You want to know how long it’s been since Jeff Stoughton won 11 games at a Tim Hortons Brier? Never mind turning back the clock. Start wading through the pages of the Brier’s history books.
Photo: Michael Burns Photography
Flip back the pages, back, back, back, 15 years, all the way to 1996.
That was the year of Stoughton’s initial Brier victory . . . when he stole the duke in an extra end at Kamloops against a gent named Kevin Martin.
Three years later the Manitoba toe-tucker was back at it again in Edmonton. But he needed just 10 wins to take home the Brier tankard that year.
Since then, it’s been droughtsville for the 47-year-old Air Canada financial systems manager and an assortment of mates.
But something you should know about his guy. He’s Canadian curling’s legitimate poster boy for perseverance.
A dozen long years since his last tip of the tankard and there he was, out in the John Labatt Centre on Sunday night, jumping around and chirping like a schoolboy in front of 8,261 cheering onlookers after winning the latest Brier renewal with a 8-6 final-game victory over Ontario’s Glenn Howard that was far more dominant than the final score would indicate.
“Ohh, it feels awesome, I tell yuh,” Stoughton cried with his usual schoolboy grin.
“The guys (third Jonathan Mead, second Reid Carruthers, lead Steve Gould) played a great game. Jonny made a couple of great runbacks in the first few ends and we made every big shot we needed to make.
“There’s nothing better than this feeling right now. I’ve been saying right from the get-go this is what we were here for and we did it! I couldn’t be prouder of my team. Just . . . just awesome!”
Click for full story at the Canadian Curling Association website.