SPEAKER_01 0:02

Extra Ends, a curling podcast with Chris, Norm, and sometimes Rob.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to the world famous Extra Ends podcast. Yes, that's right. World famous. We had one listener in Europe last week, and I want to thank that one listener. It's probably a bot, but I don't care. Thank you for our international listeners out there. We are your absolutely delightful hosts, Chris Rouget, who went four and three this year in summer curling, and Kevin McDonald. I am Norm, who hit more golf balls this summer than High Park Rocks hit picks.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

I mean, that's not many picks, right? So obviously it didn't hire a good score in golf, right? Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Anyway, so of course. And unfortunately, uh absent today is Rob Ainsley, who racked up awards all summer for his amazing sound editing, which now includes this show. So, guys, curling is back, and we are officially, as of recording, four days into the season at the Royal Canadian Curling Club. I can happily say that of the five days the club has been open, I have been there for four of them. I can also say that in the past four days, the amount of sunlight I've gotten has dropped a good 80%.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

This is because our curling club has no.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Have you been outside much?

SPEAKER_02 1:21

I have not been outside very much either, but our curling club has no windows. This is why we haven't gotten much sunlight. Some other curling clubs do have windows. Although, to be fair, we uh now have windows on our front doors.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Royals is like the Hotel California or the Casino Bellagio you can check out, but you could never leave. Exactly. Yes. Uh all right. Uh at the time of recording, if you are listening to this uh as soon as it comes out, there are only 98 days until Curling Week in Canada. Well, that's right, we're under a hundred days. We're under a hundred days until curling week in Canada. For those of you who are just tuning in, this is what this podcast is all about right now is the march towards the week of January 10th to January 17th. And that's because on January 17th, almost all of the provinces in Canada will be holding their provincial play downs finals on the same day. And we're hoping to have a big party and celebrate curling because it is the one day of the year there will be more curling in this country than anywhere else in the world on any other day of the year. So it's a massive day, and we're really excited for it. We're counting down to January 17th. I know a lot of curling fans are counting down to those days now, and a lot of curlers with a little bit of trepidation are counting down to those days too, because there is only one spot left in the national championships, the Scotties for the women and the Briar for the men's. Uh, that is not decided by who wins a province. It's decided by who has the most points after all the provincial awards have been awarded. So if you want to go to a national championship, you've got you've got to win a provincial championship. So last week we had some really good curling events across the country. We had the Collingwood Challenger here in Ontario and the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic for men and women out west. So it was some really good events, but I would argue most importantly, it was also the Rocktoberfest Bond spiel here in Toronto at the Royal Canadian Curling Club. Norm, how was your weekend of curling?

SPEAKER_02 3:31

It was excellent. Thank you for asking. I did get an opportunity to watch some of those curling, but most importantly, I did watch the Rocktoberfest Bond spiel. I did unfortunately miss the major event where uh teams played the two draw winners played one end against each other, which I understand you had some involvement with as well. But uh earlier in the day I went to another club, the Dixie Curling Center, and watched their Oktoberfest Bond spiel, where they were playing uh multiple games in one day after I had to stay uh late night on Friday night. So uh excellent to have spent time at uh two different clubs and enjoy myself and really enjoy the game that uh we both love so much.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Shout out to team Anthony Pizzetti that won the Rocktoberfest Bondspiel at Royals because they uh they played that last end and uh and they it was it was close. And there was we'll talk a little bit about this later in the show, but there was six games of ends going on on that one single end game. So it's six games. Six games. Wow. And uh yours truly may have lost one of them. So it was uh it was quite the event. Uh we'll explain a little bit more about ends and the end of ends later on in the show, but let's uh go to the the more unimaginative but uh more prestigious curling, let's call it, uh, going on in Collingwood and uh at West. Kevin, you watched a little bit of the Prestige Hotels Resorts curling classic, and at the time of recording, the men's final is still ongoing.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

It seems to be. I think this is our own fault for deciding to record at this time of day on the Eastern time zone, uh following an event in the Pacific time zone, but nonetheless, it was looking at one point in time like Team Hosley was in a little bit of trouble against Team Yamaguchi in the final, but as you said, game ain't over until it's done. So you never know, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

At uh at this moment, uh Yamaguchi is up four to two in the fifth end. Uh with hammer with with hammer. So uh Hosley is in a is in a little bit of a bind, and it looks like uh the rings are not in his favor in this end as well. We'll keep an eye on it as the show goes on, and uh maybe by the time we get to the end, we'll be able to report a women winner on the men's side. But on the women's side, uh Team Gim was our champion this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

