Extra Ends: A Curling Podcast
Three curling coaches discuss the Canadian and world curling world, as well as the local happenings in Toronto Curling.
Extra Ends: A Curling Podcast
S1E2: Curling Week in Canada, Stu Sells Oakville Review, Shorty Jenkins Preview
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This week the guys give a little more context as to why they have chosen now to start a podcast. Hint: It isn't just the mid-life crisis thing. We review the Stu Sells Oakville Tankard as well as the Saville Shootout. Looking ahead we talk about the Shorty Jenkins and the Saville Grand Prix. Coaches Corner has an in-depth discussion on ice making and we pay tribute to the memory of Margaret McDonald with Kevin telling about three curling predictions she made over 40 years ago that have come true.
Extra Ends, a curling podcast with Chris, Norm, and sometimes Rob.
SPEAKER_01I can't believe you all decided to listen to this, so we're doing it again. Welcome to the second episode of Extra Ends, a Curling Podcast. We are three guys who like to curl, watch curling, and coach curling. None of us could afford to take the by the Corvette path as part of our midlife crisis, so we decided to start a podcast instead. I'm Chris Rouget, and along with me, sitting behind the glass, are my fellow Royal Canadian Curling Club members, Kevin, aka Norm McDonald.
SPEAKER_00Hi, this time with a better mic.
SPEAKER_01And also we have Rob Ainsley, who has just recently been nominated for a Director's Guild of Canada award for sound editing in the TV series Irish Blood. And I know I can't wait to watch it.
SPEAKER_02Hello, everyone.
SPEAKER_01Sound of applause from the crowd. So one of the things we didn't address in our podcast last week is other than the midlife crisis, why are we doing this? And we feel we want to draw attention to something that's been coalescing for a few years in the curling world. And it's finally, almost with a little hysteric, and we'll get into that, happening this year. And that is all of the provincial play downs are coalescing in Canada around the same week and finishing on the same date. And Curling Canada every year pushes this event curling day in Canada. And it's always on a random February Sunday or Saturday, usually lined up with the Scotties. But it's always sort of out of nowhere. And we thought it would be amazing to move Curling Day in Canada to the day that every province in the country and territory, plus the one extra province that curling has, are playing their play downs for everyone to see. So it can be a wave of curling that follows the sun across the country from Newfoundland in the east to BC in the Yukon in the west. And that is actually happening this year on January 17th. Of the 26 provincial events that happen, sorry, 28 provincial events that happen across Canada to decide who goes to national championships in men's and women's, all but eight of them are happening on January 17th. So that week leading up to that Sunday is going to be some of the best and most curling available in the world. To give people an idea of what we're working towards, outside of the January 17th main event, Newfoundland has their men's and women's on January 8th. Yukon has their men's and women's on January 10th. The Northwest Territories has their women's on January 11th. Skipping over the curling week in Canada, on the 25th, New Northwest Territories has their men's. And then on the 31st of January, Manitoba has their men's and Northern Ontario has their men's. This leaves Sunday, January 17th to be the provincial championships for the following BC men's and women's, Alberta men's and women's, Saskatchewan men's and women's, Manitoba, women's, Ontario, men's and women's, Northern Ontario, women's, Quebec men's and women's, New Brunswick men's and women's, Nova Scotia men's and women's, PEI, men's and women's. We are going to have damn near 20 nonstop hours of curling available for us to watch. And you can expect that during that week, this podcast won't just be weekly, it might just be daily. Then check us out for watch parties and get togethers and some real great celebrations of curling week in Canada.
SPEAKER_00I'm pretty psyched about this. I try to do comparisons between watching curling and curling as a sport, as a spectator sport to other sports. I think this is the one that's closest to the um men's and women's college basketball in the United States. The March Madness for both the men's women's tournament are huge, but there's a qualification for it. And they stagger the qualifications. It's like back to back to back to back games all the week leading up to it, and then like all day Friday, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and it's about who gets into the big dance and a lot of conversations like that. I feel this is the exact same thing. Some teams are already in the big dance for the Breyer and the Scotties in terms of the pre the defending champion and the pre-qualified teams, but everybody else is trying to win their way in, and it very much feels like that. And I think ESPN and uh has done a great job in the US for that, and so I'm looking for some form of a broadcaster in Canada to do a very similar job for that at some point in time in the near future. I know at one point in time SportsNet did that. I think it's high time that they reconsider that and step in for that, or they let TSN do it. They have so many channels they can probably find spots to do this. That's my take.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I I don't think we're gonna have enough screens to watch it all either.
SPEAKER_00That might be a problem.
SPEAKER_02Might need to upgrade our uh home offices.
SPEAKER_01We could get one of those uh big walls that the uh they have and then you know put a little box of you know, 10 boxes across the walls going on. We need a a video wall somewhere. Maybe maybe we can convince the Royal Canadian Curling Club to invest you know five, six hundred thousand dollars in a studio for us to watch this. Yeah. Considering they won't even sponsor our podcast. I don't know. I doubt it.
SPEAKER_00It might it might just be us going to the club with tablets and devices our own and figuring it out from there. But yes, I'm very excited about this. And Ross right, just challenging to figure out how to watch them all.
SPEAKER_02Borrow iPads from as many people as we can and that's about it. Yep. And just like zip tie them all to a plank of wood.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. I I I can't wait for this. So mark your calendars, the week leading up to Sunday, January 17th, and more importantly, January 17th itself. There's going to be more curling going on in this country than there is anywhere else in the world, probably for the entire month of January. So let's get into it. Let's get into what happened this week. And like so often in the fall in the curling world, curling starts off with a bang. Last week we started in Kitchener, Waterloo, and we are already on to the Stu Cells Oakville Tankard this week. And it ended all of, I think about two hours ago, uh, was when, or around yeah, two or three hours ago when this event finally came to an end. But it was an amazing event once again. Shout out to the Oakville Curling Club for putting on a great event and Stu Sankey, as who is the name sponsor of the Stu Cells Oakville Tankard, for putting on once again an event that brought world-class curling uh to a local club. And I fully believe that we witness some preludes to Scotty's Games, Briar Games, and maybe even some national or provincial championships. At the end of the day, Team Casper out of the US beat Team McDonald out of Manitoba nine to five on the men's side, and Team Patz beat Team Schwaller six to four on the women's side. So uh we see Team Schwaller making it to the final there again, but not quite getting over Patz and two new names in the final. So I'll pass it over to you guys for your initial thoughts and you know what your take of the event or any moments and notes or standout teams that you had. Uh, I'll hand it over to Kevin to start.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the score in the Casper over McDonald game, from what what I watched of it, I was not there in person. Um, it says nine to five, but like it was one upcoming home without type situation, and and McDonald had a very hard shot to try to score the one, didn't quite make it. Casper stole a couple, so that ended up leading to a uh score that was not a final score that was not reflective of how close the game was throughout. Um, this is um an example of of two teams that stuck together from their lineups from last year. And that was the the biggest thing I noticed from that game as a key standout is is the familiarity of the team members with each other really helped their ability to be able to to play well because neither one of them came through the A side, both of them came through the B side and had uh they both lost the game and worked their way through to the final, which uh shows you some of that resilience, and I think that team sticking sticking it out was a big thing. Uh from the women's uh the women's side, I think that was I think going into the event, everyone probably picked those two teams. Uh the two uh Swiss teams with former world champions on both of them. Uh those teams have played each other several times and will likely over the next squad be playing each other several times. I think we'll probably get it in the north of 40 to 50 times they will play each other. This just happened to be one. And again, another great game between the two of them. So that was from the the winners that were there. I don't know if Rob have you managed to catch much of it, or you were heads down, I think, uh in your gig that you got going on now, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, unfortunately I didn't get to see much this weekend. I I was um face first in work all weekend. There you go. So uh you guys have the floor really this week.
SPEAKER_01I I I think I think some of my standouts, it was great, great to see Skrillick playing in person, uh though she didn't make it to the final. Uh, that was once again uh that's I think that's the Canadian team, one of the Canadian women's teams to watch now is Team Skrlik. Um, also, I was really impressed with Team Madaw that included three Madaws, I believe.
SPEAKER_00Yes, mother and two daughters, yes.
SPEAKER_01Mother and and two daughters, they curled really well. This was this wasn't just a a family outing for of uh from a curling family, but they came to compete and they played really well and was a lot of fun watching them curl on the men's side. Uh, my very good friend Brendan Botcher was there with his rink of the Horgan brothers, uh, as well as Jeff Walker from his team from last year, and they made it to the semis. Uh, great seeing this team in action. I think, you know, I'm biased, but I don't care. Um, I'm really excited to watch them, and they're gonna be as all as expected, I think, team to watch. Um, and team McDonald, I I I thought this this is going to be the Manitoba team. I know John Epping is playing out of Manitoba this year, and Manitoba is the hardest province to get out of by far, with something like a hundred teams going into the final event for their provincials on the men's side. But watching this McDonald team play, I think I saw them miss half a shot over the entire spiel. Um, and that also gave you an idea of the competition level of this event that they they ended up coming across the B side as well. So it was absolutely amazing to watch them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, see, that's a team right there that um struggled a bit the week before, but they absolutely turned it up this week.
