It's a pair of titles Glenn Howard and his foursome grew to love and were ready to vehemently defend: Brier and world champions.
But Howard's Ontario quartet from the Coldwater District Curling Club were upended in a sloppy final of the 79th Brier at the MTS Centre, losing 5-4 to Alberta's Kevin Martin in a game filled with picks, controversy and frustration.
"I thought it would be better curled, it wasn't the best-curled game," said Howard afterward. "The ice was a little different: it was really swinging early, it got really straight, it got really tricky and then, of course, there were four or five key picks and it just makes it very frustrating.
"There were footprints, there were kneeprints, there were scratch marks, there was everything. You can't pinpoint it, but there were a few footprints that had dirt in them and when the rock goes over that it does funny things.
"I just wish there was zero picks and then you just see what happens. Honest to God, we didn't get hardly any picks the entire week... we had one major one against Kevin earlier in the week, (third) Richie (Hart) had one... other than that we didn't have one the entire week.
"If mine hadn't picked in four it might have been a little different... Kevin might have won anyway. I just wish there had been none of that controversy and you just go out and curl and if you get beat, you get beat. It's just frustrating."
The loss brings to a close what has been a superb 12-13-month run for Howard, who was 10-1 in last year's Brier and then 12-1 again in the men's world curling championship, capped by an 8-3 thrashing of Germany's Andy Kapp in the final. He was 9-2 in this year's round robin before knocking off B.C. in the 3-4 playoff game and Saskatchewan in the semifinal. Howard was looking to become the first team to work through the 3-4 playoff game to win the Brier.
But, alas his 10th trip to the Brier may be the least memorable.
"You just weren't sure what was going to happen. I didn't enjoy it that much," said Howard. "I would have loved to have seen everybody curl 95 per cent and let's strut our stuff. I don't think anybody curled all that well.
"That's just the way the game is played. Sometimes you get a bad break, sometimes you don't. Kudos to Kevin: even under those conditions he had to throw a great shot with his last one and he put it right on the pin. Great shot."
Howard's foursome will still appear in next month's World Curling Tour Players Championship in St. John's, N.L., as well as the Bear Mountain Arena Classic in Victoria. And then, like every competitive squad in the business, he'll have his eyes on the big prize: the chance to represent Canada again, this time at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
"We'll keep this team together," said Howard. We're going right to 2010.
"We've got a few more bonspiels to play this year. We've had a phenomenal year and there's no reason we can't finish it off."
ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca
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