General Curling Thread

[DoubleK]

Oskar curled out of his mind last night.

SWE gonna be tough to beat.

[GirlySports]

They've done it. Botcher and Moulding will meet at the Brier. Draw 3, Saturday night March 5


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_T...obin_standings

[transplant99]

nm...im a complete dufus.

[MoneyGuy]

Botcher and Moulding are saying the right things, wishing each other well and all that, but I have a hunch they’re not sincere.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

Botched and Moulding are saying the right things, wishing each other well and all that, but I have a hunch they’re not sincere.

I hope it comes to blows!!

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by transplant99

I hope it comes to blows!!

My money would be on Moulding; Botcher is too skinny.

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

My money would be on Moulding; Boucher is too skinny.

Botcher fights dirty though.

[Strange Brew]

Bottcher and Moulding playing tonight but I’m watching hockey. Any fisticuffs so far?

[GirlySports]

Moulding and Thiessen had a very cold handshake. Other than that, nothing happened. Crowd cheering for NB but they're not playing well. Too many steals against.

[GirlySports]

It's crazy to me that Canadian teams on Canadian soil can make any shot, even the seemingly impossible.

Get them out on the international ice and rocks, they can't even draw the button.

[nieuwy-89]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Moulding and Thiessen had a very cold handshake. Other than that, nothing happened. Crowd cheering for NB but they're not playing well. Too many steals against.

It was odd to me that the Lethbridge crowd was cheering for Moulding/NB over the Alberta-based national champions. Any particular reason for this?

Loving the Brier so far, one of my favourite sport events of the year. Koe and Gushue both look unstoppable right now.

[ben voyonsdonc]

Originally Posted by nieuwy-89

It was odd to me that the Lethbridge crowd was cheering for Moulding/NB over the Alberta-based national champions. Any particular reason for this?

Moulding was probably the most popular member of the Bottcher team and that was before Bottcher came off as quite unlikeable during the firing debacle.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by ben voyonsdonc

Moulding was probably the most popular member of the Bottcher team and that was before Bottcher came off as quite unlikeable during the firing debacle.

Mouldings son also lives in Lethbridge with his ex and he spends a lot of time there.

It's his second home.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by nieuwy-89

It was odd to me that the Lethbridge crowd was cheering for Moulding/NB over the Alberta-based national champions. Any particular reason for this?

Loving the Brier so far, one of my favourite sport events of the year. Koe and Gushue both look unstoppable right now.

Moulding lived in Coaldale (10 minutes from Lethbridge) for quite a few years, was the ice maker there as well as some of the rural rinks at the same time. He was also the ice maker in Lethbridge for two years right as he joined team Bottcher, he is well known in the curling world throughout southern Alberta. He had a lot of personal friends and acquaintances in the crowd and he is also the only "local" in the event. The way Bottcher handled cutting Darren and media release were not accurate, and Darren was quick to defend himself, he is a very transparent fellow. Bottcher then re- tracked his statement aligning with Darren's "side". Their game was as close to the Waste Management Open as curling has seen, with Darren and Grattan both waving there arms to get the crowd going and fans taunting Bottcher.

Hopefully all the players involved in this can put this whole thing behind them now, it is time for the fans to move on about this as well.

[transplant99]

Dunstone looks pretty strong.

Punched the Koe team in their collective face tonight.

Koe made 3 razzle dazzle shots to even stay in it early on. Remarkable shot maker....but this looks like a team with no more mojo....hope it picks up for one last hurrah. They are splitting after this season ends.

Bottcher is rolling too.

[Derek Sutton]

BJ did not play great for Koe last night I think that was the difference, but it is a long week and going undefeated is pretty rare. It was an entertaining game to watch for sure.

The time has come for Curling Canada to re think the Brier/ Scotties formats. Some of these teams do not belong here while much better, more competitive teams are left out even with the 3 Wild Card slots. Nunavut losing 18-1 does nothing for nobody, if they want to continue to include the territories they need to go back to play in games. Or have a complete pre qualifier bonspiel for the bottom provinces.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

BJ did not play great for Koe last night I think that was the difference, but it is a long week and going undefeated is pretty rare. It was an entertaining game to watch for sure.