SPEAKER_00For sure. Yeah, and that's the interesting part of watching this from week to week to week and seeing who like stays high, who is poor one week then great the next, vice versa, where it is. So it's always interesting to see that the team that didn't qualify last week comes back and loses the final in arguably a better field. I think it's straight up a better field.
SPEAKER_01So did we see any new teams that for the first time this season uh at at Oakville that we didn't see at KW?
SPEAKER_00Yes, but you're asking me a question that I'm unprepared for, so I don't know the answer to that for sure. One off the top of my head is team epping. This was their first event. That's about it that I can do off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_01So that's uh so this is sort of what I'm looking at is the new teams that they start to come online, either new the first time I've seen them or we've seen them, or new uh this is their first event this this year. Uh, we're only gonna have a couple weeks of that, but uh, because I know uh we're gonna get on to the Saville shootout that just finished at West as well, uh, which had another teams. But uh my final take on uh the the Oakville Tankard is it's a grind. Like the playoffs are three back-to-back games. That's if you make it to the playoffs. So you have to play at 8:30, noon, and then three, all on the same day. There is no stop, there is no break, and that's after that is after three days of curling. You have not a bad schedule if you stay on the A side, you have about one game a day. But if you fall into B or heaven forbid C division to qualify, you grind games through Sunday, you grind games through Saturday. And I actually love that about curling. I love Bond spiels that grind out because I think this sport is about resiliency, and this sport is about winning not just once, not just being able to, you know, have one moment of a spark, but being able to build consistency over and over and over again and being able to do the right things over and over again. So I absolutely loved this event, though it was a grind. Uh Kevin, what was your your final takeaway from this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I think I I'm echoing your comment about Team Scarler because that is actually a completely brand new team of people who have not curled together before. It's like Milo Platt, uh Canadian junior champ, joined the team, uh hasn't curled with Kayla before. They brought on Sarah Colton, who had been with Corinne Brown for last year, was with Kerry Galluchia before that, also a new team member. And um I can't unfortunately I'm leaving out the lead's name. It's it's uh eluding me yet again. Uh, but still another person that did not curl, and those four individuals didn't curl with each other, I believe, at all. So it's like that team being able to form that quick. I believe this was one of their first events, and them playing that well, they looked fearless, like they were demolishing teams and came through the A-side easily and then uh kind of ran into a puzzle today. Um, but uh that was the one thing, and it absolutely was a grind. I think that's the difference. We talked about this last week from the difference between the triple knockout and the pool play. When you have the pool play going on, sometimes you're gonna end up in games that don't mean anything, so the teams might not care that much about it. But in a triple knockout, every game matters because you could be losing or going down, you have a longer path, right? And there's very incentive. And Chris, we were fortunate enough to spend several hours each Friday and Saturday there uh in order to go down. But you were like you could sense the urgency at certain points in time on the ice when certain games were going on. And I think that was the the the big deal in this early in the season, but it felt very, very intense and very close to that level we'd expect at our curling uh day in Canada type thing. And then the only other one uh final take is is me making fun of you for you realizing and looking out on the ice and seeing Val Sweeting and going, Hey, that's Val Sweeting. I'm like, you're hosting a podcast and all the Canadian teams, and you forgot that she was playing on Team Keila McMillan. That is that's on you, my man. And I called you out then, and I'm calling you out again now, more publicly.
SPEAKER_01I'm just saying, I'm just saying that you know, you coming all the way from BC when the Saville shootout was in the way, like you could have you could have stopped there. But they were here in Oakville, and it was great to watch them curl. McMillan was another team that I think they pushed really hard, and that was a another team that's come well together. It's great to see Val Sweetie out there on another team, and like I I hope to see them at the Scotties.
SPEAKER_00So I think we had high hopes for that team simply because it's a team of uh three younger ladies, and now they have they had the veteran presence on the team, and we really thought that that type of dynamic would be really helpful. It might not show right now, it might be something that later in the year is the type of thing as they build throughout the season and the quad. So exactly.
SPEAKER_01So we had another Canadian major uh curling event over the weekend, and this often happens that there's usually one in the east and one in the west, sort of each week, and the teams pick which one is best for them. And we got to see that this week with the Savell shootout in Edmonton. I wish I could say I went to this one in person, but the drive is a little bit longer from my home. Uh Norm went to Edmonton.
