Turnbull twins are big chips off the old block

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Team Manitoba's Reg Turnbull (left) and his twin Allan pose after playing Team Saskatchewan in rugby at the Canada Games in Summerside, P.E.I on Monday. The twins are the sons of curling legend Ray Turnbull. (CP)

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. -- Ray Turnbull admits he was a bit of a disciplinarian when it came to his boys and their sports growing up. He once left them to walk home from hockey practice when they weren't working hard enough for his liking -- or so the story goes.

"And it was minus-30 outside," Turnbull kidded.

But twins Reg and Allan, who are playing on Manitoba's rugby team at the Canada Summer Games, say they wouldn't have had it any other way.

"We used to call him The Warden," Reg said, laughing. "He's been a good dad, he's led us the right way, we got our toughness from him, that's for sure."

"Oh yeah, he's old-school, man," Allan added. "He was born in '39, he's a discipline guy. I love it though, I wouldn't be half the player I am without his modelling when I was younger."

Turnbull, once one of Canada's best curlers, is here cheering on his sons, despite having had two stents inserted into his heart less than a week ago. He wouldn't have had it any other way.

"They're good boys. They're both good students and that's the most encouraging thing," Turnbull said. "I would think I was a fairly tough father, that's for sure. But if you smother enough discipline with love, it works pretty well."

Turnbull won the 1965 Brier as the lead for the Terry Braunstein rink, and the team went on to finish second to the United States at the world curling championships.

Turnbull, now a curling analyst for TSN, encouraged his boys to pursue a wide array of sports growing up. Curling, of course, was one of them.

"I made them curl," said Turnbull. "They like it, but it wasn't their forte. But I wanted them to learn the fundamentals so they could go back to it and they did, they throw fairly well and they know the game.

"I would have liked them to have done more curling, but I wasn't going to force them."

The boys -- whom Turnbull has been known to refer to on curling broadcasts as "In-turn" and "Out-turn," curling terminology for the which way the rock spins -- picked up their first curling rock at age five, and played until they were 16. They were forced to quit because they were juggling too many sports.

-- The Canadian Press

What Manitoba did

Team Manitoba results Monday from the 2009 Canada Summer Games in P.E.I

Women's Softball

"ö Manitoba 2 Quebec 1

"ö Manitoba 6 Saskatchewan 1

Beach Volleyball (Male)

"ö Manitoba (John Galloway, Stefan Savoie) 2 Saskatchewan 1

"ö Ontario 2 Manitoba 0

Beach Volleyball (Female)

"ö Quebec 2 Manitoba (Rachel Cockrell and Chloe Reimer) 1

Men's Basketball

"ö Ontario 94 Manitoba 44

Women's Basketball

"ö Alberta 64 Manitoba 42

Rugby

"ö Manitoba 12 Nova Scotia 0

"ö Saskatchewan 20 Manitoba 5

Tennis

Manitoba 6 PEI 0

"ö Men's Singles: Igal Mostlov won 6-4, 6-3

"ö Men's Singles: Muzeen Ismath won 7-5, 6-4

"ö Ladies Singles: Alexia Cholakis won 6-3, 6-4

"ö Ladies Singles: Evann Waschuk won 6-4, 6-1

"ö Men's Doubles: Chad Lacap and Sean Bailey won 6-2, 6-2

"ö Ladies Doubles: Clarissa Chan and Erika Fridrik won 6-0, 6-3

Ontario 6 Manitoba 0

"ö Men's Singles: Igal Mostlov lost 0-6, 1-6

"ö Men's Singles: Muzeen Ismath lost 3-6, 5-7

"ö Ladies Singles: Alexia Cholakis lost 0-6, 2-6

"ö Ladies Singles: Evann Waschuk lost 0-6, 0-6

"ö Men's Doubles: Chad Lacap and Sean Bailey lost 6-7, 1-6

"ö Ladies Doubles: Clarissa Chan and Erika Fridrik lost 1-6, 1-6

"ö Cycling (Female cross country mountain bike)

Leah Kirchmann, 6th; Anna Schappert, 10th; Lindsay Argue, 20th; Haley Warkentin, 21st; Karlee Gendron, 30th

"ö Cycling (Male cross country mountain bike)

Jason Doverspike, 12th; Paul Benson, 13th; Dylan Harris, 21st; Adrian Huemmer, 39th; Calyton Meisner, 40th; Blake MacKay, 45th

Sailing

"ö Male Laser: Kyle Ross, 9th after 3 races

Female Laser: Julia Bailey, 5th after 3 races

"ö Male 29er: Rory and Dylan McMorris, 3rd after 4 races

"ö Female 29er: Jocelyn Mclaren and Vanessa Stewart, 2nd after 4 races

Rowing

"ö Male Pairs: Anthony Minton and Josh Mintz; 3rd in Heat One, 2nd in Repechage -- Qualify for A Final

"ö Male Quadruple Skulls: Russell Alexander, Mark Humphreys, Jeff Slater and Chris Yachison; 3rd in Heat One, 4th in Repechage -- Qualify for A Final

"ö Female Quadruple Skulls: Claudia Blandford, Annie Eastwood, Clarey Funk and Nia Perron; 3rd in Heat Two, 3rd in Repechage -- Qualify for A Final

"ö Male Single Skulls: Chris Yachison 4th in Heat One, 6th in Repechage

"ö Female Pairs: Sydney Gilchrist and Tecla Scatliff ; 2nd in Heat Two, 5th in Repechage

"ö Male Lightweight Fours: Tanner Prasek, Jesse Reitberger, Jeff Slater, Kirk Vilks; 4th in Heat One, 5th in Repechage

"ö Female Eights with Coxswain: Nicole Bewski, Claudia Blandford, Annie Eastwood, Sydney Gilchrist, Nia Perron, Tecla Sctaliff, Fransisca Strange, Natasha Tersigni, Merghan Winser; 4th in Heat One, 6th in Repechage.

Diving (Female Platform)

"ö Morgan Wankling, 16th; Natasha Higham, 17th; Lily Kaufmann, 21st; Liana Martin, 23rd

Diving (Male Platform)

"ö Alexander Webster, 23rd; Cameron Cummings, 28th

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 18, 2009 C4