Thursday night’s 16th draw of the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship was big not only for the teams fighting to get into the 3-team playoff, but also for the teams at the bottom of the standings. This year marks the third year of relegation for the event, which means that the two bottom teams will be forced to play in a pre-qualification just prior to the main event next year in North Bay, ON.
Those two teams will battle with Nunavut and Yukon – who did not make it through the pre-qualifying this year – for the final two spots in the main draw.
The main complaint against the relegation system is that not all provinces and territories will be represented at the national championship. Ed Sattelberger, who skipped Nunavut’s entry in the pre-qualifier, was blunt in his assessment, saying “if you’re going to hold the Canadian championship, hold the Canadian championship.”
The players this week have been nearly universal in criticizing relegation. “I hate it,” said Northwest Territories skip Stephen Moss. “I hated it right when they first started talking about it.”
Moss’ team out of the Yellowknife Curling Club had to play in the pre-qualifier this year, which created some unique logistical problems. “You tell them where you work that I need this much time, but then if I do good then I need this much more…and you don’t really know what to pack, you’re packing to come for two weeks and you might only be here for four or five days,” he said.
While many casual curling fans are not familiar with relegation, they soon will be as the system is scheduled to implemented at the Brier and Tournament of Hearts starting next year. Each territory will have their own entry while a Northern Ontario representative will be added to the Scotties and the defending champion will be invited back to the Brier as Team Canada.
“I don’t agree with relegation at all,” said PEI third Kathy O’Rourke, “especially in this mixed and even the seniors, I think they could come up with a system that would let all teams play so it’s a truly a national championship.”
Many people feel as though the changes are particularly punitive to the Northern and Atlantic Canadian teams, who cannot regularly travel to major bonspiels. “Unless you have a terrific sponsor, you’re not going to be able to do it,” said PEI skip Rod MacDonald [O’Rourke’s brother].
MacDonald had an interesting way to work around the problem, saying that “right now, there’s getting to be nothing for the average curler to play in if they can’t play Dominion [a national tournament featuring club champions], so I guess my view is that they should make the Brier into an amateur event, have the winner of the Players’ Championship go to the World’s and just make the Brier…a little more amateur than it is now. Most teams aren’t going to compete at that level unless you’re almost like a pro curler and that’s what those teams are.”
[Update: PEI escaped relegation this time – next year’s pre-qualifier will feature British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, and Yukon.]
Regardless of how much the players dislike the system, it appears as though it’s here to stay.
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(Sean Graham is a curling fan, a blogger/podcaster, and a PhD candidate in history at the University of Ottawa.)
Disclaimer: this is an opinion/editorial story. Views are the author’s.