SPEAKER_00We're driving you home from it either.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and and and Norm was unwilling to drive me home at midnight uh from Edmonton. So I had to settle for Oakville. Uh and I didn't know that. There was no settling at all.
SPEAKER_00Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01So our winners, our winners on the men's side uh out of Germany was Benny Kapp uh over BC's Jim Cotter, uh five to four. And on the women's side, it was Serena Gray Withers over Selena Sturmay, uh six to five in extra ends. And I suspect we're gonna see those two facing each other a lot over the coming uh four years, probably. So get ready to be comfortable saying Selena Sturmay and Serena Grey Withers over and over and over again, those of you in the announcers world. Uh we'll start with you, Kevin. Did you have any thoughts uh what you saw happening at the Seville shootout?
SPEAKER_00Uh this one, fortunately, because of our actual commitment to going and watching the the a lot of games in person in Oakville, um, that I didn't have as much time to watch much of the games there until today. And today I did watch the Selena versus Serena matchup, and um and it was well played. The very interesting thing, and they commented on it during the broadcast, was that team Stirme went 4-0, qualified easily, won their quarter easily, won their semi-easily, and was straight into the final no problem. Team Grey Withers actually had to get a spare for the for the weekend. Um they had uh their vice Catherine Clifford was away, so they moved uh former World Mix doubles champion Laura Crocker, who's on the team up to vice, and they got two-time Olympic gold medalist Caitlin Law as a spare at second. So it's probably a pretty solid team to come in. But they went two and two during the the round robin and only got into the playoffs on on last stone draw. So they squeezed their way in, and so therefore they had to play the top qualifier, which was Carrie Anderson, and won that game. And they just did the, as you said, the grind type thing and worked their way to the final, took was down one coming home with an eight, took one and stole the extra, which is something that is not normally occurred. And they just really did the grind, and watching them play was really good in that situation. So it's definitely a team to watch out for. It's the opposite result from when they played. I believe it was in the Ash Micebreaker, I believe was the name of it, earlier in the year. So I think they'll just keep battling back and forth, and they will be in other events in Alberta going forward. Um, the fun thing there is the ice there was great, like it was very similar to Oakville, where it had a lot of good curl and then late finish, like you're burying behind rocks on the T-line on rocks that are like biting top eight. So it's definitely was good ice conditions for that situation. So that was my take from it.
SPEAKER_02You speak about the grind too. Like, I'm looking at their line scores, like their quarterfinal game against Carrie Ironson. They had to take three to win that game in the eighth. Absolutely. That game was basically not in their hands up until that point, and then they just rallied and took a big one. Um, their next game looks like they actually had a good control of scoreboard against Kaylee Reese Hansen, but then the finals, same deal. Like they had to steal the extra end. Like they battled.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this that this whole event also we saw again Enerson, uh similar to Team Botcher in Oakville, started out on fire and then got down to a playoff game, a semis playoff game, and and wasn't able to pull it across the line. You start to wonder is maybe doing the grind is better than having the day off or the slightly easier schedule. Because I know Botcher had uh Sunday off, and I think Enerson had uh some time off as well, uh, because of their good record. You think that the rest is a is a reward, but maybe there's something to just push, push, push, push.
SPEAKER_02I mean, there's absolutely pros and cons with winning four in a row and having a day off, or winning three in a row and having a day off. Um, anytime you get a day off, you get to rest, but while you're resting, everyone else is playing and you know getting a rhythm going and starting to click and figuring out the ice and making it work, and they've got to get a winning streak going. And once you're getting a streak going, sometimes it's hard to beat you. So you come back from a day off, and now you gotta play a team that's been on fire for a day or two days, and uh re find what you uh had that was, I guess that magic you had in the first three games. You gotta find that magic again. It's definitely a challenge to come back after a day off.
SPEAKER_00Never ending rest versus rust, right? Like this is battled about like all the times in seven game series where one team sweeps and the other one's battling. It's like well, we when they play each other the next round, which is the one that more likely like it was baseball, hockey, any of the other sports we watched. So in a very similar situation, I think curling is slightly different though, Rob. I think that's your point, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and a similar start of the event, too. Um, we usually see a lot of the big team upsets at the start of the event because they might be seated higher and they're gonna be playing against a team who's already got a game in hand that had to start earlier in the bracket. So the uh game they're playing against a team that already has some uh experience on the ice. So um they have to kind of come from behind in a sense. So yeah, it's challenging sometimes to have to play against a team that's got a few extra games under their belt.
