Brewster in Canada

How quickly the days go by when I'm trying to get the next Scottish Curler off to the printers. Anyway, that went up to the publishers today, and I have a moment to catch breath! So what's happening out there in the curling world?

Tom Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell are in Canada for the BDO Classic Canadian Open, the third Capital One Grand Slam, which gets underway tonight Wednesday) at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. This event has three sections of six teams. Teams have been allocated into sections based on their standing in the Capital One Order of Merit rankings as of December 15, 2008. (The number in brackets in the sections below denotes Order of Merit seeding)

Brewster, seeded 18, meets top seed Kevin Martin in their first game. It's quite a lineup!

Section A
(1) Kevin Martin (Edmonton), (6) Brad Gushue (St. John’s), (7) Thomas Ulsrud (Oslo, Norway), (12) Bob Ursel (Kelowna), (13) Greg McAulay (Richmond), (18) Tom Brewster (Aberdeen, Scotland)

Section B
(2) Glenn Howard (Coldwater), (5) Wayne Middaugh (Midland), (8) Kerry Burtnyk (Winnipeg), (11) Mike McEwen (Winnipeg), (14) Jean-Michel Ménard (Gatineau), (17) Pete Fenson (Bemidji, Minnesota)

Section C
(3) Kevin Koe (Edmonton), (4) Randy Ferbey (Edmonton), (9) Pat Simmons (Davidson), (10) Jeff Stoughton (Winnipeg), (15) Joel Jordison (Moose Jaw), (16) Reid Carruthers (Winnipeg)

Follow the results here.

I did not get the opportunity to congratulate Graeme Black, Ally Fraser, Steven Mitchell and Thomas Sloan who finished second in the standings in the WCT-e Junior Tour. They reached the final of the Hamburg event last weekend, and have performed strongly all season.

Jennifer Dodds also lost in their final at Hamburg. Claire Hamilton and Hannah Fleming shared joint second place in the junior women's standings. The tour now has a website here. I wonder if it will go forward next year, or be consigned to history as a bold experiment that was ahead of its time? Certainly there's work to be done on a number of fronts!

The Scottish Junior Men's Championship qualifying rounds are at Aberdeen this weekend. Sadly, Curling Today won't be there, but all the results, as usual, will be on the Royal Club website here. Nineteen teams have to be whittled down to ten (oops - that should be eight!). There will be great curling. And the added reassurance too that there is now a place for Scotland in the World Junior Men's Championship in Vancouver in March. Thanks Glen and co!

The YARA Farmers' Championship is on this week at the Dewar's Rinks in Perth. Find the results here.

The Canadian tourists have the measure of the Scots and Scottish ice both north and south, and the Strathcona Cup seems to be heading for Canada! I enjoyed Mike Haggerty's piece here. Click here for the results to date. Scotland is doing better in Switzerland (see here)!

And since I've mentioned the Royal Club website, I note the member zone is soon to be announced. The look of the site was on display earlier this week (see below), although it is not online for real yet. A step forward for the Royal Club. Watch out for it, 'coming soon'.

European qualifiers 2

Two games to watch tonight and they were both crackers! The men first. Tom Brewster took a pair at the second against Warwick Smith, Craig Wilson, David Smith and Ross Hepburn and it took three more ends for Smith to get back on level terms. After seven ends, it was 3-3. Brewster, Duncan Fernie, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell blanked eight, and with a double on Tom's last stone of the ninth counted a three. They ran their opposition out of stones in the tenth, and had their first point on the board.

Kelly Wood, Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood matched up against Edith Loudon, Mairi Milne, Claire Milne and Katie Loudon in the first of their best of five matches. There was little between the teams. Wood had drawn better to get last stone advantage at the first, and was 5-4 up at the fifth end break. She stole a single, then promptly gave up a three.

When last season's Euro rep went to play her final stone in the eighth she was facing three more Loudon stones. Her raise was good, but just shy of shot position, and she gave up a single against the head. Two down, with two ends to play.

Edith who seemed to have the better command of draw weight than her opposite number, raised her own to lie shot partially hidden in the ninth. In going for the shot Kelly caught the guard and rolled another Loudon shot into the house. Down 10-6, the handshakes were offered.