The time has come for Curling Canada to re think the Brier/ Scotties formats. Some of these teams do not belong here while much better, more competitive teams are left out even with the 3 Wild Card slots. Nunavut losing 18-1 does nothing for nobody, if they want to continue to include the territories they need to go back to play in games. Or have a complete pre qualifier bonspiel for the bottom provinces.

It's the experience, Curing Canada wants to promote the Brier and the provinces/territories. It's kind of like the Grey Cup, they'll never change it. Canadiana!

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

BJ did not play great for Koe last night I think that was the difference, but it is a long week and going undefeated is pretty rare. It was an entertaining game to watch for sure.

The time has come for Curling Canada to re think the Brier/ Scotties formats. Some of these teams do not belong here while much better, more competitive teams are left out even with the 3 Wild Card slots. Nunavut losing 18-1 does nothing for nobody, if they want to continue to include the territories they need to go back to play in games. Or have a complete pre qualifier bonspiel for the bottom provinces.

I saw that score. 18 points is something. By definition almost all of those are coming without last rock too.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

It's the experience, Curing Canada wants to promote the Brier and the provinces/territories. It's kind of like the Grey Cup, they'll never change it. Canadiana!

It sounds like there is some pressure from the players to revamp the format a bit. One issue is the duration of the event. It is two weeks off work for these guys and that’s a lot, especially since there is 3 or 4 nothing games for the Gushues and Koes. Last night Mark Kennedy texted his wife during the 5th end break against Nunavut asking her to bring them popcorn. They spent the next three ends sneaking handfuls of popcorn between stones, one of the brothers sat out sweeping a couple of rocks as he hammered popcorn. The last 3 ends Nunavut kept throwing into the rings and Jacobs kept hitting them out. No guards no freezes nothing, I guess keeping it within 10 was their goal and the lees rocks in play the better.

Another thing is Curling Canada is essentially a business. They have played with the format over the years, adding the wildcard teams, adding play in games, adding Team Canada for the men, adding all the territory teams. Starting to scale back is the next move, the Wildcard teams should be here to stay as they add to the higher end competition. Dropping out two wildcard teams and keeping the bottom end provincial teams would be just a dumb idea.

I will offer my overall thoughts/ experience on the Brier soon as I have been involved right from the bid process through to planning, set up, game day and take down. I would also be happy to answer any questions some of you may have about the event.

[Derek Sutton]

So having a little insight into what goes into hosting a Brier I'd like to share some of what I've learned and how everything shakes down. It is a 3 year journey, here in Lethbridge we have been down this road before. We are the only city to host The Scotties, Women's Worlds, Men's Worlds, World Mixed Doubles and a Brier. They've all been fairly recent, within the last 15 years or so. Of course the Brier is the "Big One" which was a goal of the Lethbridge Curling Club dating back to 2010, we have worked our way up the ladder to become Brier hosts.

Curling Canada makes the rules and the hosts follow them. They lay out what is required by the host city, host committees and community. They make demands such as rent free facilities for two weeks, in our case the use of the Enmax Center for games and the Soccer center next door for the Patch and other events. They put demands on volunteer hours, limit volunteer numbers, charge them $100 each and expect many of them take the week off of work in exchange for unlimited event admission and bottomless Tim Hortons coffee.

Curling Canada is also the lone beneficiary of event ticket sales, $8 cans of beer in the Patch and all merchandise. They do have costs as well, they treat their title sponsors to 3 full catered meals a day, drinks, coffee, snacks and treats daily, and tickets, tickets, tickets. They contract out much of the work and being involved in some of the contract bidding I nearly crapped my pants on some of the quotes. They have a handful of paid employees, some being permanent while many being on short term contracts. This event would no come close to happening however without the 200 or so volunteers and some 6000 or so volunteer hours. From ice crew to servers to officials and time keepers, volunteers are behind some of the most crucial and some of the most insignificant tasks required to put an event like this together.

Having said all this you may ask why would any city bid to host this event? The economic spin off to the host city is fairly immeasurable, hence the rent free use of facilities. The benefit to us and the curling club is all 50/50 proceeds, we are (conservatively) anticipating $150,000 in revenue from the 50/50 draws, impossible to raise this much money any other way.