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Paul Sauve HOT ROCKS |
What a Brier! For the second consecutive year Randy Ferbey and his Alberta rink of David Nedohin (skip rocks), Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque emerged Nokia Brier champions with a final win over John Morris of Ontario. The Alberta rink will represent Canada at the World Curling Championships in Bismarck, North Dakota starting next April 6th.
The Brier provided a great week of curling with a good mix of new teams and some old favourites. Did anyone miss Kevin Martin or Wayne Middaugh, who opted out of Brier competition for reasons of their own, not the least of which was money? I did not and I would bet my last dollar they both missed curling at the Brier.
There is no doubt that Canada will be favoured to win two gold medals at the upcoming world championships.
Remember Colleen Jones won the Scott Tournament of Hearts just two short weeks ago and will also represent Canada at the World Championships. Things will need to go very wrong for these two teams not to win.
What about the play of Sudbury's own Tim Phillips, Ron Collins Jr, Drew Eloranta and Doug Hong? They had the experts talking and were on television a great deal. Must have been the coach, Alan Arkilander!
Nice performance with five wins and six losses, which is very impressive when you consider the Brier is probably the most difficult curling bonspiel to win anywhere in the world.
The World Junior Championships in Kelowna, B.C. begin March 23. Again Hamblin and Gaudet will be favoured to win for Canada. Suzanne Gaudet of PEI is returning to defend her junior women's title. Manitoba's Hamblin will defend the junior men's title won by Brad Gushue last year.
Do not forget the last few bonspiels of the year. The Post Season Bonspiel in Copper Cliff for one.