SPEAKER_01For sure. Uh the the other thing's going on in uh uh in Edmonton. I noticed uh a couple of the teams. I think the new generation is coming in. We had Ava Coey playing on the women's side. We did relation, I presume.
SPEAKER_00Yes. All right, that's the extent of what I know.
SPEAKER_01We know there's a relation, we don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00I believe it is uh is Kevin Coey's daughter, which is is great.
SPEAKER_01And the the you've seen this in sports everywhere, the younger generation. And I I also saw on the men's side there was a team Hebert, and it made me wonder wonder if there is a relation.
SPEAKER_00No, that's no relation whatsoever. Team Hebert is an American team, they won world juniors last year.
SPEAKER_01Ah, okay.
SPEAKER_00So only could be a bear for all you know, Chris.
SPEAKER_01Could be there's only okay, so it's just just one uh generational team. Um, also uh also of note at this event was Team Negavan, uh or or or team carry, depending on uh uh what what you're looking at. But it was I believe Selena was uh Selena Nigovan was skipping it this week as uh Chelsea Carey is reporting. Recovering from an injury, I believe. So uh that's another team that is has come together and rebuilt itself uh for the quad, and it's gonna be a lot, I think, a lot of fun to watch. So uh some of these teams, I think only one of these teams is coming west for next or coming east for next week, but hopefully we'll be able to see a lot a lot more of them closer up as the weeks go on. Um, do you guys have any final takeaways on the Seville shootout in Edmonton? All right. Well, now we get to have a quick break for our sponsors. This episode of Extra Ends is not sponsored by the Royal Canadian Curling Club. It almost was, but after weeks of negotiation talks, it stalled when the club refused to provide the hosts with free hot dogs on Thursday nights. Today's podcast is also not sponsored by the Split Stick, your new practice buddy. As I said at the spiel earlier in the week, they want sixty dollars for this? Come on. Now, back to our show. So in the second half of our podcast, we're gonna change up the uh the agenda a little bit and give our hosts opportunities to tell us what's on their mind. And this week, we're gonna ask, Kevin, what's on your mind?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Norm has a rant here. Uh Norm would like to ask Chris a question. I believe you wrote on your award-winning Substack uh at uh Chris M. Rouget, you wrote a wonderful explanation, which was a very similar statement that you had made in last week's uh podcast episode, where you uh stated that you would pay money to attend the Stu Cells Oakville Tankard, and you would also have paid money to watch the KW Classic. And you were wondering why curling was not treating these items and doing these uh value for money and undervaluing the product and undervaluing that thing. Yet at the same time, you're complaining about the cost it is for certain levels of equipment. So the statement is Rob, get ready to clip this for our non-existent social channels. Chris, you cheap bastard. You should be spending money on this shit because you're complaining about not want being able to sit on your ass and want curling, but you don't want to spend a dime on a gripper or a split stick. You should buy a split stick just because you're a cheap bastard, is why. Just to show support for that situation. End of brand. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Chris will never buy the split stick if you're gonna go and hold the broom for free.
SPEAKER_00I'm not that's true because I'm cheaper than a $60, is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01I'm not cheap, I'm particular. Oh, I am particular, thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02And move the split stick when you could just say, hey, Kevin, move the broom.
SPEAKER_00Buy split stick, you cheap bastard. Do you think if we say split stick another thousand times, it'll actually no well it's it's already appeared in my social feed, so I don't need it to appear again if I say it more. Yeah, the the algorithm that's gonna be a bit more. That's my brand. Thank you, Chris. I accept your rebuttal, but I'm still not agreeing with it. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much. This has been What's on your mind? Moving on, let's take a look at the week ahead. We have the AMJ Shorty Jenkins classic coming up this week, and I'm gonna turn it over to uh to Kevin to give us the lowdown of what's gonna happen here because this is from his his very own neck of the woods, his hometown, Cornwall, Ontario.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's my new home, newly declared hometown. My hometown, of course, is Kingston, Ontario, but I have uh very few ties remaining in Kingston. I have many ties into the Cornwall area. Greater Cornwall area was there uh a couple times in the last month, and we'll be there again this coming weekend. I'm gonna be uh driving in there TBD, whether it's Wednesday night or Thursday night, and we'll be watching several uh days of curling there. I've been going for several years. The pandemic broke it up, but other than that, I've been basically there every year since it has been in Cornwall. It originally formulated when it was in Brockville. Uh the Brockville Golf and Country Club uh really kind of didn't want it and then lost their plant in Cornwall, picked it up, and it hasn't looked back since. So it's a very big spiel. Originally, it was kind of like the first spiel of the year, but as evidenced by