Find all the linescores and standings here.

European qualifiers 1

It was first blood to Murdoch as the European Qualifying Competition got underway this afternoon at the Dewars Rinks in Perth. The only game on the ice was the David Murdoch v Tom Brewster match, and it was an intriguing encounter.

The teams swapped threes in the first two ends! Murdoch, Ewan MacDonald, Peter Smith and Euan Byers took another three in the third. They looked confident and were playing well.

Brewster with his new third for this season in Duncan Fernie, and his long standing front end Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell, were up against it again in the fourth. Tom went to play his last with four Murdoch stones lying against him. He could only outcount three of these, and gave up a single to go 7-3 down.

Most felt it might be all over then, and so it turned out. The sides swapped twos, but when Tom was too heavy with Murdoch stones in the house against him in the seventh, the teams shook hands, the score at 11-5.

Find the linescores and standings on the Royal Club website here.

Above: Tom Brewster and David Murdoch. Pic by Bob. More photos after this evening's games.

A tale of two tournaments

It is interesting, if somewhat unsatisfying, to follow the progress of competitions just from the information appearing on the event websites. Still, all credit to those who go to considerable effort to provide the news to those of us around the world who are interested in how 'our' teams are doing, or who just want to follow the progress of the events.

It is also interesting to see how different World Curling Tour competitions go for different formats. There were two very different approaches on show this weekend. In Canada, there was a traditional thirty-two team triple knockout for the men at the McDonalds Invitational Classic in Brantford, Ontario. First games there were on Friday at 10am. The semifinals and final are not due to be played until tomorrow (Monday). The sixteen team women's event also started on Friday morning, with just the final tomorrow.

How did the Scots teams fare? David Murdoch won two games in the A road, lost the third to drop to B, then lost two straight to go out. Played five, won two, lost three. I don't know what his team lineup was, that is one limitation of event websites - they often don't say who really was on the ice. Kelly Wood with Jackie Lockhart, Lorna Vevers and Lindsay Wood won their first game against Lynne Middaugh, lost their second, and then their third in the B road. In C they beat Lynne Middaugh again, won their next before bowing out on their third game of the day. Played six, won three, lost three.

Lucerne took a different approach for their WCT-e event, the Lucerne Curling Trophy. Twenty-four teams played off in four sections, guaranteeing all teams at least five games. A team draw shot distance (called the 'stone game' at Lucerne and carried out following the first section game) was used to decide rankings if teams were tied on points after the round robins. The top team in each section qualified for the quarterfinals. The next eight on the rankings table played a further game to get into the quarters. In other words, finish in the top twelve to be still in contention for the main prize.

Four Scottish teams were in the draw at Lucerne, in different sections. First games for some were on Thursday evening, others at 08.00 Friday. All made it to the quarterfinals. Alan Smith's team got to the qualification round, despite winning only two games in their section. A superior 'stone game' saw them through. They won their game then, but ran up against Norway's Thomas Ulsrud in the quarterfinal who put them out. Incidentally, that match at 10pm Saturday night was their fourth eight-end game of the day! (Smith, played seven, won three, lost four)

Logan Gray and David Edwards both won three games in their sections, and both got through the qualifier. In the quarterfinal Gray beat Sweden's Nils Carlsen. Edwards though came up against Tom Brewsters team who had won all their section games to secure their quarterfinal place. Brewster was 6-1 up after four ends and the game only went six ends. (Edwards, played seven, won four, lost three)

As it turned out, Brewster had to meet Gray in the semifinal. That game went to the extra end, Brewster stealing for the win. (Gray, played eight, won five, lost three)

So Tom Brewster, Hammy McMillan, Ron Brewster and Colin Campbell were in the final against Norway's Thomas Ulsrud. The game went to an extra, Brewster needed to steal, but did not, and it was the Norwegians' game. (Brewster, played eight, won seven, lost one).

All the prizewinners, and their prizes, are here!

Tom Brewster's photo from last season's Scottish Championship is by Bob Cowan. Thomas Ulsrud's pic is from the Worlds in 2006 and was taken by Hugh Stewart.