In a late-finishing tilt, Serge Reid of Quebec scored two in the eighth and two in the 10th end without requiring the hammer to rally and upend hometown favourite Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc 8-7.

“That,” said Howard of his B.C., opponent, “is a damn good team. You don’t win any province playing lousy, and those guys are very good. They’ll do some damage this week.”

Richard said his team was happy to have drawn (a) Manitoba and (b) Ontario as opening adversaries.

“You want to play these guys early and find out where you stack up,” said Richard. “I think losing two on last rock means we played them pretty tough. We’re catching on to the ice but so are they. So they’ll get better and we’ve played them. I think we’re in good shape in spite of an 0-and-2 start.”

In other action tonight, the Territories (0-3) plays Northern Ontario (1-2), New Brunswick (2-1) goes against Manitoba (2-1) and Nova Scotia (0-2) tackles British Columbia (0-2).

The Charlottetown Curling Club rink of Bill and Sandy Hope, David Murphy, and Shelley Ebbett beat the Eddie MacKenzie team, also from Charlottetown, by an 8-3 score  in the B final of the M&M Meat Shops PEI Mixed Curling Champioship this afternoon at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. They’re now playing the Charlottetown clubmates, the Robert Campbell team, who won the A final of this double knockout event, in the championship game, which got underway at 7 pm. The winner will advance to the Canadian Mixed, at the Morris Curling Club in Morris, Manitoba, November 20-27, 2010. Other members of the Campbell foursome are Rebecca Jean MacPhee, Robbie Doherty, and Jackie Reid.

Photo (L-R): Audrey Callaghan (PEICA/Western CCC), Veronica Smith, Katie Fullerton, Sabrina Smith, Chloe McCloskey, Paul Smith (coach)

The Veronica Smith rink from the Cornwall Curling Club, which includes 3rd Katie Fullerton, 2nd Sabrina Smith, and lead Chloe McCloskey, with coaches Paul Smith and Sarah Fullerton, beat the Caroline Rose team from Montague by a 7-2 score this afternoon to win the girls division of the M&M Meat Shops Provincial Curling Championships, at the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton. Other members of the runner-up Rose team are Sarah MacPhee, Jessica Chapman, and Leah Deveau, with coach Carolyn MacPhee.

Rose beat Fallon Arsenault of Summerside 14-1 in the final round robin draw Sunday morning, while Smith defeated Emily Keen of Charlottetown 11-2. The Jenny McLean team from Summerside, who were tied with Smith and Rose at 3-1 going into the last round robin draw, lost 8-1 to Emma Cousins of the Maple Leaf.

Photo (L-R): Audrey Callaghan (PEICA), Kyle Hughes, Jonathan Schut, Matthew MacLean, Marshall Smallman, Shannon Smallman (Coach)

Meanwhile, the combined Charlottetown/Maple Leaf rink of Kyle Hughes, Matthew MacLean, Marshall Smallman, and Jonathan Schut, with coach Shannon Smallman, beat the Alex Matters foursome from Charlottetown by a 7-2 score Saturday evening to win the boys division. MacLean and Smallman, from the Maple Leaf club in O’Leary, were on last year’s winning team, and also won the 17 and Under this year. As the rules permit no more than two players from a team winning a higher age division to be on one team, MacLean and Smallman teamed up with Charlottetown’s Hughes and Schut. Other members of the runner-up Alex Matters rink are Chris Gallant, Kyle Holland, and Andrew Cameron, with coaches Peter Gallant and Derrick Cameron. The third team entered in the boys section, skipped by Brandon MacNevin of the Silver Fox, did not manage to pick up a win in double round robin play, while Hughes and Matters both finished at 4-1, with Matters beating Hughes 7-5 in their first round robin encounter, and Hughes doubling Matters 4-2 in their second game.

Todd Kimberley
Tankard Times Associate Editor

HALIFAX, March 7, 2010 – Theft was the name of the game Sunday morning at the Tim Hortons Brier, presented by Monsanto.

Ontario’s Glenn Howard made three critical mid-game steals to stay undefeated, Saskatchewan’s Darrell McKee won his second straight game thanks to an eighth-end pilfer, and Quebec’s Serge Reid swindled points at will for his first victory of the tournament during the third draw of the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Ontario (2-0) and Saskatchewan (2-0) lead the 12-team pack. Kevin Koe of Alberta (1-0) and 2006 Olympic gold medallist Brad Gushue of Newfoundland and Labrador (1-0) lead the other undefeated outfits heading into Sunday’s fourth draw, slated for 3 p.m. AT.