the fact that we're, I think it's officially in week six of the of the competitive curling season. We haven't even thrown a rock at our club. We're a few weeks away from throwing a rock at our club. Uh, but uh nonetheless, uh, the ice is in. They have brand new rocks, so they're really excited about that coming in. And this year, the shorty has been fortunate enough to um be named one of the satellite events to qualify for the slam. And in a very weird situation, the Stu Sells Oakville Tanker, the winner of that, actually won a spot in the slam in Thunder Bay in December. And this one is for winning a spot, even though it's after that one that just occurred, for winning a spot for the event that's in Victoria in October. So it's a very weird type of a situation that they chose them in that order, but they might have done that in order to make sure that each of them got a spot. So it it kind of encouraged teams to come into it. So as you said, Chris, we have a number of teams coming in. Team Hardy is probably the biggest name that is coming to it from a men's perspective. Last year they had several of the top teams that I would say were slam level teams in it, but uh it looks like not many of them are returning. But they have definitely a lot of those teams that I would say are the 10 to 25 in the world rankings type thing that are all trying to get into that spot and hopefully win or get the uh loser of the final and someone else is already in a slam type situation lined up. So it's a good field. Uh, they definitely have more teams than they did last year from a men's perspective. I think it's 20 teams or so, 22. I can't remember exactly, but it and it is pool play. So it's actually the situation where there's a bit more of a longer type thing, everybody gets X number of games guaranteed. So it's several really, really solid teams. So Team Retornaz is sticking around in town, Team Klima from the Czech Republic is sticking around in town, um, team Casper is sticking around in town, the recent winners of that, and then many of the Quebec and Ontario teams that you're used to seeing at this event of like uh Assalan, uh Team Epping, which is a Manitoba team, but John is from uh Ontario, team Team Scott Howard, Team Moybrook, uh several of those teams are the ones from the men's side. On the women's side, uh, I'd argue it's got a little bit of a better type of lineup because Team Zenya Schwaller and Team Alina Petts are both sticking around town and both going to that. It's their third event in a row. Uh team uh McMillan that has already been referenced, team Skurlick that's already been referenced, and actually Team Anderson is coming from out west to Ontario for that one. So we got a solid number of teams there that I'd say are the top four contenders for that top five teams. And then we have several other strong teams, both from Ontario and and Quebec Kate Cameron, uh Christina Black from Out East, um, and several other teams that oh, Team Corey Hurliman, who was one of the teams that actually uh made the semis at this two sells Oakville. Uh, several of those teams are in, so it's going to also be on the women's side a very, very solid field. And looking forward to again a second week in a row of watching a significant amount of curling, and I will not have any bear. Not a drop, right? Not just like this weekend. I didn't have any bear. Not not. I don't know if that's a that's a very long uh thing, but it is the Bond spiel that is the nearest and dearest to my heart from a spectator perspective after the Breyer and Scotty.
SPEAKER_01I I I think you have to, I think I have to I have to point out for you, Kevin, here though, that you forgot one of the most important teams. The Royal Canadian Curling Club's own.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that would be Team Alex Champ from the Royal Canadian Curling Club. Uh, three of the members uh curl in our men's league together, and um the fourth member does not, but definitely a very much of a friend of the club. So, yes, we're obviously hearts are with that team. We're hoping the best for them in this. They have made provincials the last several years, but I believe this is their first appearance in the shorty. So best of luck to Team Champ in the Shorty.
SPEAKER_02Rob, do you have any thoughts about the Shorty Jenkins Classic? One thing I guess you could note is I think the shorty often starts on like a Tuesday or Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00It does. The very first games are on Wednesday and they're finished on Sunday. So it's and they try to have the teams go to at a minimum Friday or Saturday. So I think most teams play at least one game on Saturday.
SPEAKER_02So I guess this is one of these events where they do actually create a schedule where you're only playing one or two games a day until you get to your playoffs. So, Chris, you're almost getting your wish here. One of the few events where they don't grind the teams out really hard, but the downside, they got to start early in the week. A lot of teams fly in or drive in Tuesday night, get a quick practice, and then they're in Wednesday playing.
SPEAKER_01Five days, five days in Cornwall is a long time, and it costs a lot of money for a traveling team to do that. So, okay. Well, we also, as mentioned earlier, we have a Western event this week. It is the Saville Grand Prix. Uh, same same awful place, same awful time, uh, out of the Saville Curling Center in Edmonton, and almost the entire field from last week's uh Saville shootout is in the Grand Prix with a few differences. Is that correct?