I mean, the third ranked team in the world normally would be one that you would think would have a solid shot at winning that event. And uh I th I think uh probably one of the biggest headlines from it was is there were four teams from Japan in the women's side and four teams from uh Korea that were in the women's side, and seven of the eight teams qualified, of those eight uh Asian nations qualified. So I think this was similar to a take that Rob had earlier, where in the uh eastern part of this country, when the European teams come early in the season are in very fine mid-season form, uh the Asian teams seem to have come and been in fine mid-season form on the western side of our country and came in and performed very well and uh excellent performance overall, and really a lot of good shot making by those teams from the games I did watch.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Based on uh based on the calendar, it looks like they had a number of events uh over in Asia uh through August and September. So uh now that they're here, they're they're going to be you know putting that up. Uh I I see you put in a in a note for me here, Kevin, that uh there was two standout teams uh at uh at Prestige, which was uh Team Reese Hansen and uh Team Hosley.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Yes, uh Team Reese Hansen is uh the one of the well local to BC. I don't think they're actually officially from uh from Vernon, but uh definitely one of the teams that did qualify, one of the um uh top recently U-25 teams in our country. And they did qualify, they were undefeated in pool play, but unfortunately went in and lost that first game of the the playoffs. So that was to me the team that I think stood out uh for me, based upon one of the young up-and-coming teams in our nation, and one that is uh already got the buy into the Scotty. So it's always good to watch them and see them start to perform well at uh such a high stage. And then for team Hostley, uh, this is a team that I think we mentioned on last week's pod. These guys are working hard. I think they've been curling every single weekend since like mid-August. We're into October. I'm pretty sure they're in the new floors next weekend. And I think with what's happened now, I believe this gets them into the slam because my understanding was team Yamaguchi already had a spot in this slam in Victoria in two weeks. And so this will put Team Hostley officially into the slam, so their hard work was paid off.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

And unfortunately, that means that our uh our hopeful team Jordan McDonald will not be uh be going getting into at least the first slam. It looks like it was uh it was a rough weekend for them.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Yeah, it looked like they came out and uh won that first game in a triple knockout format, which was interesting. I'll come to that part topic later, but definitely they came out, played well, and then went as triple knockout. They lost their game on the A side, lost a game on the B side, lost a game on the C side, and their weekend is over far before uh time frame, which I think we were expecting them to be. So it's unfortunate after several strong appearances to come out and have a less than strong appearance from our beloved team McDonnell.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Okay, well, so that was uh that was the Prestige Hotels, uh resorts, and curling classic. Looking here in Ontario, we had the Collingwood Challenger, and uh team Nathan Young comes out on top.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yay, yes. Uh team that uh Chris is a strong supporter of, uh, with Nathan Young, both uh being a member of the Royal Canadian Curling Club and uh also one of the uh celebrity skips at our favorite Bond Spiel, the Curl for Kids charity Bond Spiel on Easter weekend every year. So we're a big fan of Nathan on this podcast. So you you feel this was a this was a good two-day event. I think it was a very good two-day event. It's a pretty simple one because a lot of the time the spills that that we cover and talk about are ones where people need to take time off work to go and do this. This was like one club, 10 teams. They have six sheets of ice there. I think they were hoping maybe for 12 teams, but they got to 10. And uh they had three draws on Saturday and then three draws on Sunday, and they were done. Like you basically played your three games on Saturday. If you didn't make the top five, uh, you were out. So it was uh a very interesting and a solid opportunity for people to get a quick and easy one where you're really only up there Saturday and Sunday, right? One day in and out, kind of more like, or two days in and out, uh kind of like what uh more the bonds feels that you and I kind of have the style that we're involved in, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

I I we have to appreciate that even at the highest level, uh, even the most most uh the best curlers in the world, almost all of them still have day jobs. They still got to work Monday to Friday doing whatever it is they do in their day jobs. Now, some of them are lucky enough to have jobs that can be very generous and time away. Uh that they can go off and do curling events and this type of things, but most of them, uh, you've got a fixed number of PTO, and you can't, if you use that up, you're SOL. So uh it's really important to remember these teams are giving up a lot to do this. So when uh when they can get a top-level spiel into uh a two-day weekend, I think that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Yeah, I think it's an excellent idea. And I I was kind of hesitant about it, but when I first saw it, but now that I've seen it in execution, I'm pretty happy about it. I wish there were more things that were like that. Uh, the one thing going back to the prestige uh hotels one, uh it was interesting that there were both 24 teams in the men's and 24 teams in the women. And the women's team opted to do the women's draw, uh, was a pool play draw. So the teams uh four pools of six teams playing five games, and then the men's was a triple knockout. I have zero idea why both of them decided to do this way and why it was different when both had 24 teams in it. I have no idea, and I'd be interested if anybody has any suggestions because it was definitely a different number of games. Like Team Gim played five games and then had to win it. Three in the playoffs, eight games total they played, whereas like I think it was Team Yamaguchi and Team Hostley only played six games or seven games, something like that. It was a much smaller number of games, and it was interesting to see that that was the approach taken.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

This is this is something that seems to happen uh all over the place is uh different formatted events for the men's and the women's. And this even happens at the provincials. Um, I know Manitoba, PEI, New Brunswick, and for quite a while, Ontario, they had two different systems for their men's play downs and their women's play downs, one being a knockout, like a triple or a double knockout, or a modified triple or double knockout, or uh pool play. And uh if I had to gamble, anytime you find, and this is by the way, for our listeners who aren't diehard curlers, um, anytime you are watching curling and you see something really weird, like really weird rules or really weird traditions or really weird stuff happening, and you ask, well, why do they do it that way? The answer inevitably is just because we always have. Um, and I suspect that's the answer in this case. Why is the women's in one format and the men's in another? Because, you know, a hundred years ago it was a good idea, and no one remembers why now, and it's just because we always have.

