SPEAKER_01 0:02

Extra Ends, a curling podcast with Chris, Norm, and sometimes Rob. Welcome to Extra Ends, a curling podcast. It was doing this podcast or us all joining another curling league. We agreed that our bank accounts could not tolerate that bar tab. So instead, we're going to give you a rundown of this week in curling and the curling world and all of our thoughts on it. My name is Chris Rouget, and joining me behind the glass is Kevin McDonald. Good evening. I'm Norm. We are missing Coach Rob tonight, who's on special assignment for Extra Ends, discovering the ice conditions in Vernon, BC, which I'm sure we'll talk about later. If you have not liked and subscribed to our podcast yet, do me a personal favor and do it right now. You know, they say every time someone subscribes to extra ends, a curler makes that outturn hit. So how are you doing today, Kevin?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I'm very good. Thank you for asking. And yes, Rob's not actually in Vernon BC. He's under the weather, but that's what code means there. He's out there checking the ice conditions. We wish uh Rob did get well uh because we do have our season coming up very, very soon. So happy about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

This is it. Uh Royals Royals curling starts on Friday, and I I have the joy of sparing on a friend's team at 9 p.m. on Friday for the first week of the season. I'm so looking forward to this. Getting out there at 9 p.m. on a Friday night to curl.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I hope you're playing against me because I'm also playing at 9 o'clock on Friday.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

So it might be a bit of a I'm not sparing on your team, am I? No, you're not.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

No, we have a spare. It's already lined up, so we're good.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Excellent, excellent. So uh it's been a busy, it's been a good week. We we we saw uh uh a major event, the Okotoks Classic, uh, this past week. And we're gonna talk about a couple of events coming up this week as well at West. We're gonna be staying out west, and also uh it's my understanding that Norm has some hot takes when we get to the perspective from the hack section. So I'm looking forward to that. But a reminder to all of our listeners that we are counting down to the week of January 10th through 17th, or what we have dubbed Curling Week in Canada. 11 out of our 14 provincial associations will be holding at least one of their provincial curling championships that week. And we are looking forward to the curling spectacular. Tune back in here every week as we get closer because, well, I love it when a plan comes together. All right, let's look at the past week in curling, and we are going out to Alberta and Okatokes, a great city. Have you ever been to Okatokes, Norm?

SPEAKER_00 2:41

I've never had the pleasure of visiting Okatokes, Alberta. I understand it's in the greater Calgary areas.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

It is, it's just a short drive south of the city, but it's a beautiful town, and uh I highly recommend it for a visit. But the Okatokes Classic was on there this week, triple knockout format, which we see a lot of. And once again, uh my pet peeve of all the claw flying playoffs were on the same day on Sunday, three games in a row. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And our winner overall at the end of it was Matt Dunstone. I guess there's not a lot of surprise there, but once again, getting stronger, stronger form. He beat out Marker Hosley five to four. And there was a couple of teams I thought stand out, and I think we're gonna talk a little bit of moments of note, but on the event as a whole, Kevin, what did you think?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I thought it was another excellent event. Um, I enjoyed that uh every sheet was either steady, Cam, or had commentary from uh Curling Stadium involved on it. I think that was good. And obviously the shot making has uh started to uh up its level from the first few events. I think some of the teams have worn the rust off. I think we were a bit concerned about Matt Dunstone. We know that like he started he started out the last couple of seasons a little off. Uh, but obviously with the Briar win last year, we know that he had the ability to get up. But like his second event of the season with the new lineup, he uh uh managed to come out firing. He did qualify B side, but still he just looked unbeatable all day on Sunday. And it was a pleasure to watch him play and be the uh Matty D that we know and love.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, it was it was absolutely great to watch him curling. And you're you're right, with every sheet being fed was uh was was excellent. Although my wife says that she she sometimes can't tell whether there's commentary or not, because if there is commentary, it's on the TV. And if there isn't commentary, apparently it's just me talking to the TV uh about every shot. So uh for those of you, it doesn't really matter if you're here with me watching curling or not. I'm going to give the room my opinion on the shot. Um, but no, it was I thought it was a great event. Uh a couple teams I I really thought stood out. Once again, this Jordan McDonald rink is really impressing me. The the staying power they have, and they are clearly on a mission. They're playing again this coming week, they're playing again the week after that. These guys aren't stopping. The only thing I'm worried about is whether or not they're gonna have the gas when it comes to January to be able to keep going. Uh, and then my good friend Brendan Butcher. I he once again was eliminated in the semis, as he has with every one of the events so far this season, but each event he's gotten better, each event they've gotten more consistent, each event the Horgan brothers are getting more and more confident in their shots. Saw some amazing angle takeouts from Jake Horgan this week that was extremely impressive. And I had to laugh in one of the commentator games. The commentator was like, Well, Brandon, Brandon used to have Mark Kennedy, and he might call this shot if he had Mark, but I don't think he's gonna call it with Jake Horgan. And then sure enough, Brendan calls it and Jake makes it perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah, I was I was I was angry when he made that comment. I'm like, come on, man. I mean, this the the this young man is very good curler.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Only watching Alberta curlers, but we've been watching the Horgan brothers for years here in Ontario and we know what they can do.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I think that was definitely one of the things on that one, Chris, was that uh the commentators like didn't seem to know uh all the Ontario events, which is completely fair. It sounded like they were watching all the Saville events that have been occurring for the last couple weeks while we've been focusing on our Ontario events. I mean, it's kind of like the we're the East Coast bias, even though we're nowhere near the East Coast, but uh still we call it that Toronto Center of the Universe bias. And they and they have their Alberta um prairie province bias. So that I think that was definitely showing kind of throughout as they reference certain teams in certain situations. So it's interesting to see that when you're on the other side of it. So it's always something to note as we go through this.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Right. And I I think as we've been talking about, a lot of these teams are getting into shape, the rust is falling off of them now, and and they're really starting to to cook in terms of curling. I uh Kevin, you had uh you had a team you wanted to talk about, uh sort of at the other end of the scale.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