SPEAKER_00That's correct, absolutely. Yeah, there's like the odd slight difference because uh curl for kids skip uh Cameron Bryce making the uh the cross the pond journey to go to Edmonton. His Cashfield team is going into that. So, yes, that's an example. I think there's one or two in the women's, but yeah, it's basically the same teams.
SPEAKER_01It's basically it's basically so it's kind of the revenge tour from last week. Um, was team McEwen in um the shootout? Because they were in the yeah, that's another one that uh will be interesting to watch is uh McEwen, who was in KW, if I remember correctly. So uh he's taken a week off and now he's in Edmonton. So uh that should be should be a great event to watch. Uh once again, because it is at the Savile Center, there will be high quality streaming available, I'm sure, on the curling zone website, and I'm I'm very much looking forward to it. Uh, any final thoughts on our upcoming week of curling?
SPEAKER_00Another weekend of streaming a lot of stuff or watching in person, so it's be a lot of a lot of stuff going on and looking forward to it for me.
SPEAKER_02I can only imagine you're gonna go to Cornwall on the weekend to visit your brother.
SPEAKER_00I am going to Cornwall to visit my brother and and all the rest of his friends who I'm now friends with too. Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Is your brother and his friends uh fans of curling, or are you gonna make uh all of the uh almost everyone he's friends with are curlers?
SPEAKER_00So yes, yes. When I walk in the curling pub, I get yelled norm when I'm there. So, yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01So amazing. So, in there is a little bit of new news uh in the curling world announced today by the curling group, which are the owners of the Grand Slams of Curling as well as the Rock League. Uh, it was announced their new broadcast team for the Grand Slams of Curling, and there's a lot of names we recognize here, but it does mark a significant shift in who is going to be calling television games going forward. We see the broadcast debut of world champion, Olympic gold medalist, the Canadian champion, and all around, you know, good guy, Brad Gushu. Uh returning is Joanne Courtney to her role. Also being added is Jen Jones, who world famous world champion curler as well, who did a little bit of broadcast work last year, but is taking it on in a larger capacity, along with Brett Lang and then Darren DuPont and John Cullen are going to be calling the game. So we have a generational turnover in who is calling the grand slam of curling games. You guys have any thoughts on this on this new reporter's lineup?
SPEAKER_00So a few of them. I think the biggest one is the people that had been on the broadcast for quite some time. Rob Faulds, who was there as the play-by-play non-curler guy, although he curls, but like he's not the subject matter expert thing. He was doing play by play. He'd been with it from the start. So he finally, uh, he finally hung it up. Uh kudos to him for an excellent career doing that. Um, and then Mike Harris and Kevin Martin are both no longer on the broadcast as well. So those are the people that are not listed, that are not there, uh, that are the old, the the older individuals, not necessarily because someone are the same age as me, are uh the individuals that are stepping aside and allowing the new crop to come in. I think Joe Courtney uh coming in because she's been on TSN for the last several years. This is now gonna have her on SportsNet. Does that mean she's gonna be doing both? I don't know the answer to that one. We don't know what the lineup is for TSN going forward either, with Vic Router retiring. So we will hear an answer for that as we start approaching that one. Uh so that that was an interesting thing. Jen Jones has been on that broadcast. I think she was on it for last year, uh, but now bringing her husband in Brent Lang, seeing listening to Brent Lang, Jen Jones, um, and John Cullen on the Rock channel that had been covering the slams like during the week, not the SportsNet one, was always amazing. So it's them stepping up to the big leagues, I think, is completely okay. I think the interesting one is Brad Gushu. And a lot of the press that's going around and talking about it is saying the fact that Brad is currently the development director of USA Curling and simultaneously is going to be a Grand Slam commentator. I think all the press around it is talking about like that's a lot of work. Is he okay to do that? And he's like, no, they're complimentary skills, all that. I I'm kind of challenged by this actually because he's effectively the general manager for USA Curling. Can you imagine Ross Atkins from the Jays being on a Jays broadcast? Or Steve Steos or or or John Chaika from like the Sens and Leafs, respectively, being on the broadcast crew, that to me screams like like conflict of interest straight off the top. So I'm not sure that it would that that that is a I get why they did it because Brad Gushu has like been waiting, everyone's been anointing him to be the next one in the booth. So it makes complete sense that he's in, but I'm not sure anybody's actually challenged at that level. So I'd be interesting to see anybody comment on that. I'd love to hear what a wonderful response to that would be from someone from that curling group to state that back.
SPEAKER_01Well, we we we will reach out with our through our official channels and ask for comments.
SPEAKER_00Our official channels, yes, our non-existent social channels, yes.