Howard, making his fifth straight appearance as Ontario’s skipper, stole single points in the fourth, fifth and sixth ends en route to a 9-4 victory over the Northern Ontario (1-2) crew skipped by Brad Jacobs.

“I’m not super confident yet. The ice is still a little tricky,” said Howard, whose Coldwater and District Curling Club rink includes third Richard Hart, second Brent Laing and lead Craig Savill. “But a great comeback for us. We gave up a bad three in the second end, and came back with a nice deuce, and then plucked away and got a couple of fortunate misses out of Brad.

“It wasn’t working out for them . . . a couple of shots that I would say (Jacobs) doesn’t normally miss, but he did. And fortunately for us, it worked out.”

Saskatchewan, led by Saskatoon skip Darrell McKee, outlasted the formerly undefeated New Brunswick (2-1) outfit of James Grattan 7-4 on Sunday morning. Quebec (1-1) pounded Jamie Koe’s winless Territories (0-3) rink by a 7-3 count, and Jeff Stoughton’s Manitobans (2-1) counted four in the second end on their way to a 9-4 victory over Rod MacDonald’s winless Prince Edward Islanders (0-2).

On Sheet D, McKee’s flatlanders scored a huge steal of one in the eighth end to go up 4-2, after Grattan’s final stone found its way through a narrow port but failed to push Saskatchewan’s shot rock far enough into the back of the rings.

“That was huge. It gave us total control of the game,” said McKee, whose Saskatoon-based quartet from the Nutana Curling Club includes third Bruce Korte, second Roger Korte and lead Rob Markowsky. “The worst we should have been was tied up coming home (which they were), so that was a really big point.

“It’s nice to be 2-0,” added McKee. “The last two Briers we were at, we were 0-2. Nice to get off to a good start. Notoriously, Saskatchewan’s been off to bad starts at the Brier the past few years, other than (skip Pat) Simmons a couple of years ago.”
Grattan, back at the Brier as New Brunswick’s skip for the fourth time, viewed Sunday morning’s loss as a game of missed opportunities.

“We had a bunch of chances early. Both teams did, but I always remember the ones that we had,” said Grattan, whose Gage Golf and Curling Association crew of Oromocto, N.B., includes third Steve Howard, second Jason Vaughan and lead Peter Case. “We had a few chances early to take a few deuces and get away from them a little bit, but we never capitalized.”

As for that Saskatchewan steal in the eighth, “That pretty much ended up being the game changer right there,” said Grattan. “I thought I had it pretty easily. Once I got through the hole, I thought it was going to be fine.”

Reid’s crew from the Kenogami Curling Club of Jonquiere, Que., stole one in the second, one in the third, and two in each of the fourth and fifth ends for a 7-0 lead after five.

“Important for us to get our first win at the Brier. Not so much pressure now,” said Reid, whose team includes third Francois Gionest, second Simon Collin and lead Steeve Villeneuve.

“Our guys curled well, but I didn’t necessarily curl a great game. I missed a couple of easy shots,” added Reid. “But on the other side, we got a lot of breaks.”

As for the ‘Tobans, last year’s runners-up in Calgary, they notched that four-ender in the second on a triple-takeout by Stoughton.

“We were pretty fortunate to get the four-ender there, and we just played well after that,” said Stoughton. “If (MacDonald) doesn’t throw his last one, we have a shot for one. But he lined it up for us, and we were able to get an angle-raise for four.”

Sunday afternoon’s fourth draw pits Quebec vs. Nova Scotia (0-1), Saskatchewan vs. Newfoundland/Labrador, Ontario vs. British Columbia (0-1), and Alberta vs. P.E.I.

This afternoon’s feature game on TSN, getting underway now,  is  between Kevin Koe of Alberta and Rod MacDonald of PEI.

There will be a championship game at seven this evening in the M&M Meat Shops Provincial Mixed Curling Championship, being played at the Crapaud Community Curling Club, as the Robert Campbell rink, who win the A final, lost their B qualifier game this morning, and won’t have the opportunity to go home early by winning the B final. Eddie MacKenzie beat Campbell by a 6-4 score, aided by a four point fifth end. Bill Hope stole singles in the last three ends to beat Jody Jackson 7-4. All four rinks are from the Charlottetown Curling Club.