Yeah, it was very interesting because the uh team, which I'm really enjoying that some teams are now start uh uh getting away from the skip as the name of the team, like team Cuey or Team Uh Botcher. And we have a team called the Green Machines, uh or I think just Green Machine is what they go by. And this, of course, is uh Tyler Tardy uh taking over a skip from Mike McEwen with um Colton Flash and the Marsh brothers on the team. And uh they had they were in their first event of the year, and uh they did not play that well in that first event, and I don't believe they qualified, or if they did, they definitely lost very early in that first event. And then this time they did well, they were seeded, they basically made it, won their first two games, and then went 0 for after that. They lost the A semi, they lost the B semi, and they lost the C semi. It just seems like we talk about some teams trying to get that rust off. This is the team that I feel like they're still trying to work the things out. And it's it's ironic because Team McEwen, which is Mike McEwan joining a team of Saskatchewan-based players, that that this is um a different situation where Mike has been playing very well and has started to do uh pick up that team and they've been running, and it's always interesting breaking a skip into a new team versus breaking a different set of players in. So I'm not certain what's going on there with Team Tardy. It's it's I find it interesting, and I don't know, Chris, what your thoughts are that maybe they're resting on their laurels because they've already qualified for the Briar, so they don't need to strive as hard and they might be peaking later. I don't know. It's just something that I haven't dove into yet and seen.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

There very clearly is two different strategies, and it it revolves around how close or if you already have that Briar or Scotty's birth. If you already have that Briar or Scotty's birth, you're gonna be happy just doing your slam events, just doing your big events, and sort of focusing as much as you can, probably on back of back of house uh practice, out of sight, out of camera, that type of stuff. But if you if you don't have that, you kind of, and especially this year, because there is a slot open on points, you want that insurance policy. You want to be the person with the most points and go for your provincial championship, because then you could be in a position that even if you don't win your province, you're still going to the briar on points. So I think those are two different angles. And I think just like what we talked about the a couple episodes ago, about whether or not it's good to have a rest day in a bond spiel or whether it's good to keep playing. Like if you qualify through A, you get that one day off. Is that a good thing, or do you keep playing? I think it's the same thing on a season level. I think we're it's a little to be determined what the best strategy is. Is it something where you should be doing three events a month all the way through to Curling Week in Canada, or should you be doing one a month and then more practices? I I don't know which is better.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

