Brazil - Curling's Next Hotbed

I need to preface this post by saying that I am COMPLETELY trying to score a free trip to Brazil.  No doubt about it.

Most of the readers of this blog know that I run this little Facebook fan page. Another post has told the story of that page. I have considered writing a book about it, in fact.  Today, I'm going to give you some insight on the demographics. 

Watching The Brier from South Canada

It is said that, in men's curling, the biggest honor... sorry, honour.... is not to win the World Championship, but the Canadian National Championship, known as the Tim Hortons Brier, because the level of competition is higher.

That statement is less true than it used to be, but it's not entirely wrong. Recall that last year's Olympic and world champions were different teams.... from Canada.  The world champion (Kevin Koe) wasn't even strong enough in his provincial tournament to MAKE the Brier!  The silver medalist both times?  Thomas Ulsrud from Norway.  A look at the World Curling Tour standings shows that the top five teams are Canadian - two of them did NOT qualify for the Brier!

Naturally, I want to watch this tournament, despite the fact that that there are no fun pants allowed.

Curling Terms For The Neophyte

I had been writing a curling primer for all of you - I was all ready to call it A Curling Primer for Americans.  I had some real doozies in there. I had based a lot of it on the curling primer at the Rochester Curling Club site. Here are a few highlights:


Sheet - The strip of ice upon which the game is being played. A reputable curling club will have several sheets of ice to play on. One that isn't so reputable will probably just stack a bunch of ice cubes in an alley.

A Blowout

I won my curling match last night.  Against a skip who usually beats me.  My team had a relatively inexperienced front end (each less than 5 times out), and a decent back end - I'm a 9-year curler, my vice a 3-year curler who's pretty good.  The opposing team has a lead in his first season, but almost done with it, a 2nd in his 2nd season, an experienced vice and a 5th year skip.

I won 13-0 in 6 ends.  And I wasn't trying to run up the score.  Here's how it happened: