The elite men’s curlers in the world will be coming to Vernon, BC December 15 to 19, 2010. The Wesbild Centre will host The National – the second leg of the four World Curling Tour Grand Slam events – featuring a total purse of $100,000.
Full Story – Wesbild gets World Curling Tour Event
Bob Ursel and his Kelowna foursome of Jim Cotter, Kevin Folk and Rick Sawatsky won the tenth annual West Coast Curling Classic at the Royal City Curling Club with a 7-1 victory over Sean Geall of the Royal City Curling Club in an all-B.C. final. The win earned Ursel’s team $20,000 and gives them a great start towards peaking for the Olympic Pre-trials in Prince George.
Ursel’s team won eight of their nine games in the spiel with their only loss coming to 2007 Canadian and World Champion Glenn Howard in the semi-finals of the “A” event. In the quarter-finals of the championship draw they ousted Chris Schille of Alberta 7-1. They dropped 2008 Canadian and World Champion Kevin Martin of Alberta with a 6-1 victory in the semi-finals on the strength of a four-ender in the second end. In the final, Geall gave up a steal of three in the fourth end giving Ursel a 7-1 lead and ultimately the game.
Geall’s rink of Brent Pierce, Kevin Recksiedler and Mark Olson played very well on their way to a runner-up finish. The Classic was an important event for the team needing precious points to qualify for the Grand Slam events on the World Curling Tour. Geall has already secured a spot in the British Columbia provincial championship in February in Vernon with their win in 2009. Since Geall doesn’t have to play in playdowns towards the provincials, the team will be without any significant bonspiels to play in beginning in November if they do not earn enough points to qualify for the Slams. The Olympic Pre-Trials, the Olympic Trials and the Olympics have left open spots on the calendar without any World Curling Tour events to play in this season.
Full coverage on Playdowns.com.
The Westcoast Curling Classic is the most prestigious annual curling event in the Lower Mainland. It takes places October 8 – 12, 2009 at the Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster, BC, where 32 men’s teams vie for a total purse of $80,000. The increased value of the purse and the lure of highly skilled teams and competitive games have attracted Canadian teams from coast to coast and International teams from overseas.
This weekend launches the excitement of the final run-up for teams on their quest to represent Canada in the upcoming Olympics. Eight of the twelve teams heading to the Pre-Trials are registered in the spiel. There will be many great game match-ups. Teams not preparing for the 2009 Olympic play-downs are looking to earn ranking points for positions in other cash spiels and grand slams. The International teams come for the top flight games the Canadian teams offer plus the opportunity to play on ice with similar conditions to those expected at the Olympics.
The event is sanctioned by the World Curling Tour and the Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS). In a manner similar to golf and tennis, successful teams are awarded points from this event. These points accumulate towards eligibility to sanctioned world championships and facilitate the ranking for cash spiels and Grand Slam events.
There are 5 draws on Friday and Saturday, 4 draws Sunday and 3 on Monday with the final scheduled for 3pm. Event passes are on sale at the Royal City Curling Club. Prices have not increased: event passes are available at the door for $25, and daily passes for $10.
The 2009-2010 Capital One Grand Slam of Curling will kick off the year in Mississauga, ON October 21-25 with a field of nine international Olympic qualifiers and possible qualifiers and five Canadian Olympic Trials qualifiers. Randy Ferbey and Kevin Koe of Edmonton along with Brad Gushue of St. John’s, NL were recently added to fill out the fourteen team field.
The tournament will be an interesting preview of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver taking place in February. For the nine international teams the strength of the field will give them a taste of the depth of a typical Brier field. It will be intriguing to see how these teams do in a field this strong as well as how Kevin Martin’s team bounces back after the disappointment of losing three straight games to David Murdoch at the 2009 world championship.
The final Canadian invitations were given to Koe and Ferbey after receiving the final two direct births in the Canadian Olympic trials and Gushue was invited as the 2006 Olympic gold medalist.
The fourteen teams invited to compete are:
Tickets and ticket packages are available through Ticketmaster.
He doesn’t have the hardware to prove it, but Glenn Howard believes his curling team has played just as well this winter as it did during its world championship run last season.
“I actually feel this year we’ve probably played better for the entire year. The only blemish on the resume was the Brier
Defending champion Jennifer Jones on the brink of elimination following consecutive losses Wednesday to open the Tylenol Players’ Championship curling event.
The Winnipeg skip dropped her first match to Montreal’s Eve Belisle 6-3 before falling 6-5 to Edmonton’s Cathy King.
Jones will meet Heather Strong of St. John’s on Thursday in an elimination match featuring a pair of 0-2 squads.
The Canadian Press: World champ Jennifer Jones nearing elimination at Grand Slam of Curling event
A lucky fan will get the chance to throw a curling rock to the button for $1 million at the Masters of Curling next January.
The finalist’s bid to win the one-time payment in the Capital One Million Dollar Button contest will be televised live on CBC Sports.
Curling fan to shoot for $1M on CBC