And I think that's a question. I think that's different for different players, it's different for different teams. I think it's also a fascinating thing, like sometimes the teams uh may pivot mid-season and change what their approach is on that. And I still don't know what the right approach is on that. And that's where I think if our friend Rob was here, he'd be able to speak a little bit more to that, having been a player who's been on tour, that he kind of knows that up front of the season, a lot of the teams set their schedule and send an announcement out and say, here's all the events we're going to. Yeah. And so it's like, who knows? Maybe it's like, let's be aggressive this year, let's not, and what the desire behind is that. So I think uh, whenever we do procure our first guest, Chris, that might be one of the questions that I think we start asking them. Is is tell us like the mindset behind what event you picked and why, and and what was the reason behind doing certain things and and all that. Because Team Hosley has been in every event so far this year that we've covered. Like they've been in the Euro Super Series, they did the Trifecta in Ontario, they went back out west. I think they're doing each of the two events in BC. Like, this is a team that's just not stopping playing.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

And I think it has it but they they have an effect on the Canadian rankings for who gets in the Briar. Because when they take a semi spot or a or a or a second place finish, they take those points with them. Right. Those points don't go. Which is full marks for them for doing it.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

If they're paying the money to do it, like no issue with that at all, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:07

None, no, no, no issue with it. But it's just like when international teams are they are taking points out of the national system, those teams gotta be those points got to be made up somewhere else, or you gotta beat them. And if you can't like it, just I think all of these things have impact on the schedule because it's not just I need to get high enough to get qualified for the Breyer or Scotty's, it's I need to get high enough relative to everyone else who's also doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Yeah, which is where I think that's a slight difference. Jordan McDonald qualified ahead of Butcher, and that's why in the in the overall Ontario standings or non-Ontario standings, Canadian standings, Ontario trying to buy us there again. Um, in the overall Canadian standings, Jordan is is ahead of Brendan because they played at about the same amount of events, but Jordan has finished that one spot higher than Brendan has. And that's I think the big thing that that will help them in the long run is because they do year-to-date rankings. So it's always important what's going on with each of those events and the qualifications and how your others are doing against you. So good to know.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And finally, I agree with you. I want to see more team names and less, you know, team named after the skip. I I think it's a four-person game now. It's uh also, I think it actually gets a little bit easier to create a fan base. It creates a little bit also creates a little bit easier because we all know at the end of this year there's going to be a minor shuffle in teams that haven't worked out. And we know in three years after that, they're all gonna blow up again for the next quadrennial. So maybe the team name needs to be something that's more permanent, right? So-and-so is joining Green Machines, so-and-so is leaving Green Machines, right? And the the the team name becomes something that evolves and continues on, as opposed to uh as we saw last year with Botcher, Team Botcher left and it became Team Jacobs. And yeah, then every television series was showing records between Jacobs and so-and-so, but that record didn't have any real-world connection to the teams that were on the ice.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

The name of the person that was on the list there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Right. Like because Team Jacob, the Team Jacobs that was prior, was from a few years ago and and completely different than this Team Jacobs. Yeah, yeah. So it maybe it needs to be Team Green Machine versus Team Blue Machine, and you know, we can then look at those records accordingly.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Or we'll see who actually gets aggressive and names it after their sponsor.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Oh, team naming rights. There you go. Like I I am for it. I I would love, I would love to see the you know, Mastercraft wrenches.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

No, or whatever. Like obviously the first team will be the Red Bulls, but yeah, it's not but yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

If you know someone at Red Bull, I I got a phone call for them because I think there's some curling sponsorship opportunities here that they're missing out on. Yes, absolutely. Um, but yeah, the the uh final notes I have, and then I'll throw it over to you, Kevin. Uh it was great to see Kevin Kuilla back on the ice. Yeah, absolutely. Certainly, certainly he's earlier in his season than the other teams. Uh a lot of rust, a lot of like getting it together. And I was I was impressed by uh Van Amsterdam. Uh, this is a couple events he's done now, some couple clips I've seen from him, and I was impressed with this guy. I think this is another one of these guys that's going to be grinding and is going to have a lot of points at the end of the season. Oh, yeah. And if he doesn't win his province, he's going to be on a short list for people who might get the nod.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Yeah, and he's unfortunately in that botcher cooy um province and trying to get that. So he's maybe hoping one of them gets the extra spot and he can and can he can work his way in. But uh, we'll we'll see. Again, it's always interesting, and that's why we have the podcast every week to see how people are positioning themselves for Curling Week in Canada. So, my couple of points, last couple of points on this is I think this was obviously comment to the week from the chats that were going on in the YouTube thing and the YouTube space. One, of course, goes Cuey looking like death and the seventh seal. That, of course, with him with the hoodie that he has over it, he looks all he's very thin and tall, man. So he definitely looked like death. And yes, of course, the chat that that was brought up in has been renamed in his honor now because of that. Um, but secondarily, um, I think you brought up a really good point when you looked at like the final eight, and you said this kind of looks like almost like a final eight if it was like an all-Canadian, like Canada Cup style thing or like the Briar Till thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Like when you looked at a cross provinces type thing, right? Like who was the other finalist? Who was the other thing?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