SPEAKER_02 12:53

Yeah, and we'd like to see a lot more of questioning of that type of a situation and a lot more people uh breaking the norm as opposed to uh uh sticking with the norm.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Some traditions are important and worth keeping. Some traditions you should look at and go, why are we still doing a lot of things? Why are we still doing it? Yeah, exactly. Is it helping us? Is it serving us? No, well then give it the boot. So that was a like a good week of curling. Now, we're gonna have to get to the painful part for us now, Kevin. Uh, we're gonna look at our predictions. We're gonna look at our predictions. Oh no, no, no, we're not. Are we and um and and see how well we did. Now, here's the best part. Last week was the first week we did predictions, and Kevin and I forgot to write all of our predictions down.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Of course we did, but we tried to remember as best we could. So bear with me.

SPEAKER_00 13:39

We tried to remember best we could, and I know somebody's already shaking their head with their headphones in their ears, going, couldn't you guys just go listen to your episode? Well, we could, but that would you know take the fun out of it. And also, yeah, we realized we didn't write them down five minutes before recording. Exactly. Yes, we didn't have to be.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

We're writing them down for next week, though.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

We're probably writing them, yeah, we'll write them down for next week. So uh I do know that my predictions for the Prestige Hotels and Resorts Curling Classic was a win by Team Skrillick and a win by Team McDonald. Uh, clearly that's an 0 for two on that one.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Uh yeah, yeah, that was an unfortunate one for you. Yeah, so I'm pretty sure I was 0 for 2 as well. I can't remember my men's pick, but my women's pick was Team Sturme, which uh unfortunately they went two and three and definitely did not qualify.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

That's just too bad. And then in Collingwood, I got a hit. I I bet on Nathan Young, and guess what? He won. So I am I I am pumped for that. I'm putting money on him at the next event. Uh I'm going to, you know, make a bet with with something or somewhere or somehow on Nathan Young. I'm sure somewhere there's something taking that bet. Uh, and also for for for your pick, Norm, we we there's another one we forgot to write down. We could not write. We got a little lucky on that there. This episode of Extra Ends is not sponsored by any gambling website or app. It's not a moral thing. We're just the one and only thing that the gambling apps have not thrown money at. If they did throw money at us, we probably wouldn't say no. But who knows? Anyways, we are not sponsored by any form of gambling. That isn't to say we wouldn't be down for a game of ends. Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

We will always play ends. Maybe not on weeknights, but definitely on weekends and Bondsfields, yes. Speaking of ends, this week.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Okay, this week, in our view from the hack, uh we've mentioned it a couple times in this episode. I think it's the theme. Uh, the game of the drinking game of ends, which is a very, very popular game amongst curling clubs across the country. Like most things, it's there, it was invented to generate more revenue for the curling club. Um, but I'm not against it in this case. So uh let's for those of you who are new, those of you who are from clubs that may not have heard this rule of this game. Uh, Kevin, can you give us a description of what a game of ends looks like?

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Absolutely. So ends is a game where normally you have either eight or nine people involved. Uh, whether it's eight or nine, we will discuss based upon some rules of different clubs, etc. But nonetheless, you are betting on the result of one specific end that is occurring on the sheet that you are currently watching. Uh, normally you would pick an end of one game of a group of people who you know and like, or maybe you pick people you don't like. Nonetheless, you pick what you would view as an interesting game. And then you have a set of cards, normally uh from the numbers one through four, and everyone picks one card, and this will represent the colors of the rocks that are on the ice.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Right. So there's eight or nine cards, and one through four red, and one through four yellow, or one through four blue, or one through four black, or whatever. But two sets of colors, four sets of numbers, and then one extra card.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

Yeah. And if the final result of the end is that your card is the card that matches what happened in the end from the shots that were made, you will need to go and buy a round at the bar for everyone that drew a card. So you're either buying eight or nine drinks. So you have a one in eight or one in nine chance of having to buy a drink. So it's pure gambling at potentially low stakes, but also potentially very high stakes with a risk reward, it's very challenging and you get very expensive very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Now, just to help people visualize this. So the game, the game convener gets his eight cards, one through four yellow and one through four red. And I'm using yellow and red because those are the colors of the Royal Canadian Curling Club. You curling clubs that use blue and green, you're you're weird. Uh curling rocks are supposed to be yellow and red. Uh, we can get in that fight later. Um they have the eight cards, one through four yellow, one through four red, and then a blank card or a joker or something to be used for a blank. They shuffle the cards face down, they fan them out, and they give them out, and everybody draws a card, and that's your card. So say I draw three yellow, and as the end goes by, everybody's watching, working towards the end of the uh the the completion of the end, and if the score at the end of the end, the score of that end is three yellow rocks, I have to buy all seven or eight other people a drink. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Okay, but it's it's it's potentially very expensive.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