The winner of the 2 pm B final between MacKenzie and Hope will play Campbell in the final, at 7, with the winner advancing to the Canadian Mixed, at the Morris Curling Club in Morris, Manitoba, November 20-27, 2010.

It will be the Caroline Rose rink from Montague against the Veronica Smith rink from Cornwall in the final, set for 2 this afternoon in for the M&M Meat Shops 15 and Under Curling Championships at the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton.

Rose beat Fallon Arsenault of Summerside 14-1 in the final round robin draw this morning, while Smith defeated Emily Keen of Charlottetown 11-2. The Jenny McLean team from Summerside, who were tied with Smith and Rose at 3-1 going into the last round robin draw, lost 8-1 to Emma Cousins of the Maple Leaf.

Photo (L-R): Audrey Callaghan (PEICA), Kyle Hughes, Jonathan Schut, Matthew MacLean, Marshall Smallman, Shannon Smallman (Coach)

Meanwhile, the combined Charlottetown/Maple Leaf rink of Kyle Hughes, Matthew MacLean, Marshall Smallman, and Jonathan Schut, with coach Shannon Smallman, beat the Alex Matters foursome from Charlottetown by a 7-2 score Saturday evening to win the boys division. MacLean and Smallman, from the Maple Leaf club in O’Leary, were on last year’s winning team, and also won the 17 and Under this year. As the rules permit no more than two players from a team winning a higher age division to be on one team, MacLean and Smallman teamed up with Charlottetown’s Hughes and Schut. Other members of the runner-up Alex Matters rink are Chris Gallant, Kyle Holland, and Andrew Cameron, with coaches Peter Gallant and Derrick Cameron. The third team entered in the boys section, skipped by Brandon MacNevin of the Silver Fox, did not manage to pick up a win in double round robin play, while Hughes and Matters both finished at 4-1, with Matters beating Hughes 7-5 in their first round robin encounter, and Hughes doubling Matters 4-2 in their second game.

New Brunswick the first day leader at Tim Hortons Brier

Larry Wood, Tankard Times Editor (CCA)

HALIFAX, March 6 – The guy they used to call Jimmy The Kid, resulting from an exciting third-place finish at a Calgary Brier in 1997, emerged the only double winner from Saturday’s opening draws at the 2010 rock concert in the Metro Centre.

New Brunswick’s James Grattan of Oromocto, an Air Canada customer service agent at Fredericton airport, followed up on an 8-6 win over home city favourite Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc in the afternoon by drubbing Jamie Koe of Yellowknife 10-3 on the late shift.

It was a long day for four teams that played two games in addition to Hot Shots and opening ceremonies appearances and the grind almost cost Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton, a Brier co-favourite, with two losses.

Stoughton was fortunate to escape with a split, battling from behind to edge Jeff Richard of B.C. 8-7 in an extra end before dropping an 8-5 verdict to Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario later.

Other one-game winners on Saturday were Glenn Howard of Ontario, Brad Gushue of Newfoundland/Labrador, Darrell McKee of Saskatchewan and Alberta’s Kevin Koe, who also appeared bound to be an upset victim in the afternoon until a steal of two in the seventh end enabled the Edmonton team to wriggle off the hook and roll on to a 9-6 win over Jacobs.

“I’m more confident going into this Brier than others in which I’ve skipped,” said Grattan, who’s skipping for the fourth time and also put in four appearances at third for Russ Howard.

“Having Steve (Howard) around as a third helps. Third is an important position and the guys I’ve brought here in the past weren’t up to Steve’s standard. Nothing against those other guys but Steve’s that much better. Third is an important issue and I’m just much more confident with Steve in there.”

Steve Howard, of course, is Russ’s 25-year-old son. He and dad and the other members of the current gang of Herringchokers played at the Calgary Brier last year as a five-man team.

“It’s nice having him around,” said the 35-year-old Grattan. “He’s just like his old man — in terms of the intensity more than anything. It’s not much different than playing with Russ. Actually, it’s the same except I have Russ playing third for me now.”

Howard thumped Quebec Brier rookie Serge Reid of Kenogami 8-3 Saturday night while McKee shaded Rod MacDonald’s Islanders from Charlottetown 7-6.

Elsewhere in the afternoon, Gushue tripped up Jamie Koe’s Polars 8-5.