The teams that that we had listed there were Botcher, McCoon, Dunstone, Vin Amsterdam, McDonald, and Coey. Hosley and Cap were the two uh the two European teams that were in there, and you're like swap, swap in Jacobs, swap in uh somebody else, and you have basically kind of like really close to what could be the top eight teams in the country going on right there in this in this event. And it's like, yeah, I think you're right. And that was definitely your take in in our own little chat, and it was it was a hot take, and I liked it, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Well, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

All right, this week's episode is not brought to you by Danger Stands. The East Side's greatest burger joint went out of business in May 2017. But my arteries are still recovering from the day I had the coronary burger special, which included two slices of bacon, two slices of pea mail, cheddar, mayo, and a fried egg on top of two eight-ounce all beef patties. Dangerous Dans may be gone, but my insurance premiums are still paying for it. All right, we're moving. Excellent idea. Did you ever eat a danger stands, uh, Kevin? Did you ever eat it?

SPEAKER_00 16:32

I had been Dangerous Stands, and it's obviously the worst curling games of my life are games after I had a burger at Dangerous Dance. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

They they also introduced me to this amazing concept called walking bacon. What is walking bacon? Well, if you order your your your food to go, give it to you in a paper bag and say, Do you want like your here's your burger? Oh no. And say, Do you want some walking bacon? And you're like, What's walking bacon? And he'll hand you two pieces of bacon wrapped in like just a little piece of paper towel for you to eat while you're walking wherever you're going.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

This is I'm very happy that this doesn't exist anymore because my arteries are clogging listening to you describing this.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

It was excellent. I absolutely love danger stands. And you know, uh Pizza Nova now is in its place, which you know, pizza nova's fine, but I I miss Danger Stands.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Can I do one just last week in Curling, a smaller update on this one, Chris? Yeah, tell us what there were a number of other small events. I mean, we could go through those ones. I think you covered them last week when you did the rundown of there was an event in Valley Field, Quebec. Uh, there was an event that was the Mother Fall Club classic that was a Manitoba event that looked like every single Manitoba team was in it. And then the SAS Tour Icebreaker, again, a Saskatchewan uh tour event. Those are ones that I think were unique to specifically to those provinces, and we're focused solely on that. Um, we will do deeper dives into events like that in the future when we don't have uh events at the level of like the Okatokes classic or this upcoming week one. But there was the for television or more accurately for streaming event called The Battle. And this was an event that was put on in, of course, Saugeen Shores, Ontario, which, if you're unaware, is basically Port Elgin, Ontario, up uh uh north uh north uh west of the Greater Toronto area. And um it was a situation where uh the two Canadian Olympic teams of Team Jacobs and Team Homan uh showed up and were basically uh pitched against each other in a uh, well, they called it the battle, but it was, I think, branded originally the battle of the sexes at one point in time, but they changed the branding on that at some point in time. But it was basically a fun event and all of that. And you knew kind of the level of the curling and what they were trying to achieve in it when they had um when Mark Kennedy uh attended his daughter, who was representing Canada in a triathlon event of some kind, uh, which uh kudos to her. He opted to attend that, and they brought in Glenn Webster uh from like his 10, 15 year retirement, who's their coach and had him throwing uh lead rock. So uh they weren't really there for anything other than a good time. And it was uh definitely the best part was that uh they had commentary online on CBC Sports, which was streaming it, and it was excellent. They had uh excellent coverage, and Mike Harris, Glenn Howard, and Marilyn Bodo were sitting there, and they were ice level behind one of the ends, and I think they were talking to the players more than they were talking to the fans. It was very amusing and some excellent comments that came out, and it was a fun time to be had by all. So it was more of a bit of a hang than it was actually uh watching curling. Uh, but I think it might have been the first time any of those major players had actually curled in anything. I think they're going a much lighter season this year for both of those teams because they already have the Briar and Scotty spot, and they already have a significant amount of points that they're not going to lose to slam spots either.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