It could be very expensive, but I have a seven and eight or an eight and nine chance of getting a free drink.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

That is why that's the benefit of this game.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yes. Ah, okay. I see how this is done. Yes. Now, we've kept these rules very general at this point, because like all things, like you know, anything in a curling club, there's local variations. Like whether it's a game of Euchre or uh what the rings look like or the color of your rocks, there's local variations. So there's nine versus eight cards. Kevin, what's the difference between a nine-card game of ends and an eight-card game of ends?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

So a nine-card game of ends is one where you have the one through four, as Chris had said, of each of the two sets of colors, and you throw in a joker normally as the wild card, which would then be in case the end was blanked. Now, in points bond spills, or skins, bond spills, this card is gold because no one ever blanks an end in these events. So that is the one where you're guaranteed a free drink when you see it happen. Now, if you are playing in a regular game that is out on the ice, blank is very much in play. And I have seen people buy rounds when they've had the blank card, and it's very amusing because they thought that they were just gonna be a drink very easily, but nonetheless, that is what the difference between eight and nine are, and it just depends upon what you try to play. Sometimes you can pull the blank out because they want everybody to be involved, they don't want someone to get a free drink. Other times it's because well, you can't exactly find eight nine people, so you find eight and you're gonna find eight, and that's that's good enough.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

The the other thing, so if I'm holding my my three yellow in my hand, and my best friend is the skip on yellow team, and I see that he's sitting two, and he's got a net, it's the hammer. He's got the hammer, he's sitting two, he's got a narrow draw for three. Now, can I put my card up against the glass and tell the wave them off and say, buddy, buddy, don't. You're gonna cost me seven drinks. Can I show the teams out on the ice my card?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

So the vast majority of clubs I have played at that is absolutely banned beyond like probably the biggest violation of anything you can do at any club is under no circumstances do you show that card to the people on the ice. Now, we have seen again at our aforementioned favorite Bond Spiel in the history of Bond Spiels, the Curl for Kids charity Bond Spiel on Easter weekend, that at that one, it is very well known that people show their card to those that are on the ice. And frequently people take their card and like stick it, like um, what's the game you play, heads up, where you put the card on your forehead. People do that, people put the card underneath their caps, all the things like that. That's very well known, and that happens. It doesn't impact the game in any capacity, anyways, but that is something that's a uniqueness depending upon your club. But the clubs I've been a member at, no, do not show your card to the people on the ice.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Now, now now finally, when the cards have been drawn, um, is it uh when you you have to buy everyone a drink? Do I have to then run around after the end and take 10 different drink orders, or is there a simpler way of doing that?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Well, there's a couple thank you for asking that one. There's a couple of different options, and again, it depends. Upon the location and the general guidelines at each of the facilities that you were participating in said event. Um, the one that is probably the simplest is some people just simply go up, and because the person that quote unquote won ends, it's probably more you lost at ends, you have to go up and buy a round, you get to choose which shot you're going to buy. So effectively, you do a punishment shot. So you pick something that you know people don't want to drink, so you would go up and buy a round of shots for all either eight or nine people that are participating in said games events. That is one option. Your other clubs are mean. Well, this is yeah, I know, like I'm saying, it depends upon what the rule is. But yes, you're right, it is very mean. Nonetheless, the other option is the one that I have seen frequently, and our club, I think, has perfected this, is where you take a piece of paper and you write down everyone's drink order of what they would specifically like name, uh, what card they have, and their drink order, so that when you go up to the bar after the game events is over, you go and you get the drink order, then come back with a tray and start handing the drinks out to everybody. You know who had what drink, so it's very easy to remember. That's helpful. And then you could even perfect that game even more by having the bartender pour the eight or nine drinks before the end's even over because you know it's all gonna be those drinks, and you just have to serve them. So go ahead, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