“I think experience helped us early in the first game,” said Grattan. “I think we caught on to the ice quicker than those guys.

“I remember my first Brier, I was a little unsure of myself. I think the style of game we played back then was tough the first couple of games of that Brier.

“That was the three-rock rule back then so I wasn’t so sure what I was doing back then. Nowadays you’re trapped into playing the finesse game when you can’t hit the second rock and execution is everything.”

Grattan got better and better in 1997. He finished 9-4.

The young Northern Ontario crew from Sault Ste. Marie began grappling with the toughest opening draw this weekend. Jacobs drew Alberta for openers, then Manitoba, and plays Ontario Sunday morning at 10:30.

“I’d rather have them early than late when they’re hot and they know the ice,” skip Jacobs said. “We’ve talked about it. We can’t get down over these first three, regardless of what happens. They’re three of the four toughest teams here but we believe in ourselves.”

“That was a much better performance,” he said of his team’s evening win, sparked by a four-ender in the second end. “My guys made some huge shots to keep things clean.”

In the afternoon, the Soo crew blew a 5-3 half-time lead.

“I missed a runback, they got their deuce, we had a horrible next end, and went into the tank,” explained Jacob.

It wasn’t a patented day at the Brier for Stoughton, who is playing in his eighth Big One.

“You see that at the Brier across the board,” he said. “Everybody’s getting comfortable with the ice. Everybody’s getting more comfortable where you put the broom for hits, peels and draws. You have to figure to get more misses than expected.”

“What are you going to do?” he added, referring to the four-point spot. “You can’t get that upset about it. We got back into it right up until the ninth end and we had some fun out there. It’s a long week and you have to have fun out there.”

On Sunday, PEI Sunday plays Manitoba (Jeff Stoughton) at 10:30 am, and Alberta (Kevin Koe) at 3 pm.

The Robert Campbell foursome, which includes third Rebecca Jean MacPhee, second Robbie Doherty, and lead Jackie Reid are in the driver’s seat at the M&M Meat Shops Provincial Mixed Curling Championship, which wraps up today at the Crapaud Community Curling Club. On Saturday night, they beat their Charlottetown clubmates, the Bill Hope rink, by an 11-5 score to capture the A section of this double knockout event. Campbell, who won the Canadian Mixed in 1989, led 8-5 after seven ends, and stole a triple in the eighth to bring the A final to an early conclusion.

Defending champion Kyle Stevenson was eliminated from further play in last night’s draw, losing 8-5 to Jody Jackson. Also out last night was the Adam Casey rink, with Canadian Scotties runner-up Erin Carmody at third. They lost 10-2 to Eddie MacKenzie. All four rinks are from Charlottetown.

This morning at 9, Hope takes on Jackson, and Campbell plays MacKenzie, with the winners advancing to the B final at 2 pm. If Campbell is in that game and wins it, he will take the championship. If not, the winner will play Campbell for the title at 7 pm. The winning rink will advance to the Canadian Mixed, at the Morris Curling Club in Morris, Manitoba, November 20-27, 2010,

The combined Charlottetown/Maple Leaf rink of Kyle Hughes, Matthew MacLean, Marshall Smallman, and Jonathan Schut, with coach Shannon Smallman, beat the Alex Matters foursome from Charlottetown by a 7-2 score Saturday evening to win the boys division of the M&M Meat Shops Provincial 15 and Under Curling Championships at the Western Community Curling Club in Alberton. MacLean and Smallman, from the Maple Leaf club in O’Leary, were on last year’s winning team, and also won the 17 and Under this year. As the rules permit no more than two players from a team winning a higher age division to be on one team, MacLean and Smallman teamed up with Charlottetown’s Hughes and Schut. Other members of the runner-up Alex Matters rink are Chris Gallant, Kyle Holland, and Andrew Cameron, with coaches Peter Gallant and Derrick Cameron. The third team entered in the boys section, skipped by Brandon MacNevin of the Silver Fox, did not manage to pick up a win in double round robin play, while Hughes and Matters both finished at 4-1, with Matters beating Hughes 7-5 in their first round robin encounter, and Hughes doubling Matters 4-2 in their second game.