100%. I have to admit, I was shocked that this event, I did not know about it. I don't know how I missed it. It appeared out of nowhere, and like when it appeared in my feeds, it was already sold out and a done deal and like two days away. And I didn't see it, didn't know that it was going on, and I don't know how I missed it uh in the lead up, in the advance to it, because I was like, this is the two greatest curling teams in Canada, arguably, right now. How were they? How did I miss this? Um, and then I I saw the format. I love what they're doing with the doubles, I love what they're doing um with the different styles of play. I I I'm a big fan of what the curling group is doing uh for curling, like not everything they're doing. We can talk about you know the curling Grand Slam and the Rock League changes at a different episode, but I think more curling on TV is a good thing. I think more sponsorship opportunities is a good thing. I think promoting the athleticism of this sport is a good thing. So I want more of this on TV. And so I was really glad to see it. And it was it was a lot of fun to watch. I think you're right, it wasn't a super competitive or even a super serious event. But uh, I think as this evolves, the curling group is gonna start rolling out things that matter, things that you know have big points or have big money or big sponsorship opportunities behind them. And that's gonna make curlers take it really seriously. Because if the prize money starts getting serious, like these events, all these other events we've been talking about, even the bigger ones, the prize pool is in the low tens of thousands of dollars. Like the winning team gets somewhere between five and twelve thousand dollars tossed. Yeah, and that's like if you're gonna put four guys or four girls in a hotel, put them on the road, put them on a plane, send the coach, send the team that much food all the whole night. Everything else, yeah, even if you win, you don't have much money left at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Not at all.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

So we need more sponsorship, and I think the curling group's doing a great job at bringing attention to that. Absolutely. So uh we are moving on to our view from the hack section, and this is where our coaches have an opportunity just to, well, rant. And both of us have come to the table with something today, but I I think I'm gonna go first because. It's a little bit of a continuation of our discussion. It's about the rankings. It's about, for those of you who don't know, the CTRS or WTRS, the Canadian Team Ranking System, is essentially an arbitrary set of rules that have been decided to rank curling teams. And while it is arbitrary, it is consistent. And it's a way of us saying how the teams are doing. And usually your last two years are taken to put your points total into the rank. There's a number of things that go into a rank, including so many points for winning events, second, third, qualifying, et cetera. But then there's a multiplier for how difficult the event is. Is there world-level teams in it? Is there national level teams in it? Is there provincial level teams in it? That makes the event more and more complex. But we watch these very closely for a couple reasons. First of which, the the top team in the rankings that doesn't already have a birth will get a berth into the Breyer and the Scotties. Yeah. Um, but also it there's there's money, there's sponsorships, there's attention, there's opportunities to get into Grand Slams based on these numbers. So every week we're going to take a quick second to look at these. And the two-year, the two-year uh numbers, which is sort of the standard right now, because Dunstone's been doing so many events, he's now overtaken Jacobs and is in first place. And Jacobs, who has no points yet this year. For Canada. Um, for it no, just in general, Team Jacobs has no points. Oh, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Team Jacobs. I mean Dunstone has taken over Jacobs Canada. In Canada. I always narrow to I always narrow the rankings to just Canada. Well, since we are focused on curling week in Canada, one could assume we're almost always right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

So Dunstone's now at the top because he's been grinding events, he's moved up to the top, followed by Jacobs, Team Botcher, uh, despite having to blow up their team and start at a pure zero, because you only get to keep your points if three out of four of your players are continuing. And that didn't happen in his case, nor did it happen in Team Epping's case. So the both these teams had to start at at zero. Now Botcher's up to third and Epping's up to fourth, and McDonald is nipping at all of their toes in fifth place. Um, so this is this is this is great news. I'm really excited for this. But what I found really interesting is if you looked at the just this year rankings, so the it only takes events since August. The curling year unofficially runs from the beginning of August until the end of June-ish or May-ish or somewhere in there. And the rankings for this year have McDonald at first, which shows what you said earlier, the the the performance he's been doing in the very, very recent term. Botcher in second, and then Dunstone and Epping after that. So it's going to matter a lot. Um, now as the year goes by, the gap between the two-year ranking numbers and the one-year ranking numbers get closer and closer. But it's going to get very, very interesting how this looks. But those are our rankings as they stand right now, which is uh in the in the multi-year rankings is Dunstone, Jacobs, Botcher, Epping, McDonald. And in the one-year rankings, it's McDonald, Botcher, Dunstone, and Epping. And Jacobs, who hasn't done any uh any points events yet, still isn't on the board. So I just I found that's interesting. We're gonna be keeping track of it as we go. Now, in other, let's call it important news, Norm, I believe you have a report for the pod on some communications that Extra End has received.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yes. And and as Chris will allude to in a later segment, uh, we've started to hear from some of the individuals who we've been reaching out and letting them know about uh the wonderful Extra End podcast uh that we are underway on on recording right now and have done uh a few episodes up to now. So there was an exceptional response uh from a specific group that responded specifically to the not sponsored by segment last week. Uh for those of you that may not recall that, I believe, Chris, you would be able to correct me on the exact situation, but if it was the locks on the trophy case.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