We have optimized, we have optimized for this at Royals. The uh we we we've created special, not just special cards to draw to understand what your what your what position you're going to be taking, but we have a special notepad that you fill out someone's name and you fill out beside it the drink. And it just goes through and you fill out all eight or nine people's name and beside it the drink. And it's usually you know not the clearest written, but as long as it's clear enough for the bartender to read. And then at some point, in the middle of the end, you take that up to the bartender and you hand it to them, and they'll keep an eye on the ice sheet. And as soon as the skips start throwing, they start pouring. So by the time the game is done or the end is done, there's nine drinks lined up at the bar with the card in front of it. So all the poor loser has to do is show up to the bar with their credit card, claim the nine drinks that have been ordered and poured, and begin distributing them. We are about efficiency when it comes to the consumption of our bar products at the Royal Canadian Cards. Exactly. Yes. So this is an absolute fun game, and this is a way we we make a joke about the about the bar side of it, but it's also a really fun way to get curlers involved in what's happening on the ice. So often in bond spiels, there's two different worlds there's what's happening on the ice and what's happening in the lounge. And this brings the two together and gets people watching the game and getting involved and and just sort of cheering for someone or against someone. Because as you sit there, and and this happened to me, by the way, this weekend at uh at the Rocktoberfest Bond spiel. The last game, the winners of each draw had to play one end, and it was called ends for end, or an end for ends, and it was one end game, and the goal was two twofold. One, that all the curlers in the lounge would play ends, and that uh the two each winners, one winner of each draw would play one end to decide who was the winner of the whole Bond spiel. And it's a little bit of a gimmick, but this is obviously meant for fun Bond spiels, but it was a lot of fun. We ended up with six different ends games going on on this one spiel. And through the entire end, one red, the people who had drawn one red were holding their breath because red would got buried early and stead that way. And it looked like it was going to be one red, and then suddenly a bad hit went the wrong way, and three yellow was in play, and then it was back down to two red. It was all over until finally a clutch draw was made by Pizzetti to bury a yellow rock behind multiple stagger guards, uh, completely inaccessible to sit one yellow. And while red had hammer and you know, the red, red, one red was nervous, and most of the yellows were comfortable. Most of the head, suddenly one yellow is sitting in the hot seat as red throws hammer and misses their shot, and thinking they were safe, all in, one yellow uh ended up having to buy uh many, many drinks. So in each game, whoever who drew one yellow had to buy the other seven drinks.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

And that was unfortunate for them.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Kevin, ask me, ask me who had one yellow in my game.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

Who had one yellow, Chris? Tell me who had it.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Yeah, I had one yellow. I I had one yellow.

SPEAKER_01 26:36

So uh didn't you buy ends earlier, too, in the day?

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Yeah, I lost a game earlier. I lost two games of ends uh over that Saturday. So um my my my curling uh bill at the end of the month is going to be significant. Uh so I'm uh gonna be taking it easy for the rest of the month, as one would say.

SPEAKER_02 26:55

Yes. I had two other small nuances to add to ends as an explanation. One is I have been uh been at or heard of bond spiels, where uh I believe this is more common in the United States of America, where as part of your entry fee for the bond spiel, uh booze is covered. So because booze is covered, people will play ends, but it's the other way around. You want your thing to happen because you'll each put in a $5 bill and you'll take the pot. So it's basically gambling for money on ends. So that is the one additional nuance. I didn't prep you for that one. That hit me as I was like as we're recording the podcast. I remembered this one.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

We keep talking about this. The CRA is gonna come looking for their own.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

I'm sure, yes. Yes, and one final one, which is a general guideline in any and all games of ends. Shout out to my friend and former skip. Shindy's card is always in play. You have to explain. So, my former skip, Greg Shindy, who's one of the biggest gamblers I know of, always does this. And no matter what happens, every single game of ends he's playing, he hates losing an ends, and he his card is always a very strong possibility is happening. It's a rule of ends.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

He is one of our listeners, so congratulations, Shindy. You got a shout out.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

So, if for those of you who haven't played ends in your curling clubs, or uh this is the first you're hearing about it, feel free to email us at overheard at extraends.ca. We can send you the rules in written form. But uh, by far, it's a great way to add fun to your events and usually increase increase revenue for your bar. Moving on, we are moving on to our pregame roundup and what the week ahead's looking like. This is a big week, and this is uh this is the week before the grand slam in Victoria BC, but we have a large number of events going on this week. We have out in Pittikton, the New Floors Curling Classic, which is a top-level event out west, uh, always draws some of the biggest teams. We have the Stu Cells Toronto Tankard, the sister tankard of the Oakville Tankered that happened earlier in the year. Now it's the Toronto Tankard, uh, sponsored by Stu Cells. And this regularly draws a lot of big teams. And then finally, we have the Autumn Gold Classic happening as well. The Autumn Gold Classic happens in Okatokes. It's essentially the women's version of the Okatokes spiel we talked about a few weeks ago. So we're gonna go through each one of these. We're gonna talk about some of our teams to watch, we're gonna talk about uh any intel intel we have from the ice makers out there, and uh, we're gonna give you a little bit of our take and a little bit of our predictions. So, uh Norm, why don't you start it off? Let's go to Pentikton and New Floors. Who who who are you watching?

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Yeah, I think there's a bunch of teams that we're watching because this is uh out in Pentikton, so very near Victoria, which is where the next slam, the first slam of the year is. And there's several teams that are prepping for the slam by going to that. I think our beloved team Botcher is one that uh we both have stakes in, that we're very interested in that team. And then many other teams are looking at it. I think that was the one that I noted down on our sheet is the one that I'm looking at because they're really going for it. And then, of course, team Hostley is going back in that one again. And then I believe uh our also our friend, uh our friend Jordan McDonald, I believe, is in that one as well, as well as many, many other teams rounded out by many of the BC teams that are using this as an opportunity to play a local event with a cross-canada and international flair to it.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

All right, and this the I'm I'm watching the Swedes who are showing up, Team Erickson um with uh Oscar Erickson's team uh are showing up at this as well. Uh, thankfully, Team Jacobs won't be there. So we we have yet to see a uh a serious spiel meetup between uh Team Erickson and Team Jacobs yet, but I'm sure that will come soon at one of the slams uh to see if there's any tension still there. Also, uh we have the Schwallers, which are is some of the best curlers in the world right now, which I think is going to lead to some absolutely great curling. Uh I'm I'm very, very excited for this. Uh on the on the women's side, uh is there yeah, there's a women's side to this.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

No, the no, the women's side is in is the autumn goal classic. That's an overtoaks. Right. So in Pentikton's just the men's, and the women uh have their own spiel in Alberta. So yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Someday we'll get like if I I suspect it's a matter of ice space, but uh so someday we get these events, you know, with with both genders at the same time. But so that's yeah in New Flyers. Uh the unfortunately, we asked uh Pentikton for their ice makers report, and all they said was, Who are you? Um I don't think that was the exact words we heard, yes. And so we have no icemakers report from uh Pentikton. No. This event is very much my take on this event is uh the prelude. This is the prelude to the slam. This is get yourself ready. This is the last time they get to see each other before the slam. Uh a lot of teams are doing this spiel instead of doing practice weekends. So uh you can expect everyone to bring their A game and have a lot of good curling here. Uh, do you have any final takes on this before we make our predictions?

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Uh no, I'm gonna attempt to make a prediction at some point on this one. So go ahead. All right. If you're we picking two teams or one? How are we doing this?

SPEAKER_00 32:29

We're picking winners. Winners or nothing. Oh, we pick winners only. Okay. Winners only. I'm going with Team Botcher. I'm going with Team Botcher for this one. I have watched them. They've been in the semis of every event they've participated in so far, but in every event so far, they've gotten better. I think this is the one they're gonna break through. They're gonna do it, they're going to go through to the final and they're gonna win. Uh they're gonna win the new floors and curling classic.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Yep. No bias there from you at all.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

No, no, I'm no, no bias what's right. And even if I was biased, I wouldn't care.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

You wouldn't care. You're trying to pick money the smart money way. I get it. Um, I will take then Team Yannick Schwaller, which is the relatively recently proclaimed um number one team in the world. They surpassed Team Mowit uh with that, and um, they've had a very good start to the year, and uh looking for them to continue on, a very, very strong event as they continue forward and uh look to continue to improve upon their number one ranking and put them further away from everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

No, this is gonna be a great event. All right, let's come down to Toronto and the Stew Cells Toronto Tankered. We uh we have some teams to watch here. This is this is usually a big event, Kevin. What are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER_02 33:43

I think this year, with what you just referenced with the slam being out west, in the past, the slams have been in and around Ontario somewhere. So the Stu Cells Toronto has normally been the warm-up event for that. This year, with the slam out west, those two events you the one we just talked about and the one we're gonna talk about, um, uh the men's and the women's events that are over there, many of the slam teams are using that as their preparation event for it. And the Stu Cells Toronto is not uh that event. So, therefore, the field, while still strong and still good, isn't quite at the level as it has been in the past. I think that's a notable thing. So, Chris, I don't know your thoughts about it. I think we're pretty happy about the teams that are in it, especially for a spiel at our uh our sibling rival club.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Yeah, I agree. Uh it's it it it is uh it is a lot of Ontario teams, but what I found uh really interesting, and one of our teams to watch is Team Black out of Nova Scotia, who uh are making an appearance again. Um, and then we're also watching uh Team Park and Team Kim on the women's side, and then the men's side and team Epping uh to see how well they keep going. Um I have a couple takes on this, a couple takes on this event, but first, we actually do have an ice makers report from the Stu Cells Toronto Tanker. And I'm going live now to Kevin McDonald with the ice makers report.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

I did tell him that the uh anything he told me was off the record, but now this part's gonna be the part that's on the record. So the number one We can't break off the record. I I understand. The biggest thing I think is is in the Toronto area as we've now entered October. Um, the heat and humidity that has been very recent has broken. So now that has made it significantly better for our uh our own club and for the Hyde Park Club. The Hyde Park Club can handle the heat pretty well. Um, but like anytime things start to fluctuate is when it starts to get rough. But right now, uh the weather is looking really good to help with the event to impact the building. It is a building that's over 100 years old, so that that kind of helps. Um, rocks are being um textured uh tomorrow, and the ice will be in very good shape, but normally is at this event, and uh they've been doing some fine tuning and some solid work recently on several of their pieces of equipment to make sure that they put their best show on for this event.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

I'm looking forward to it. So, one of the things I looked at this event and my take on it is I was surprised to see the number of Nova Scotia teams. Nova Scotia is usually for lack of a better term, one of the struggling jurisdictions in the curling world. We all remember the late, the great Colleen Jones, uh, who took that province and put it on the map from curling, uh, one of the hands-down best curlers in the world. But outside of Colleen, the province had always sort of struggled to put a really strong program in the field. But then starting last year, a couple years before that, suddenly we have Team Black, we have a couple others, we now have three Nova Scotia teams uh coming to this event. And it looks like Nova Scotia is setting itself up to be a player on the national stage here in Curling. And I think that's just fascinating to watch.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Uh, two comments to talk about what you just said. Yes, absolutely, Nova Scotia's been coming. And if you look at the results, it's always a little bit of a trailing indicator. And it's a very interesting thing is to look at who won and how well provinces do at the Canadian junior championships. And relatively recently, I'd say over the last five to seven years, which is including just slightly um pre-COVID, uh, the Nova Scotia teams have started to do really well and have won at those ones. And so definitely Taylor Stevens is one of the ones that's here that was at the Scotties in Mississauga in in the um uh in this in January of this year. She made the playoffs at the Scotties as a first-time skip, which is amazing for a team that is effectively a full-on U-25 team. But seeing them come here for this would be good and be very interesting to see how well they do. So that's my first main point. My second main point is uh our uh former celebrity skip from um the Curl for Kids a couple years ago, Chris Rob Harris, is very angry at you right now for not recognizing that he did win the Briar on Team Mark Daisy from Nova Scotia and came bronze at the world a couple years ago many years ago, but still nonetheless.

SPEAKER_00 37:56

Nova Scotia does have a strong curling history. Let me be clear about that. Uh but I mean in recent years, it is it is it has not been in the national spotlight in the same way that it had in the past.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Yes, absolutely. I just wanted to make sure you did a shout out to our friend, our friend Rob Harris. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Their province is called New Scotland, after all. I suspect they do have some good curling lineage.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

What one would hope. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

Also, we are also not sponsored by New Scotland Clothing. So let's move on. Uh Norm, do you have any other takes on this event?

SPEAKER_02 38:31

Um, no, I think it's a good one. It is on the Thanksgiving weekend, and it's starting on Thursday morning. So it's it is a five-day event, but it's a three-day long weekend. And I think um, initially from uh some reports I heard, uh the the club was a little hesitant when they first got it going of like, oh, I don't think anyone will play on Thanksgiving weekend. It's like, oh no, they will. And they've been coming ever since, and it does it's done quite well, except for the one year that we had at our club, but it is sticking at High Park, I think, for the the near future. So I think it's an excellent event. One that uh when it is in town, I really try to do my best to go see it. Uh, may not necessarily be the case this year, unfortunately, but um it is still one that I really like. And the High Park Club's an excellent club, and there's some excellent curling if you happen to be in the greater turnout area for the uh this weekend. So please pop on over there and check out some of the action. It'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

Yeah, they said they do a great job. They do a great job hosting this event. They set up stands and bleachers so everyone can see it's it's great. All right, Kevin, here comes the critical moment. I went first on the last one, so you got to go first on this one. What are your predictions? Uh, winner for men and winner for women on the Stew Cells Toronto Tankers.

SPEAKER_02 39:39

Okay, so I need to pick one of each, right? One of the I will pick for the I will pick for the men, I will pick Team Epping. And for the women, I will pick the aforementioned from Nova Scotia, Team Christina Black.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

I think those are good choices. I um I'm going to agree with you on Christina Black. I know it's not exciting, but uh, we can't have the same picks.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

That's part of it. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

We're either both right or we're both wrong.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Oh, we if we're trying to track this. I mean, come on.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

Okay, fine. All right, fine. You will next time I'm going first, just so I can.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Okay, fine.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Uh no, then I'm going to take uh Unjung Kim uh from Korea. I think um they've always given folks a run for their money, and uh I think they're gonna do it again. Uh what do I think on the men's side? Let's see. I'm just sort of.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

No, you just said earlier that you're gonna pick Nathan Young and ride him the whole way. How are you not picking him again?

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Yeah, I'm picking Nathan Young again. I'm picking Nathan Young again. And you know what? Bonus points? I want bonus points if it's a Greg Smith, Nathan Young fan.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Oh, absolutely. I want a battle battle. Battle Newfoundland boys.

SPEAKER_00 40:44

I want all Newfoundland battle. There might be more drinks consumed on the ice than off it if that's the case. All right, moving along. We have one last event uh to review that's coming up this week, and that is the Autumn Gold Classic in Okatoks, Alberta. This is a woman's event. As we said, it's a uh it's a sort of partner event to the men's event that happened a few weeks ago. Uh what are we looking at here, uh, Kevin? Uh, what do you think this event's gonna look like? Looks like we have very similar to the Stew Cells, a lot of uh uh other sort of new teams or building teams.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Yeah, I think this is another one where it's one of the Western events that uh has definitely local flavor of several Alberta teams that are in it, but it also has many of those teams that are prepping for the slam, like Team Anderson is in that. And I know uh several of the Asian teams, the Japanese and Korean teams have uh mentioned that were in the uh Pentikton event are also coming back to Okotoks for this event as well. So I think those are many of the teams that we're looking for. And uh I'm noting as we go into it. I don't know if there's any specifically that you're interested in, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Listen, this this event is there's uh a lot of good teams here. I the one I'm gonna be looking at closely uh because they've they've done a couple events, but I haven't watched them, and I'm gonna make a point to watch a couple of their games is Team Negavan. Um I want to I want to see what the what it looks like um with with um Selena in the in the skip position. Um Chelsea Carey's also a part of that rink, but I still don't think she's back yet. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 42:21

Chelsea is still skipping that rink.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Oh, okay.

unknown 42:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Well she's skipping it. She's listed on the site. I think she's like their fifth, as Selena is uh either about to or has recently delivered uh her children.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Right. That's that's what I thought. So I think Chelsea's gonna do a great job here. Uh friend of the podcast, Jessica Carey, yeah. Um is uh you know top-level Olympic level curler. So uh I want to watch this team. I think uh Team Inerson is uh their new form I'm gonna be watching as well. I'm very excited for it. Um and then it is I'll I'll admit it is always a treat to watch Team Hasselborg. I was surprised they came back. I thought they might be retiring and we might not see them again in this squad, but I am so excited to see them on the ice again. Absolutely. They have over and over again been the team that pushes the rest of the women's field along with team Holman to get better. Um, and I think uh at one point it was sort of Hasselborg that lit the fire under Team Homan. That if you want to get good, if you want to be unstoppable, you have to get by this team consistently. And uh Holman's done that. So I think uh I'm really excited for this event. I'm gonna have a lot of fun watching it. So we uh once again we called the Okatux Curling Club. Um and they didn't say who are you, they said please stop calling. So uh we don't have an icemakers report from the Okatoks Curling Club. Um and we've sort of given you our take. So we're gonna jump straight to predictions here. Uh in in a random game that I just played in my head, I won, so I get to go first. And uh I am going to pick uh the two. Win this event, I am actually going to pick. Let's see here. I'm going with Team Alina Pats.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Oh, that's who I was gonna pick.

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Well, you're just gonna pick someone else.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

I'll pick Team Xenia Schwaller, the teams that have played each other, I think, the final of three or four events this year. Team Schwaller has not lost a game this year to anybody except Alina Pets. So it's about her time to win another one against her. So I'll do that. She'll break the streak.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Alright. So, ladies and gentlemen, now for our one of our favorite segments, Coach's Corner with Rob. Coach's Corner. Rob, club season is starting up at Royals. Do you have any advice for anyone who may be struggling to get back into the swing of things?

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Again, Rob's not here, so I have no fing idea.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Well, we'll just have to put this question on hold and ask him when he's back.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

Okay, thanks. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

All right, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, we have a few more moments before the end of our podcast today. We hope you've had as much fun listening to this as we have recording it. We're on to our my favorite segment, overheard at royals. And as Royals is open and uh doing business, there's a lot of things that are filling up the overheard at Royals inbox. If you overhear anything at Royals, feel free to email overheard at extraends.ca. That email address again is overheard at extraends.ca. Now, while we're not going to violate the confidentiality of our club's members AGM, there was one interesting comment going around the meeting last week at our annual general meeting. It was noted by some observant members that if revenue could be increased by a mere $2,000 per month, the Royal Canadian Curling Club would hit a monumental goal in terms of bar sales. So the challenge has been issued for the community, for the health of the club, for the health of our curling, and for bragging rights. We're calling on Royals members to help us with this goal of increasing bar revenue by $2,000 a month. When the challenge was issued, the following was overheard. Well, I guess we can stay for one more.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

Are you gonna try to do this by yourself, Chris? Or what? Like, I can't imagine you would drink $2,000 a month.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

You're just trying to get more people to join the no, I think I think the members are up for the challenge. I think the membership I know you think the members are up for the challenge. $2,000 a month is one more round per person, give or take.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 46:46

We we can do this. It's not even that, it's actually uh probably about one more round for every fourth person. There you go. So, you know, Mensley can do that alone. Um I I think that uh we can do this and hit this monumental revenue goal and also uh invest in our own club and invest in our community. It is for the health of the club, it's for the club norm. It's for the club.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

It is absolutely for the health of the club.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

Yeah, it's for the club.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Exactly. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us once again. This has been episode five of Extra Ends A Curling Podcast, covering the week of September 29th to October 5th. We'd like to thank all of you. And if you like what you've heard, please like, subscribe, hit that bell, do all the buttons and things that make sure that you get reminded when we post a new episode. Our episodes come out every week. We try to get them out on Tuesday, it might be Wednesday, depending on well how well we were at trying to raise money for the club the night before. And uh I would like to thank my co host, Kevin McDonald. Hi, thank you. Thanks, everyone. And ladies and gentlemen, please always remember that may hear ice be fasting curly in the shed and cold and ready at the bar.