Three teams are tied with 3-1 win-loss records, with one round robin draw remaining, Sunday morning at 10:30, in the six team girls section. None of the three teams, skipped by Jenny McLean of the Silver Fox, Veronica Smith of Cornwall, and Caroline Rose of Montague, are playing against another 3-1 team in that draw, with McLean playing Emma Cousins of the Maple Leaf (2-2), Smith facing Emily Keen (1-3) of Charlottetown, and Rose meeting Fallon Arsenault of the Silver Fox, who has yet to pick up a win. If a definitive winner can be determined out of the round robin, no championship round will be needed. If not, semi-final rounds at 2 and 5 pm would be required.

By Larry Wood
Tankard Times Editor

Halifax, March 6 – Glenn Howard set the trend early Saturday in the Ford Hot Shots skills showdown at the Metro Centre.

Playing in the quarter-final round, the Ontario skip contributed a 26/30 performance, four points better than any other competitor, and gave an indication he’d be tough to keep out of the driver’s seat of the top-prize, a 2010 Ford Taurus SEL FWD.

And that indication proved to be correct.

Howard bounced back in the semi-finals to score within one point of Saskatoon’s Darrell McKee, who aced the last-rock double for a 24-23 edge.

But Howard prevailed 21-19 in the final and had it wrapped it up before he tossed his last-rock double, which he missed completely.

The win was the second straight for a member of the Ontario champs. Lead Craig Savill won the two-year lease on the car last year.

“I told Glenn before the start to do the same thing that I did and just black out,” quipped Savill. “I didn’t remember a thing.”
Savill still is driving his prize but hasn’t “picked up the boys yet” even though “we’ve driven in it a few times”.

Howard, who speculated he’d be dumping his Nissan Maxima in favour of “going to a domestic car now”, added “it’s a team sport so my teammates will be getting some sort of cut of this for sure”.

Howard said the team made a “little financial arrangement and Craig kept the car last year”.

“Hey, it’s a beautiful-looking car and it’s a fantastic event and it’s obviously great for the players to go out and throw some rocks and make some quality shots,” said Howard. “It’s a real boost to this competition. It’s a great vehicle for this. Kudos to Ford for their support.”

He termed his last-rock miscue “a good time to throw a bad one”.

Told that Scotties Hot Shots winner Amber Holland of Regina said she’d be the team’s designated driver for next season, Howard, who lives in Midland, guffawed.

“I definitely won’t be driving around Ontario picking up the boys for every event,” he said. “Five-and-a-half hours to pick up Craig Savill (lives in Ottawa)? Not happening.”

Third Richard Hart lives in Pickering and second Brent Laing resides in Horseshoe Valley, near Barrie.

The pre-event shotmaking competition requires curlers to execute six shots: Hit-and-stay, draw-the-button, draw-the-port, raise, hit-and-roll and double-takeout. Each shot is awarded points on a scale from 0-5, rating the success of each.

All 48 Brier starters began the competition Friday, whittling the field to eight for Saturday’s action.

McKee won $2,000 second prize while Nova Scotia skip Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc won $1,000 for third place, resulting from his draw shot to the button which was an improvement on that of Manitoba’s Rob Fowler.

Friday’s leader with a near-perfect 29/30 score, Fowler matched the Bluenoser at 21 points in the semi.

In quarters, McKee, Fitzner-LeBlanc and Fowler all scored 22 points, Ryan Harnden of Northern Ontario accumulated 21,

Manitoba skip Jeff Stoughton notched 19, Newfoundland’s Ryan Fry scored 17 and New Brunswick skip James Grattan checked in at 14.

Manitoba lead Steve Gould has twice won the car and ranks as the only winner to go on to win the Brier in the same year (1999).

Other past winners at the Brier: Greg McAulay and Pat Ryan (B.C.), Don Bartlett, Randy Ferbey and John Morris (Alberta),
Steve Laycock (Saskatchewan), Mike Coulter (Northern Ontario), Ed Werenich (Ontario), Rick Perron, Jeff Lacey and Marc LeCocq (New Brunswick) and Mark Nichols (NL).

By Larry Wood
Tankard Times Editor

HALIFAX, March 5 – A Tim Hortons Brier without Kevin Martin?

The guy who won the last two Briers, his last 26 Brier matches, with unbeaten records unheard of at the legendary event since, well, the last time they played it at the Halifax Metro Centre?

The guy who mined gold and won 11 straight at the Vancouver Olympics last month and 34 of his last 39 games at the international level and a world title two years ago?  Now that you mention it, yes.

