The night the lights went out… in Winnipeg?

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This article was published 11/03/2017 (3421 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Pierre Charette had an instant flashback when the lights went out Saturday afternoon in St. John’s.

The coach of Team Quebec this week at the 2017 Brier represented his province 19 years ago at the national men’s curling championship at the old Winnipeg Arena.

His team from Saint-Lambert, Que., was in the ’98 final against Ontario’s Wayne Middaugh.

The power went out that day, too, although only briefly. But the antics that ensued remain an entertaining chapter of Canadian curling folklore.

“The power, yes, absolutely that happened before,” Charette said. “That’s when Guy improvised and changed the score on the opposition. It was a cool moment …very memorable.”

The guy was Guy Hemmings, skip of Quebec’s crew that year in the Manitoba capital. A relative unknown in curling until that year, Hemmings quickly dazzled crowds at every draw with his terrific shot-making ability and his big, playful personality.

Things, though, were not going well for the team in the early stages of the finale against Middaugh’s powerful Toronto squad.

Quebec trailed 3-0 playing the fifth end, when the cavernous rink went dark, Charette said.

Looking to have a little fun, Hemmings starting altering the numbers on scoreboard to put his team in the lead.

“He starts fiddling with the score. Everybody in the arena is laughing,” he said. “But he was like that the whole week.”

Quebec lost the game – and actually lost the 1999 Brier final to Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton in Edmonton as well — but funnyman Hemmings became the face of curling for a couple of seasons.

“Those two years were Cinderella years, coming out of nowhere. Nobody knew us,” said Charette, who was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame a year ago. “Our whole team didn’t even know Guy was like that. He’s not really like that in real life.

“He just told us at the start, ‘Just watch me go this week.’ He said, ‘Everybody’s too quiet in this game. I’m gonna make a show of it.’ And he would. But the thing is, he still played great. That was the amazing part.”

Charette, 61, said during the horsing around, he had to stay deadly serious.

“If I try goofing off like that, I couldn’t put the switch back on. I had to keep in the moment. But Guy was the total opposite.”

Charette, a seven-time Quebec champion, has the distinction of being the only curler to play at the Brier in all four positions.

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

@WFPJasonBell