SPEAKER_01Rob, do you have any thoughts on the uh new reporters for the Grand Slam of Curling?
SPEAKER_02I think it's a great group of people. I'm I'm mostly curious uh which one of them is going to be asking. Are are they able to make the same shot with the other turn?
SPEAKER_01Or uh it is important to have that role of the person who quote unquote doesn't know what's going on to not everyone knows the game inside.
SPEAKER_02So you need to have some people asking setup questions there.
SPEAKER_01I wonder I wonder who is going to be the setup for that. Yeah, yeah. I do have a little piece of intelligence on this, though. We were sitting beside some some people who had some knowledge of this earlier today, and rumor has it that to get uh Joe Courtney to move from TSN to the Grand Slim of Curling, the key tipping point in the negotiations was uh the curling group promised to cover her whiteboard expenses as she travels around the world.
SPEAKER_00That's a very high expense, so I understand why the style would be part of it, yes.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. So, alright, now we're going to go to one of our regular segments called Coach's Corner with Rob. Welcome to Coach's Corner with Rob, where we put on our coach's hats and discuss the strategy behind shots or how curlers can improve their games or the things that make curling great. Rob, what do you think led to the excellent ice conditions in Oakville for the Stew Cells tankered this past week? Scott Foster is good at making ice. Thanks, Rob. This has been Coach's Corner with Rob. So now I am going to uh we have a very special segment here. And uh many of you who are friends of the podcast or friends of Royals uh will know that it was uh it was a very hard week uh this past week in our community. And we want to take a couple moments and I want to hand it over to our very, very good friend Kevin McDonald, uh, who has some some words to say. Kevin.
SPEAKER_00Thank you very much. Yes, as Chris alluded to, um my mother who was uh lived a long life of 93 years. She was a very uh significant curler within and contributor to the game of curling in the Kingston, Greater Kingston area, uh, wall of fame member of the Royal Kingston Curling Club and uh Hall of Fame member at the Kingston District Sports Hall of Fame, both for her uh excellence on the ice and excellence in uh organizing events off the ice. So, in memory of Margaret McDonald, I wanted to do three prophetic curling takes that she had made. Everyone gets has someone in their life who passed down to them things that were uh helped them to understand the game of curling better. My father did most of them, my mother did many too, and I want to uh shout out to her here's the three takes, and each one of these ones she made when I was a teenager, which is over 40 some odd years ago. So, take number one playing with three on a curling team is an advantage. This is one no one ever believed, and believe it or not, this past season, World Curling made it a rule that you are not allowed to start a game with three, and this has happened far too frequently recently, and the reason why is because it is an advantage. Margaret McDonald was right. Thank you very much on that one. Number two, she said this quite some time ago as well. Lead is the most important position on the team. That might be an over-exaggeration, so I'm gonna reframe it as lead is a vastly underrated position. Everyone just thought they threw two guards and that was it. But in the time being, since she made this take, we've introduced the free guard zone, now up to the five rock free guard zone. The tick shot was introduced, which is an incredibly important shot. You now have the no-tick rule if it's touching the center line. So now the accuracy to be able to not just make a guard but make a guard that's exactly touching the center line is incredibly important. And now teams are actually to defend leads, putting rocks directly behind uh on the forefoot behind those center guards in order to defend the lead. This is something that did not happen even a handful of years ago or 10 years ago. And now leads have to make that shot in order to do the defending. It's incredibly important. Thank you, mom, for that one. And then the final one is the statement that she made the last several years, but she'd been saying it for years and years ahead of time was that guy or gal is over the hog line. Well, we had boob gate last year, and we now also have sensors in rocks this year. We're put in at the Olympics, they finally figured out the technology, and now we don't need someone sitting on the hog line going, I think you're over the line. Now we actually have technology in place that checks this out. So I feel very proud that my mother was very ahead of her time in many of these curling takes. And in her memory, we will uh dedicate this to her. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much, Kevin. And we hope that uh, as the curling episode they said in Minimoth Broom, she's gone to the great Bond spiel in the sky and she's having a whole lot of fun. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01So that is our show for this week. It's been a good one. It had uh lots of things to talk about, and believe it or not, we have a long list of things to talk about next week. Hopefully, you had as much fun as we did recording this. And if you didn't, please file your complaints with Bill McInally at the Royal Canadian Curling Club. Once again, I am Chris Rouge. These are my co hosts, Kevin McDonald. I am Norm. Norm and I'm Rob Ansley. Have a great week, folks, and may your ice be fast and curly in the shed and cold and ready at the bar. Have a great one.