Jim Armstrong has curled in the Brier six times. The owner of six Purple Hearts (1973, '74, '83, '84 and '92), he never won a Brier, but he was third for Bernie Sparks when they lost to Russ Howard in 1987 and made it to the semifinals in '83.
On Tuesday, the British Columbia skip was just a rookie as he led the defending champions to a 9-1 victory over the Manitoba host team during the opening draw of the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship at West Kildonan Curling Club.
Jim Armstrong: back in the limelight
Once described in the Calgary Herald as having been "blessed with a surgeon's touch," when it came to curling, Armstrong was forced out of the hack due to debilitating pain in his back, and after his knees gave out a few years back.
But this year he made a comeback, and yesterday the Manitoba Host team of skip Richard Dudek, third George Horning, second Don Kalinski and lead Effie Loubardias were his first victims.
Team Manitoba, however, managed to pick up a victory when Chris Sobkowicz drew to the button on his final rock, as his team of third Dennis Thiessen, second Michael Albert and lead Arlene Ursel, edged Alberta 4-3.
In other first-round games, Northern Ontario beat Atlantic 8-5 and Ontario beat Nova Scotia 8-1.
Curling from a wheelchair has put Armstong right back in the limelight, so much so that the Richmond, B.C., native, has been declared eligible by the Canadian Paralympic Committee to compete in the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver.
He is one of the 14 curlers from which the team will be selected.
However, his selection has had some controversy as the World Curling Federation says that he's not eligible under its rules, which state that a wheelchair must be used for daily mobility.
Armstrong can, and does, move around without the chair, but he says it is a painful process, and the chair provides him with the ability to compete once again in the game he loves so dearly.
"I was invited to play at the start of this season," said the 57-year-old dentist, "so I've only been playing in a wheelchair all this season."
"It is quite different (from able-bodied curling)," he went on. "The angles are different, and we do (it) from a chair with a stick from two feet, what able-bodied curlers get to do from over 20 feet. So it's definitely a challenge, but it has been like a new lease on life to me."
There is a drawback however: "Playing from the back end for so many years, I always blamed the front end (when I missed a shot), now (because there are no sweepers) I don't have anybody to blame."
Playing in the evening draw were Nova Scotia and British Columbia, Manitoba Host (Dudek) was playing Ontario, Northern Ontario was taking on Alberta and Team Manitoba (Sobkowicz) was facing Ontario.
The bonspiel runs until Saturday with the final scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
allan.besson@freepress.mb.ca
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