We were not sponsored by the locks on the trophy case of the Hyde Park Curling Club.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Yes. So I would like to call out and acknowledge this very specific organization that listened to our podcast last week. And so we, of course, would like to extend our deepest gratitude to the Hyde Park Club. Great friends, great siblings, we love them. Absolutely. Like, I mean, the Royal Canadian Curling Club and the Hyde Park Club are two clubs with a deep history in this city. We're so tightly intertwined with our neighborhoods and communities that even though every curler from both those clubs knows exactly where we are, the average Toronto resident probably has no idea where either club is. And as we are both considered downtown clubs, this creates a unique experience that differentiates us from other curling clubs across this great country. A large portion of our members for both the Hyde Park Club and the Royal Canadian Club do not drive to the club. And which, given that all curlers at every club in this great country enjoy a drink or two after a game, means our members allegedly may occasionally be known to enjoy not only two drinks, a third, a fourth, or an nth, whatever number that may be. Now, our clubs are incredibly diverse and welcoming. We both have members who've grown up at the club who have spent significant hours and have been there for generations. We also have, because of our location and many new individuals moving into the Great Eterno area, provide an open door to people who are new to the game and new to Toronto. So this again makes such an amazing experience for these two clubs. And with all of these similarities, as Chris stated already, we are can clearly see that we're siblings. One could even say, family. And like all family members, squabbles will occasionally occur. Of course, this comes out most prominently at the annual Crosstown Challenge coming up this year on November 7th. So from all of us here at Extra Ends, we would like to wish the High Park Club the very best of luck at this year's Crosstown. And as the two-time defending champions that you are, we look forward to seeing you bring the trophy to the event this season. Unless, of course, your trophy case has experienced some sort of challenge and you lost it.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Thank you very much. This has been our view from the hack. All right, let's take a look at the week ahead. We have it's a little bit of a lighter week in the curling world, but there are a couple events we want to touch on. The first uh has any event where we have some Royal Par Royal Canadian Curling Club curlers playing, we always like to give it a little bit of a shout out. And we have again two teams, uh Alex Champ and Nathan Young, who are heading up to Collingwood, Ontario this week to compete in the Collingwood Challenger. Now, this is a small event, but uh there is a number of Ontario teams who are clearly looking to stack up those points early so that they can get a good berth into the Ontario Championships and maybe a chance at the Briar. Um, that it's clear what they're doing. They're heading up there, but I'm excited to cheer them on. I'm hoping to find some streaming from Collingwood. If you are a curler in Collingwood and there is no cameras in the Collingwood Club, head on down there with your cell phone and uh stick it to the glass for us and put it on YouTube. I guarantee you you will get at least two views. Um, although we're in a number of group chats, so you'll probably get 10 or 15 um to watch the event. But we're looking forward to Alex Champ uh and Nathan Young curling uh at this event. And I'm willing to make a prediction out of this event. I think Team Young is going to win.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Excellent. And I think you did. Uh Rob will be upset with you because one of his uh club teammates, Devin Ryan, is on Team Thompson Brown that has a couple of guys that are from Royals that are in that event as well. Of course, I knew that.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Yes, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yes, so Thompson Brown will also be cheering those guys on at the club. Um, the larger event this week is happening out in BC, in Vernon, BC. We have the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic. It has both a men's and women's division, and it is a who's who of curling, not just from Western Canada, but from Asia and around the world. Uh, the list of teams to watch here is almost as long as the total list of teams. Um, just uh uh just just to start, we have uh Ungie Gim's first appearance, I believe, in Canada uh this year, a top-level slam-level curler who does some amazing curling on TV. Uh once again, Serena Grey Withers, uh Kayla McMillan, Selena Nikovin, uh Taylor Reese Henson, uh Kayla Skrillick, Selena Sturmay, and Sarah Wark, all uh regular names to those of you in the curling world who are all playing on the women's side. So it's uh it's going to be an event. And when we get to my predictions, uh I'm I'm having trouble with this one, but I'm gonna try. And on the men's side, we have uh Jim Cotter is uh returning to the ice. Uh Jordan McDonald once again is literally going coast to coast on events. Evan Van Amsterdam is making another appearance, and Kim Schwaller, who's already won two events, I believe, this year.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