Kevin Martin, to say nothing of his peerless combination of John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert, will be the missing links at the 2010 Brier when the rock’n and the roll’n on ice starts today.

But, it says here, the Brier at this Halifax icehouse, presented by Monsanto, will rock and roll on regardless, and without an asterisk attached to the name of the winner.

Everybody, in every sport, in every life, is replaceable, you understand.

Leave us check with last year’s Brier runner-up, who also will be representing Manitoba for a record eighth time at Halifax.

“Oh yeah,” Jeff Stoughton was telling Jim Bender of the Winnipeg Sun a while back. “It’s great that he (Martin) is not there, we don’t have to worry about him.”

Right. But, Stoughton added, “You know, Kevin Koe’s team (Alberta) is awesome. They play us tough every time we play them, so they’re going to be a top-four team just like we’re a top-four team.”

And that may or may not more or less settle that issue. The top four at the Brier advance beyond the preliminary round robin to the playoffs and a glance at this field results in four teams sticking out above all others, strictly on the basis of experience and past history.

But strange things can transpire at Briers. You may recall the last one that was played immediately following the Olympic Games. It was staged in Regina, and the winner was Jean-Michel Menard of Quebec.

T’was, in fact, only the second time in the 81-year history of this fabled fracas that a team from Quebec had won the national men’s rock concert.

The Olympic gold medallist that year wasn’t on hand for the Brier, either. But Martin was there. And Stoughton. And Glenn Howard. Five skips from the current field, in fact.

Hence, this Brier will be no different from most of the last 81. There’ll be stories galore and spectacular shots galore and maybe, just maybe, nobody will decide to run away with it as Martin ran away during the last couple. Or even like Randy Ferbey ran away the last time the show visited the Metro Centre.

If a runaway happens, of course, the best bets to achieve it will be Stoughton or Howard. Or maybe Brad Gushue, the 2006 gold medallist who won nine of 10 at the Metro Centre to qualify for the Games in the company of people like Stoughton, Howard, Martin, Ferbey, John Morris, et al.

Koe, with his Edmonton team, figures to round out the top four as far as crystal-ball gazers are concerned.

Strangely, the 35-year-old Koe, a petroleum industry land man who resides in Grande Prairie, will be skipping in his first Brier. His third, Blake MacDonald, played second back in 1999. His second, Carter Rycroft, played with Martin in 2000 and 2006, that last post-Olympic affair. Lead Nolan Thiessen is a Brier rookie.

So why should Koe, the 2000 Mixed Nationals champ, be rated top-four? He plays with the big guys on tour and in all the so-called Slams, that’s why. He was one of the top-four qualifiers for the December Olympic trials and held his own in that affair, finishing fourth behind Martin, Howard and Stoughton but not without one helluva fight.

One other thing. Koe plays out of the Saville Sports Centre, the same icehouse inhabited by Martin and Ferbey. The three of them have been knocking heads in Alberta playdowns for years.  In Alberta provincials last month, Ferbey couldn’t beat Koe in three altercations. Just like Ferbey couldn’t beat Martin the past two seasons. Which is to suggest, Koe is not to be discounted.

The Stoughton, Howard and Gushue lineups, of course, involve no strangers. Stoughton won Briers in 1996 (three straight against Martin, you may recall) and 1999. Howard won a couple with brother Russ in the dark ages, then dominated the 2007 show at Hamilton.

Gushue, on the other hand, is 0-for-6 at the Brier. His best shot was in ‘07 when he lost the final to Howard. He and Koe, however, represent the young guard. Howard is 47. Stoughton is 46. They’re a part of the old codgership in this field of combatants.

Howard is another who’ll be just as happy that Kevin Martin is a Brier spectator.  The Ontario team of Richard Hart, Brent Laing and Craig Savill hasn’t handled Martin’s the past two years at the Brier and suffered a devastating setback in the Olympic trials, to boot.

“We’re not over that (defeat) yet,” Howard said last month following his provincial victory.

The remaining eight provincial champs all promise to be the sort of teams capable of making it difficult for some, including each other, if not capable of the kind of consistency required to crank up a winning streak at the Brier.

Repeaters include 32-year-old Jamie Koe of Yellowknife, brother and former teammate of Alberta’s Koe, who’ll provide this Brier with its second brother-vs-brother teehead skirmish in as many years (Thursday morning), and 52-year-old Rod MacDonald, the P.E.I. car dealer, who’s in for the fourth time in six years and takes over sole honours as the oldest skip at the Brier.

