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'.