I know he won the KW Classic. I can't remember the other one. Unfortunately, I don't have to. He thought he won Oakville as well. He no, that um uh Danny Casper won Oakville.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Oh, right, yeah. Casper won Oakville, right? So, but Kim Schwaller also is making an appearance. So this is going to be a highly competitive event. Uh, and I'm I'm really excited for it. Uh Kevin, do you have any thoughts on the teams to watch?

SPEAKER_00 32:13

No, I think you got almost all of them. Uh, I think this is um, as as you said, it's obviously from our perspective for curling a week in Canada, it's very important. But I think that the the bigger prize from this one is the winners or the top-ranked teams not already in the slam, that is uh the week after Thanksgiving, uh, that that the winner of this gets that last and 16th slam spot. So that's why I think some of those teams are really going after it. Jordan McDonald has not yet secured a slam spot, so he's definitely looking for that one for on the on the uh women's side, Serena Gray Withers, uh Selena Negavin, Kayla Skurlick, Selena Sturmay have not secured a spot because the two BC teams of Kayla McMillan and Teal Reese Hansen have already gotten a special sponsors exemption. But those other four ladies' teams are gonna be battling for that uh that final spot that's there, and also battling to get points to move them up so that they can maybe make the top 12 for future Slam events because that's I think where the vast majority of the money is and where a lot of teams really focus their season on that, as we referenced earlier about getting points.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

100%. Uh, it's it's gonna be a great event. Now, there's always something I wish we could do in advance of these events, and that is an icemaker and rock report. Absolutely. I think the nerds amongst us would love to know what the ice is traditionally like at the club in Vernon, what the rocks, how old are they? What do they do? Are they really lively or are they really dead? Like how how does it go? So, fans, we need some support. If any of you in Western Canada, or if you're a traveling curler or journeyman curler who's been to, you know, every club from here to St. John's and Tuck-Tyuktuck, um, if you could give us uh a reach out, reach out to the team and let us know, you know, how what's the ice like in Vernon? What's the ice, what are the rocks like? Because I would love an ice maker and a rocks report in our sections. Because as I've learned the hard way, there's a big difference between lively rocks and not so lively rocks when it comes to making that angle, making that roll behind, or making that hit. Um, or as a lot of the curlers will tell you, the difference between the ice and KW at the start of the season and Oakville, I don't know, it was about two and a half feet of extra curl on the draw. So I I think I think I'd love to get that information uh if you could get it to us fans. Now, I my take on this event is uh uh the men's section, we're not seeing the let's say it's uh the the top five guys, top five guys teams um showing up at this event. Um, I think it goes back to what we thought talked about earlier in terms of tempo and what you do. There's the bigger teams seem to be taking this one off. We're not seeing a Dunstone, we're not seeing a botcher, we're not seeing uh the bigger teams. Uh, but the guys who are looking for points, the guys who are on the hunt, the guys who want the big, the big payoff at the end of the season, McDonald, Van Stamps, Van Amsterdam, they're there. So, and I think they're going for that backup play. They're going for if I don't win my province, I am at least going to get in as the extra highest points winner. And they might. So I I that's my take on this. And on the on the women's side, I think this is an extremely strong field. I don't know if uh if if what this what this field would look like up against Rachel Homan uh and Kerry Enerson, but I think this field could give certainly Enerson and probably have Homan pretty concerned in a lot of games as well, too. So I I'm really impressed with the women's field because it seems to be every second year, every third year, the curling world is worried about the strength of our women's field as a whole around the world. And then you look around and you go, Oh, nope, no, it's it's quite good. You just got to look, you know, one step below Homan, who's a dominant juggernaut of the sport. So uh I'm I'm really looking forward to this event. I think it's gonna be great to watch.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Absolutely. And I think that was one of the biggest things. Um, the the name we haven't mentioned at all in any of our podcasts is David Murdoch, uh, the great Scott who married a Canadian. Uh, but he definitely uh became named as the um, I believe, director of high performance for Curling Canada, I believe that's his title. And it was definitely his job, not just to have Canada win medals at like this most recent Olympics, but future ones as well. And I think he definitely recognized that I think all all um focus was being put on Team Homan uh for the women to represent. And they did come back with the medal at the Olympics in in 2026. But he's also his job is to win them in the future. And at some point in time, team Holman will not be curling. And so I think his focus has been really getting that next set of teams uh beyond Holman and Anderson and getting them ready and moving up. And I think he's definitely with the support he's throwing behind uh several of these teams they named, that I think uh we're seeing the results of that already, and hopefully it continues on and we can continue to see some of our Canadian teams rise up in the world.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

