Savill makes emotional return to Tim Hortons Brier in hometown of Ottawa

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This article was published 10/03/2016 (3847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Craig Savill received a huge ovation when he led Team Canada’s walkout for the introductions Thursday night at the Tim Hortons Brier.

He nearly blew the roof off of TD Place when he put on his Team Ontario jacket and returned to the ice for a couple throws.

The 37-year-old Ottawa resident hoped to return to the Brier as a player with the Shawn Adams rink in Nova Scotia this season. But a cancer diagnosis last November put his curling plans on hold.

Savill made his return to the national men’s curling championship by serving as an honorary alternate for the penultimate round-robin draw. He moved from bench to bench in the early going and watched many of his former teammates in action.

After the seventh end of the Canada-Ontario game, Savill zipped up his jacket and took a few practice slides as the hometown crowd roared its approval.

Former teammate John Morris, who played with Savill as a junior, enthusiastically tapped his broom on the ice in excitement. Action stopped on the three other sheets as Savill took centre stage.

The crowd went silent as Savill settled into the hack. He smoothly delivered a guard with his first stone and buried the next one at the top of the four-foot.

“To go out and throw a rock in front of that crowd, that’s what I wanted to do at this Brier,” Savill said, his voice cracking with emotion. “So I got to do it, it was great.”

Hugs and handshakes followed as Savill returned to the bench area sporting a huge grin. Spectators who weren’t clapping their hands were reaching for tissues.

“I felt a lot of love from the crowd,” Savill said. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘This is a pretty special moment that I’m going to remember for a long time.'”

Savill is halfway through his chemotherapy treatments for Hodgkins lymphoma. He goes for treatment every two weeks and has three months to go.

“I’ve been sort of locked up in my room for the last three months,” Savill said earlier in the day. “So it’s nice I get to come out here and be well enough to see the guys and catch up because I haven’t seen them for so long.”

Savill teamed with Ontario’s Glenn Howard to win Brier and world titles in 2007 and 2012. He won national junior titles with Morris in 1998 and 1999.

“He’s one of the guys I’d say that’s into the game for the right reasons,” Morris said. “He’s not here to make money. He’s not here because he likes to be on TV. He’s just here because he loves the game.”

Savill was the only one of the 10 curlers in the game who had a 100 per cent shooting percentage. Both teams shot 86 per cent overall.

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Simmons scored a pair in the 10th end for a 9-8 win in a game between two rinks that are not in the playoff picture.

Savill, who works as a financial adviser, is focused on his treatment right now but is planning to return to competitive curling in the future.

“It’s almost perfect timing because I’m halfway through my treatments,” Savill said. “This has just given me a lift and something I can remember for the next three months as I go through the rest of the treatment.”

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Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter.