Because I know there will be a lot of you who want to go to this, here's the info on the next OCA board meeting. The meeting of OCA members will take place April 27, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. Location: Mississaugua Golf & Country Club 1725 Mississauga Road Mississauga ON L5H 2K4 Tel: (905) 278-4857 www.mississaugagolf.com Any curler in Ontario can attend the meeting. The agenda will...
Via Curling Zone, here's a story of how the United States Curling Association is under fire from the United States Olympic Committee over the sad state of the American high performance teams. The StarTribune has the details of how the riot act has been read to the USCA and how there are concerns over future funding. In a letter sent last month, the USOC said it has “serious concerns” about USA Curling’s...
A couple of sources have told me in the last little while that Kevin Martin won't be replacing Kevin Koe on Team Canada for next season. Apparently Martin is going to take some time away from the game and maybe even retire permanently and move into another area of the sport. Of course when you have multiple Olympic appearances, a gold medal, Brier and world titles, it's not hard to pass up a free trip...
News from Alberta today that the remnants of Team Canada will stay together and look for anew skip to lead them into next year's Brier. The Edmonton Sun's Con Grikowsky confirms that Carter Rycroft will be back in the fold after saying he wanted to take next year off. “I didn’t want to continue curling 14 weeks a year like I’ve been doing for a long time and didn’t want to make a commitment for...
One of the major issues that led to the problems facing the Ontario Curling Association is a lack of communication. At the March 30 meeting, the OCA acknowledged its shortcomings in this department. Board member Gord Gark even apologized for it. Good on the board for owning up to this. In my opinion, much of this entire episode could have been prevented or at least lessened had the board communicated...
It shouldn’t surprise us any more when a Canadian team – men, women, junior, senior – doesn’t win a world championship. But let’s face it: it does. And when they do win, we think that’s how it should be. It’s not a big deal. Ho-hum. For the record, this marks the first time since 1991-92 that Canada will go two years without a world men’s title. We still think we should win every time, all the time...
One of my favourite people in curling, Jack MacDuff, has weighed in on the relegation issue with a guest column in the Charlottetown Guardian. MacDuff, of course, is the only man to skip a Newfoundland and Labrador team to the Brier title, doing that back in 1976. But MacDuff is also one of the most passionate people in the game. He loves curling and loves the people who play it. And he sees...
Today marks 40 years since one of the saddest days in curling. On April 3, 1974, a tornado touched down in Windsor, Ont., and hammered the Windsor Curling Club, killing eight people (a ninth died later) and injuring 30. According to this story in the Windsor Star, many of the survivors, including Bill Snelgrove, are still haunted by that evening. "I t was the clap of thunder, and then...
The Canadian Gay Curling Championship gets underway today in Edmonton, with teams from seven provinces set to battle it out for the right to be national champions. As Marty Klinkenberg reports in the Edmonton Journal, the championship has grown and the calibre of play has also improved. A gay league that plays at the Granite is an example of the expansion the sport has gained in the gay community. ...
This may be a surprise to many but John Morris is putting his career ahead of curling. The runner-up in this year’s Tim Hortons Brier announced that he’s stepping away from the game to take a course that will help him in his firefighting career. The Brier, World and Olympic champion made the announcement on his Facebook page. After a lot of thought and deliberation, I have decided to take a step back...
Over the next few posts, leading up to the April 27 meeting, I’m going to try and deal with some of the issues that arose at the meeting and look at them in a little more detail with the information I have. First off is the OCA board's decision to remove Dale Curtis from her position as Vice-President (she did keep her position on the board). I think it’s safe to say that most people were shocked...
Some disturbing news coming out of South Korea where the national assistant coach has offered to resign amid accusations that he verbally abused the women's team. South Korea's national curling assistant coach Choi Min-suk has offered to resign over allegations he verbally abused members of the women's Olympic team. This comes after the five curlers who represented South Korea at...
Aside from the fact that he's playing in a city where the smog is as thick as pea soup, English isn't spoken and where one of the favourite dishes is Gong Bao Chicken with Peanuts, there won't be any distractions at all for Kevin Koe as he tries to win the World Curling Championship for Canada. Oh, and there is that small detail about his team breaking up at the end of this season. ...
Kevin Martin spoke to the Canadian Press in a story that appeared in various publications this morning, talking about his future and the timing of the recent flurry of team changes. He was disappointed that word has leaked out with a few big events left on the calendar. "Having teams change and personnel change, that's just part of sport," he said. "That's not unusual I don't think. "It's just unfortunate...
This Sunday at noon at Annandale G&CC in Ajax ( here's a map ), will be the first chance the curlers of Ontario have to hear – and hopefully question – the board of the Ontario Curling Association. After lots of nonsense, written confrontations, delays (many possibly as part of a strategy), obfuscation, sanctions, non-communication and what seems as general rudeness, the OCA board, headed...
Last night’s final of the women’s World Curling Championship was a stunning upset of Canada’s Rachel Homan. The Ottawa rink that appeared so dominant all week and had command of the game through seven ends, clearly didn’t have their best stuff and at times seemed to be confused either by the rocks or the ice or perhaps both. The Swiss team, which was better but not necessary stellar by any means,...
Another domino has fallen. According to some Tweets from Paul Wiecek of the Winnipeg Free Press, Jeff Stoughton’s team will curl its final two cash events and then disband. Third Jon Mead is apparently unsure about his curling future while second/lead Mark Nichols is moving back to Newfoundland and Labrador. No word on Reid Carruthers. BREAKING -- Jeff Stoughton team breaking up: all 4 members...
Kevin Martin didn't seem to be a guy bothered by the break-up of his gold-medal winning team when he was contacted by the Edmonton Journal's Norm Cowley. Instead, he was disappointed that the news came out before the end of the season and prior to two big events. “It’s unfortunate,” Martin said about the Sportsnet report. “I know there’s been lots of talk between Kevin Koe and Ben and Marc....
The timing obviously wasn't ideal for a rumoured team change. Just as the stories broke about Kevin Koe blowing up his Brier-winning team, he and the current squad were about to get on a plane and head to Beijing, China for the World Curling Championships. Not surprisingly, when contacted by the Calgary Herald, he was quite buttoned-up. Koe wouldn’t discuss rumours when contacted by the...
This afternoon the CCA chair, Hugh Avery issued a terse response to the OCA's statement that appeared on its web site after the provincial body apologized in the back-and-forth between the two bodies. In the letter, Avery points out what he says are false statements made by the OCA. He specifically mentions five different points in the OCA letter and calls them inaccurate information. I've posted them...