I I don't just want to win gold medals. I don't just want to dominate the world. I want Canada to dominate every element of the curling world again. Like, I want like I know people like, oh, competition's good, is you know, it should be more competitive for the world, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or we dominate everything. I want to win golds in men's, golds in women's, golds in doubles, golds in wheelchair, like rack and stuff. We are the country of curling, yeah, and we I want us to dominate it. So, Murdoch, in my opinion, that's your mandate. I don't want you to just make sure we're good for the next Olympics or just make sure we do well at the worlds or we have a really good choice. I want you to turn us into a dominant powerhouse of curling again. That's my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Excellent take, nothing more.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

So uh my predictions, uh I love making predictions because it just shows you how well how little I know. Uh on the women's side, I I think uh Team Skrlik is going to win this. And on the men's side, I think uh McDonald's is gonna pull it off on this one.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Yep, and I will uh echo your McDonald's pick because I pick anybody who has the same last name as me. And then the women's is so wide open, and I'm gonna say it's a coin flip between the Serena and Selena one. Um our favorite pairing, Alberta pairing, and Serena won the last one, so I'm gonna pick Selena Sturmay to win this time.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Love it. And now we have our favorite becoming our favorite segment, Coach's Corner, with coach and circuit curler Rob Ainsley. Coach's corner. Listen, Rob, teams always have trouble communicating change in weight. Whether it's the ice or the speed of your rock, it's always a challenge. From a technical standpoint, how much is just a touch heavier?

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Rob ain't here. And in answer to your question, I have no fing idea, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

And that has been Coach's Corner with Rob. All right, we're coming into the final segments of our wonderful podcast. Thank you so much for listening to us so far. Please remember to like and subscribe so that I can get that dopamine hit that I need to get through the day. In our last segment, Overheard at Royals, and we had our first big Royals event this past week, and there's some tea. Last week, the club hosted its annual appreciation event for volunteers.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

And we greatly and those volunteers greatly appreciated that that appreciation event occurred. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

It was greatly appreciated. Uh thank you very much to Royals. This is a great event. No curling club survives without their volunteers. It takes dozens, if not hundreds of people, hundreds of hours of work, time, and energy, well beyond what the paid staff do, who usually do go above and beyond on their own, uh, to keep a curling club operational. And Royals hosts an event every fall or around that time of year to appreciate the volunteers at the curling club. Anybody who volunteered, whether they were in a committee, a bond spiel, uh, board of directors, uh, got involved in an event, helped out around the clubhouse for various things, helped out with, you know, some of the renovations and updates over the summer, all these people are uh are fed it at a certain point. And if you weren't invited, I encourage you to get involved. Join a committee, join a spiel, join an event, and you'll get on next year's list. Don't worry. But, anyways, a little birdie reports that the Extra Ends podcast is making waves, and I quote from a very prominent curler from the Royal Canadian Curling Club: I will buy you a beer if I can be a guest. Now, this curler may or may not be well known to everyone in the club, and I will tell this loyal listener you may just get your wish in the near future. All right, everybody. I want to thank you so much for your time. Kevin, do you have anything else to add before we sign off?

SPEAKER_00 41:08

The only thing is, is I'm really looking forward to the future of the Overheard of Royals segment because curling starts at Royals this week. We have, of course, our AGM this week. We have our first clinic this week, and then League curling starts. So Overheard of Royals, we're gonna have to start arguing about what we've overheard of Royals and what warrants making the pod. So I think any of our members that are listening, you better uh definitely uh take notice and try and set up.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Yeah, we've got to set one of those anonymous submission lists.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Oh, yes, yeah, submitted mailing list or something like that. Yes, for sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. Please remember to like and subscribe. This has been Extra Ends, a curling podcast, and may your ice be fast and curly in the shed and cold and ready at the bar.