Other returnees include New Brunswick’s James Grattan, back again directing another New Brunswick contender after rejoining Russ Howard at third last year. Grattan is making his eighth appearance, fourth as a skip, and is still trying to improve on his Brier skipping debut in 1997 when he finished third behind Martin and Vic Peters.

The Darrell McKee-Bruce Korte combine from Saskatoon reared its head above the stubble last month to outlast defender Joel Jordison and four-time champ Pat Simmons in Saskatchewan. McKee, 46, played third for Bruce Korte in one previous Brier while Korte will be playing third after two shots on Brier teeheads.

Last-rock shooter Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie is back for his third Brier in four years at the tender age of 24, directing third E.J. Harnden, second Ryan Harnden and lead Caleb Flaxey.

Jacobs threw last rocks for veteran Al Harnden in 2007 at Hamilton. Harnden is Jacobs’s uncle. The other Harndens and Flaxey played with Eric Harnden Sr., in 2008 with Jacobs along for the ride as fifth player.

“We’re all related, we have two brothers and a cousin here,” says Jacobs. “There’s a lot of family love.”

The field is rounded out by three rookie Brier skips — fuzzy-cheeked 25-year-old Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc of Halifax who outlasted big guns like Mark Dacey and Shawn Adams and, if nothing else, will be long on support from the home crowd, 30-year-old former national junior runner-up Jeff Richard of Kelowna, B.C., and unheralded 46-year-old Serge Reid from Quebec’s Saguenay region.

JASON SIMMONDS
The Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE – The Rod MacDonald rink from the Charlottetown Curling Club certainly knows what to expect at the 2010 Tim Hortons Brier.
MacDonald, third stone Kevin Champion, second stone Mark O’Rourke and lead Andrew Robinson have a combined 28 years of experience at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Read this story in the Journal-Pioneer.

P.E.I.’s round-robin schedule at the Tim Hortons Brier:
Today
7:30 p.m. – vs. Saskatchewan (Darrell McKee).
Sunday
10:30 a.m. – vs. Manitoba (Jeff Stoughton).
3 p.m. – vs. Alberta (Kevin Koe).
Monday
3 p.m. – vs. Northwest Territories/Yukon (Jamie Koe).
7:30 p.m. – vs. Newfoundland and Labrador (Brad Gushue).
Tuesday
10:30 a.m. – vs. Ontario (Glenn Howard).
3 p.m. – vs. Quebec (Serge Reid).
Wednesday
10:30 a.m. – vs. Nova Scotia (Ian Fitzner-LeBlanc).
7:30 p.m. – P.E.I. vs. Northern Ontario (Brad Jacobs).
Thursday
3 p.m. – vs. New Brunswick (James Grattan).
7:30 p.m. – vs. British Columbia (Jeff Richard).
Television: TSN will carry each draw live.

Draw four is complete at the double-knockout M&M Meat Shops Provincial Mixed Curling Championship at the Crapaud Community Curling Club, with four Charlottetown Curling Club teams, skipped by Bill Hope, Adam Casey, Robert Campbell, and defending champion Kyle Stevenson, still undefeated.

In Friday play, 2008 PEI Mixed champ Hope beat Tony Quigley of the host Crapaud club 11-7 in his lone game, while former Canadian Mixed champion Campbell, backed up by veteran Scotties skip Rebecca Jean MacPhee at third, had two high-scoring wins, beating Crapaud’s Alan Inman team 12-4, recording a five-ender in the process, and defeating Charlottetown clubmate Eddie MacKenzie 13-3.  Casey, a member of last year’s World Junior Silver Medallist rink, is joined by Canadian Scotties runner-up skip Erin Carmody at third for this event, and edged  Jeff Nelson and his combined Montague/Charlottetown team 8-7 in his only Friday contest. Stevenson beat clubmates Jody Jackson and Don Sheidow 7-5, and 7-2 respectively.

Play continues on Saturday, with draws at 9 am, and 2 and 7 pm, with the A section final at 7. Sunday action is also at 9, 2, and 7, with the B final at 2, and the event final, which would not be needed if the same team wins A and B sections, going at 7 pm.

Fourteen teams are taking part, w ith the PEI Mixed champions advancing to the Canadian Mixed, at the Morris Curling Club in Morris, Manitoba, November 20-27, 2010.